THE SIN OF OUR FUNDAMENTALISM

Dr. Richard J. Henderson September 8, 2002

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John 8:1- 11
Matthew 23:13-24

Like you, I remember clearly where I was when I first heard of the attacks of September 11th. I was just finishing up a bagel and glass of orange juice when, for some reason, I turned on the small television on the kitchen counter.

The first plane had crashed, and the "Today Show" was reporting that it apparently was a small plane that had gotten off course and accidentally hit the World Trade Center. As I watched the report, I saw the second plane come into view, from right to left across the screen, and then hit the other tower.

This event changed how we act, how we go about our everyday life, even how we think about our world. For many people it has also changed their understanding of God.

Why would a group of people intentionally try to kill thousands of innocent people? Who would cause such a vicious attack, right when the most civilians would be in the building?

Later we learned that this was a religious act by a radical Muslim group who hated the United States. How can people do such atrocious violence in the name of God?

I

The war that we have been involved with for the past year is a war against religious totalitarianism. World War II was a war against political totalitarianism - in the form of Nazism and Communism - this current war is based on zealous religious beliefs. We are fighting against a narrow religious understanding that will not tolerate other alternative views. We began to see the intolerance of the radical Muslim fundamentalists when they bombed and destroyed several Buddhist shrines in Afghanistan.

They would not tolerate someone else's beliefs, and so they did away with those people's sacred statues. They are so convinced that they are right, and that only they have religious truth, so they attempt to wipe out other people's religions.

This is so completely different from what we believe as Christians. We respect other people's faith. We understand it would be wrong to destroy or desecrate someone else's religious symbols. When we look to Jesus, he never coerced anyone to have faith. Jesus taught that faith is something we must have for ourselves, no one can make us believe it, no one can force it on us. Jesus never pushed people to faith, he asked them to choose for themselves. Jesus never even had an altar call.

Some avid evangelists will go on and on saying, "We are just going to sing one more verse for our altar call, so come forward and give your life to Christ." I've seen that one more verse go on for another ten minutes.

Jesus never did that. He laid out what was important about our faith and left the decision up to those who heard. Many people who heard him didn't respond, he allowed that. He never coerced anyone into faith.

II

Religion gets sick when it becomes so narrow and certain of its absolute truth that it will not tolerate the beliefs of others.

You and I participate in a form of religious totalitarianism when we think we hold the only truth, and when we treat other beliefs with disrespect. All of us do it sometimes - we take the easy answer and we're convinced that we are absolutely right and those who disagree with us are absolutely wrong.

We make fun of someone else's faith. We become arrogant about the truth of our beliefs, even though we don't completely understand them ourselves. When we take the narrow view, when we are convinced of our own truth and goodness, when our certainty leads us to acts of disrespect and hate, then our religion has gotten sick.

Jesus condemned the Scribes and Pharisees of his day because they had that arrogant certainty that they were pure, and only their faith was true. He called them hypocrites.

Within the last few months we have seen the same arrogance in a protestant church in America. You may have read about Pastor David Benke.

He was suspended as president of the Atlantic division of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod because he participated in an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium right after the September 11th attacks.

You will remember that was an ecumenical service including Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs all mourning what happened to our country. He was guilty, his critics said, of mixing with non-Christians and co-mingling Lutheranism with other Christian denominations. He was accused of breaking the Ten Commandments when he offered a prayer during that service.

In the charges against Rev. Benke Catholics, Orthodox, and non-Lutherans were all attacked. Islam's name for God was defamed, and Sikhs and Hindus were labeled pagans.

One of those most adamantly attacking Benke is a pastor from Dearborn, MI.

Pastor Benke commented on these attacks against him by saying, "Religion...is not only a high and altruistic thing, it is also a dangerous thing." How well he knows. How well we know now.

III

There is a tremendous difference between a strong Christian faith, and religious fanaticism. No one can question that Jesus called for a deeply committed faith from us. I don't want anyone to think that we should hold a watered-down faith. We believe that the truest expression of God has come to us in Jesus Christ. But that doesn't mean we try to destroy or despise someone else's faith.

We can grow as Christians by learning from other people's faith. For example, I am thankful for the insight offered by a devout Buddhist who said, "The people who planned this horrible act worked on it for years, planning out strategy, taking flying lessons, sneaking into this country. The people who responded with love and compassion didn't need any preparation time at all. They saw people in need and they rushed to help without even thinking about it."

There is a tremendous difference between fanaticism and mature faith.

IV

The real test of our religion and others is this question - "Do your religious beliefs lead to hatred or to love? A natural corollary of that is "does your faith bring out violence or compassion?"

We have people who claim to be Christian and burn crosses on people's lawns in the name of Christ. That is religion that has gotten sick. It is such a distortion of our faith that it negates it. In the same way for someone to intentionally crash a plane into a building, killing thousands of innocent people, is a sick distortion of that faith.

Some who think they are the most pure - the most religions - are really denying their faith. Jesus attacked the Pharisees because they thought they were so good, and they looked down their noses at other people. In reality their religiosity moved them away from God. Because they thought they were so good, they couldn't even imagine how evil they were being.

Religious fanaticism usually destroys the roots of its own faith.

Conclusion

The police and firemen who responded to the horrid attack on the World Trade Center didn't ask the victims what religion they were before they offered their help. The doctors and nurses who rushed to the scene to offer their help didn't make people fill out a questionnaire about what religion they were before they treated wounds. The people who sent checks to support those who were injured or lost family members didn't make them out to "support for Catholics" or "aid to Protestants of my particular denomination."

To do so would be narrow and childish.

Mature faith runs in to help the person in need. Solid faith stops in the panic of rushing from the building to help a person blinded by an explosion. True trust in God is seen in the person who risks death to overcome a plane headed to destroy others. Healthy, mature faith leads to acts of love and compassion.

Amen.