10AR15-28

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Apologia Report 15:28 (1,033)

July 29, 2010

Subject: Is the idea that religions are prone to violence a myth?

In this issue:

BIBLICAL RELIABILITY - are Bible doctrines stolen from pagan myths?

EVANGELICALISM - sociologists measure "the five competing explanations which account for conservative positions"

+ are young evangelicals retreating from traditional positions and/or becoming more liberal?

RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE - new book, a "tour de force," finds the common accusation that religion is prone to violence, is a myth

RESTORATION MOVEMENT - Seventh-day Adventism and Churches of Christ accused of producing a counterfeit gospel

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BIBLICAL RELIABILITY

It seems that I (RP) missed a number of Areopagus Journal issues in my regular visits to the Denver Seminary library -- or, they recently updated their collection. Regardless, it's worth noting that AJ's theme for their Nov/Dec '09 issue was "Are Bible Doctrines Stolen from Pagan Myths?" Senior Editor Craig Branch reports (pp3-5) that "It has become all the rage in recent years to charge that the Old and New Testaments, including the record of the life of Jesus, are heavily indebted to myths borrowed from pagan religious legends. This issue of Areopagus Journal focuses on some of the more popular versions of these charges by skeptics and other deniers of Jesus Christ."

In "The Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East" (pp8-15) Eugene Merrill "acknowledges that nearly every culture has creation narratives involving gods and humans. But he demonstrates that the biblical account is 'starkly different' from the others. Merrill then proceeds to the biblical accounts of the worldwide flood, genealogies, the Tower of Babel, and lives of the patriarchs, and demonstrates that, even though one may find some similarities with pagan beliefs and myths, these biblical accounts too are unique and historical."

In "Christianity Among the Myths" (pp16-26), Mary Jo Sharp responds to the "'increasingly popular arguments' of pagan influence on the Gospels put forth by Robert M. Price, Joseph Campbell and others. The bulk of Mrs. Sharp's article focuses on the 'most commonly compared myths to the story of Christ - Osiris, Horus, and Mithras - and the doctrinally important alleged parallels for death, judgment, resurrection, and salvation.'"

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EVANGELICALISM

"Who's Right About the Right? Comaring Competing Explanations of the Link Between White Evangelicals and Conservative Politics in the United States" by Steven Brint and Seth Abrutyn -- the abstract reads: "Five competing explanations for why white evangelicals hold right-of-center political attitudes are examined.... Dependent variables include attitudes about abortion, homosexuality, immigration, national defense, and social spending. The five competing explanations accounting for conservative positions are: religiosity, moral standards traditionalism, gender and family ideology, class culture, and cultural geography. Moral standards traditionalism attenuated the evangelical effect on attitudes about abortion, homosexuality, and social spending. Religiosity and male-dominant gender ideology attenuated the effect on abortion and homosexuality only. In a second set of models, which include members of all major religious groups, these three variables, together with low levels of

education, were significantly associated with conservative attitudes. Moral standards traditionalism demonstrated the most consistent, and generally the strongest, effects across dependent variables." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49:2 - 2010, pp328-350.

"The Liberalization of Young Evangelicals: A Research Note" by Buster G. Smith and Byron Johnson -- from the abstract: "Media outlets and observers of American religion suggest that young evangelicals are retreating from the ranks of the 'Christian right' and are embracing more liberal positions on controversial social issues. ... Our study indicates that young evangelicals (1) are significantly more likely than older evangelicals to think that more should be done to protect the environment; (2) hold views similar to older evangelicals regarding abortion, same-sex marriage, stem cell research, marijuana use, government welfare spending, spending on the nation's health, and the war in Iraq; and (3) remain significantly more conservative than nonevangelicals on these same social issues. We find no strong evidence to support the notion that young evangelicals are retreating from traditional positions or increasingly adopting more liberal positions on hot-button or controversial social issues." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49:2 - 2010, pp351-360.

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RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE

The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots ofModern Conflict, by William T. Cavanaugh [1] -- reviewer Brad S.Gregory notes that "religion is particularly and inherently prone to divisiveness and violence. Its pervasive corollary is that religion - in contrast to secular, ideologically neutral liberalism - must be vigilantly contained in its public expressions at home just as it must be suppressed in its dangerous militancy abroad by the peace-loving, democratic state. ...

"The Myth of Religious Violence is a tour de force" and a "careful

demolition of the variously argued idea that in ostensible contrast to rational, modern, secular ideologies, there is something distinctively disruptive, divisive, and dangerous about religion that makes it, across historical epochs and cultures and peoples, inherently prone to irrational, intractable violence."

Gregory plays devil's advocate by asking "didn't the 'wars of

religion' in the Reformation era show beyond any doubt that religion is absolutist, divisive, and irrational and therefore prone to

violence? ...

"This 'creation myth of the wars of religion' Cavanaugh dismantles thoroughly." In fact "Cavanaugh concludes his book by considering three of the myth's recent and continuing principal uses: the justification of Supreme Court decisions since the 1940s that promote secular individualism and suppress public expressions of religion; the construction of sharp distinctions between 'the West and the rest' in a 'dash of civilizations' that eschews historical analysis of Western-Muslim relations in favor of blanket allegations of Islamic religious fanaticism; and the distinction between objectionable, irrational, 'religious' violence and rational, justifiable, 'secular' violence by the United States." First Things, May '10, pp57-58. <www.tinyurl.com/2ayg3g2>

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RESTORATION MOVEMENT

Earlier last year, Areopagus Journal also featured an entire issue on the Restoration Movement (Sep/Oct '09). Craig Branch introduces the theme (pp3-6) by explaining that the focus is "on two of the larger heretical churches - Seventh-day Adventism, and what are most commonly known as the Churches of Christ. The term 'heretical' is used to denote a very serious or fatal error, an error that puts these groups outside the Christian faith. ...

"Tragically the two groups of focus in this issue are guilty of producing a counterfeit gospel. ... [In] Seventh-day Adventism, Ellen G. White is considered the prophetess who has restored the authentic Christian Church from the apostasy into which all Christian denominations had fallen. The other group, Churches of Christ/Christian Churches, also claims to have restored New Testament Christianity from apostasy, through the 'correct' interpretations of its founders, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, and Walter Scott.

"The article on Seventh-day Adventism (pp18-26) contains information on their novel doctrines of the 'Heavenly Sanctuary' and 'Investigative Judgment.' These two doctrines push their followers into a works system of salvation. ...

"Among the Churches of Christ [pp8-17], in addition to the absolute necessity of baptism by immersion, often with a required intention to have their sins remitted, many in the movement also require the absence of instrumental music in worship, and the partaking of the Lord's Supper every Sunday. These Churches of Christ believe they have restored the gospel through their 'plan of salvation,' but their rationalistic approach to Scripture [has] turned the gospel into merely a programmatic guidebook for their numerous steps to salvation."

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, by William T. Cavanaugh (Oxford Univ Prs, 2009, hardcover, 296 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/2eyo7bn>

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