London and Terrorism, July 8, 2005

subtitle: The New Stealth Idolatry

The terrible, stunning news yesterday from London is that our open society continues to be under grave threat from those who will kill in God’s name. Our open society depends on trust, the belief that the person sitting next to you on a bus is not planning to kill you. It is increasingly not so. Terrorism is growing, not deceasing. Even in Iraq, though only the military leaders there will admit it. We all will live now with more fear.

The key source of terrorism is the total reliance on the written word as one’s source of authority from God. The Bible says, The Koran says, and we can and will find justification for anything we choose to do, any judgment we put on others. Any.

When we believe that our holy scripture is the inerrant Word of God, that every word in the Bible comes from God, then we can easily use God’s “authority” to judge others with different views as heathen, as anti-Christian, as even hostile to the faith. Politicans, preachers, and even religious leaders are doing this today, and it even comes from the Right Wingers in the White House.

The new evil in our society, not really new, but new in vigor, blindness and cost, both human and social, is the stealth idolatry of the religious enthusiast. Rather than the core summons to love God and our neighbor as ourselves, we are ready to judge other faith views as not only wrong, but perversely and intentionally wrong.

Preachers, politicians, Governor Jeb Bush, President Bush were willing to wade into the private family dispute of the Schiavo family, even while medical experts had pronounced her brain dead for 15 years. What is new is that the Religious Right, fueled by the Inerrant view of the Bible, is willing to use the bible to judge others and furthermore to divide society for the sake of political gain and power.

We need to ask ourselves what is it that fuels the Inerrant View of the Bible so that anyone can feel the authority of God behind their views simply by reference to God’s Word? Many factors exist, but at the core, I suggest, is the stubborn refusal to see that the Bible has a human history, that it is written by human authors, and that it is full of human error, inconsistencies and even false teaching for us today. It is also the deep fear that if we were to examine those facts, we should have to give up our faith, not just an anchor for faith, but faith itself. Therefore the bible must be fiercely defended against all “liberal” views, and this alone is the way I maintain my certain identity that I am saved by Christ.

It also greatly helps that everyone in my faith congregation and my own minister supports the same inerrant view. This often includes the belief that those who believe differently than we do are ready to undermine our society, our sense of morality, our beliefs, our family values, and even our government. Furthermore it is dangerous to talk to those who believe differently than we do.

I have the opportunity to address college students in central Kentucky, in classes dealing with Ethics, Theology, Philosophy, Bible History and Communication. The core of the new evil emerging in our society is, I suggest, the Stealth Idolatry of our own concepts, engaged in by left and right, believer and non-believer, scientist and non-scientist. It is hidden worship of one’s one way to God, our own belief system, whether theistic or atheistic.

Have we learned anything since we gave up the bible-supported views that slavery was justified, that woman’s role is to be subordinate to men, and the earth is not the center of the universe around which everything else revolves? Does scripture show us how to live in peace with one another?

We should be ready to give witness to our faith, but not to pass judgment on those whose convictions conflict with our own–unless the effects of those convictions are harmful. This means that we must struggle to walk very humbly before God, to seek the truth and stand for it with passion but never act as if we have exclusive claim upon it. When we consider the terrible harm done to millions in the history of religion, we must conclude that no moral crisis can ever dispense people of conscience from full respect for the freedom and responsibility of every other conscience.

You are confused about what has gone wrong, and how to set it right? the prophet asks. Then listen. This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)