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WHY DID YOU RAISE YOUR
VOICE?
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One Sunday I was preaching at the Unitarian Church. It’s one of the few
places I’ve been invited to preach in recent years. Hmmm. |
Anyway, they have a question and answer period after the sermon. It’s something
I always enjoyed. The folks often had comments and insights far beyond
my own. They also had questions (if they dared trust me not to give a long
answer!) |
After one of my sermons a young lady stood and said, “Why did you raise
your voice when you talked about the fundamentalists?” |
She caught me. I realized at the moment during the sermon that I was more
emphatic than is my usual nature. Unitarians tend to expect a more reasoned
tone, but this particular thought got the best of me. What I actually said
was, “Fundamentalism can kill us!” |
Yes, I did raise my voice. |
That was long before the Trade Towers got our attention. I’m not sure we
can blame it all on
fundamentalism, but we got
an idea about what extremist religion can do. |
Now, fundamentalism is a theological term with quite a few definitions.
The more popular notion is that it represents a literal and strict interpretation
of scripture and religious practice. We used to say that fundamentalists
“don’t drink and they don’t chew and they don’t go with boys that do.” |
I once thought that fundamentalists believed in fundamentals. I was for
that, until I found out what was on their list of fundamentals. I was once
excused from participation in a local Ministerial Association because I
would not sign agreement to such a list. |
Most fundamentalists aren’t extremists. They were not much of a worry until
they began getting political power. I first did political battle with one
over forty years ago. I was called in as a minister on a committee at the
middle school where a lady wanted a book removed from the library because
it contained the word “pregnant.” Her righteousness was surprising to me.
She had a fundamentalist point of view that she was trying to inflict on
the rest of us. |
We handled it then, but in later years the fundamentalists have become
empowered. They have an agenda that has become part of national politics.
In fact, it is imbedded in some of the core beliefs of some of our top
elected officials. |
Hopefully, these folks won’t kill us, but my fear of long ago is no less
acute. We are more likely to find some broad human values diminished in
the name of a fundamentalist type doctrine. |
You still don’t get “fundamentalism?” You still don’t get why it’s dangerous?
You still wonder why I raised my voice? |
In recent weeks I’ve been listening to what the Talibans have been doing
in Afghanistan. This is a quasi-religio-political power system. Its declared
intention was to restore true Muslim faith and practice in the country.
One way to describe them is “Islamic fundamentalists.” Their extremism
is not only expressed against their own people, but in suicidal rage against
all of us infidels. Yes, fundamentalism can kill us. |
Or, to put it another way, Talibanism can kill us. |
If I were giving that sermon again I think I might be seeking illustrations
of the appearance of the seeds of Talibanism in some of the religious “tribes”
in our own country. What they would like to do with and to us is frightening.
What they would like to do with our government is scary. What they would
like our military to do is dangerous. Talibanism can be seen within our
political system, threatening long-time constitutional protections and
rights. |
Somewhere out in blue-sheet land there are still some preachers. I know
it’s not nice or polite to preach against another person’s cherished religion.
I always hated to say anything bad about our fundamentalist brothers and
sisters. But there’s nothing wrong, I would think, in raising a voice against
Talibanism. Wherever oppression begins to lean on the right of free expression,
freedom of information, freedom of religion, separation of church and state,
human dignity, human rights, women’s rights, insistence that we be “a Christian
nation,” and withdrawal from the family of nations, we’re leaning heavily
toward Talibanism. I’d like to hear some voices raised.
—
Art Morgan, January 2002
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