15AR20-20

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AR 20:20 - Studies in religion and violence

Apologia Report 20:20 (1,249)

June 10, 2015

In this issue:

EDUCATION - a "Narrow examination" of American public school teaching on religion is found to be biased against evangelicals

ISLAM - a statistical analysis of its worldwide religious hostility

RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE - why Karen Armstrong "tries every way possible *not* to mention 'Islam' in connection with terrorism"

SEX - a "magisterial" 5-volume Greco-Roman Era study now distilled into under 200 pages

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EDUCATION

Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance, by Linda K. Wertheimer, a former education editor at The Boston Globe [1] -- a "Narrow examination of the teaching of religion in America's public schools. ... Wertheimer experienced anti-Semitism firsthand on various occasions while growing up in Van Buren, Ohio, in the 1970s. The experience shaped her and thoroughly shapes this book on the teaching of world religions in public schools. Justified or not, the author's study comes across as pre-concluded and defined by a restrictive set of values and views. Wertheimer traveled to a handful of places where the teaching of religion has in one way or another been newsworthy, and she interviewed local students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders. In Lumberton, Texas, she explored a controversy that arose when students tried on burkas during a class discussion about Islam. In Wichita, Kansas, she visited an elementary school that has experimented with beginning world religion education as early as first grade, with mixed reception by the public. In Modesto, California, she toured a school system that intentionally built a religion curriculum based on extensive training and strict adherence to 'equal time.' The author's case studies are interesting and well-documented but hardly broad enough to provide a picture of the education of religion nationwide. Moreover, no matter how much readers may want to agree, Wertheimer's personal prejudices are simply too heavy to ignore. Evangelical Christianity is always immediately suspect in her writing, while other faiths are not. ... Wertheimer also looks down on rural or noncoastal America with a stereotypical haughtiness, and the book is replete with references to her experience growing up, which, though perhaps valid, don't add much to the narrative. A worthwhile study marred by bias." Kirkus, May '15 #1.

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ISLAM

Religious Hostility: A Global Assessment of Hatred and Terror, by Rodney Stark and Katie E. Corcoran [2] -- reviewer David Conway, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Westminster-based social policy think-tank Civitas, writes: "Unencumbered by constraints of political correctness, their self-appointed task is: 'to impose the discipline of real data on discussion of worldwide religious hostility. How many people are dying because of their faith? Where? Killed by whom? Why?' Adherents of Islam, Stark and Corcoran conclude, are by far the largest perpetrators of acts of religious terror."

Stark and Corcoran explain that "for all of the concern in the West… religious terrorism occurs almost exclusively within Islam. Of the 810 incidents ... 70 per cent took place in Muslim nations - a third in Pakistan alone. In addition, 75 per cent of the victims of religious atrocities during 2012 were Muslims killed by Muslims. ...

"Next to fellow Muslims on the Muslim hit-list—or, more accurately, next to self-professed, but not true, Muslims in the eyes of their Muslim killers—are Christians, victims of twenty per cent (159) of the 810 incidents of religiously motivated homicide identified by Stark and Corcoran as having occurred in 2012. Half took place in Nigeria at the hands of the fanatical group who call themselves 'Boko Haram' meaning 'Western education is forbidden'. ...

"At the root of all such religious violence, our authors contend, is what they term religious particularism and by which they mean a belief by the adherent of some faith that it is the only true one, something all too easily assumed in the case of all three Abrahamic faiths. As Stark and Corcoran observe: 'particularistic religions always contain the potential for dangerous conflicts because theological disagreements seem inevitable.' From this they infer that: 'the decisive factor governing religious hatred and conflict is whether, and to what extent, religious disagreement - pluralism, if you will - is tolerated.'

"The key, then, to ending religious conflict, therefore, is for adherents of all particularistic forms of faith to be brought to tolerate those of other faith. No easy task. One of Stark and Corcoran's more startling findings was that Muslims are not nearly as moderate as polls at first suggest. ...

"Religious particularism need not cause religious conflict; it can be combined with tolerance. America provides living proof that it can, a society high in religious affiliation to particularistic faiths, but low in religious conflict." Library of Law and Liberty, Apr 6 '15. <www.goo.gl/E5EapU>

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RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE

Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong [3] -- Paul L. Maier, professor emeritus of ancient history at Western Michigan University, weighs in on Armstrong's bias, finding that she puts the blame for the world's great violent conflicts on "aggressive nationalism and other political and economic factors" and not religious influence. "She takes the reader on a world tour in space and time to support her thesis that the main root of violence was political and not religious."

Maier asks: "Are we any better today? No.... The Middle East was carved up by the French and British after World War I, not on religious lines but for access to economic boons. That carving is the basis for present-day terrorism.

"While Karen Armstrong has made a noble effort in absolving religion of the false general notion that 'religion has caused all the wars' - for it certainly has not - she errs in not having a more objective approach to history....

"[T]he subtitle of her book claims that it is about the history of *violence*. There, alas, we have much greater religious involvement. ...

"Armstong, unfortunately, seems to share the 'political correctness' of the Eastern liberal establishment in the United States that tries every way possible *not* to mention 'Islam' in connection with terrorism.... None of this can be explained away as caused by political or economic factors, despite the author's best efforts. ...

"As a Christian, I am truly embarrassed and totally disgusted by the true role of religion in the history of violence. I only wish Armstrong were right. Unfortunately, the plain facts of the past are against her." Christian Research Journal, 38:2 - 2015, pp58-9.

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SEX

Making Sense of Sex: Attitudes Towards Sexuality in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, by William Loader [4] -- Susannah Cornwall (Theology and Religion, University of Exeter) begins her review: "Loader's magisterial research project, Attitudes Towards Sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Era <www.goo.gl/96RIKN> has produced five major volumes. ... This monograph distils the essence of those books - totaling 2,400 pages - into a less confronting format, assuming little prior knowledge. ... However, it is also a valuable ready-reference resource for experts, featuring an index pointing to relevant expansions in the five large books. ...

"Loader effectively demonstrates the commonalities and shared themes which recur across the literature sacred to Jews, Christians and other contemporary literature of the period not usually deemed to have special religious import." Loader "resists pronouncing too unproblematically on present-day discussions on sexuality in the Church but nonetheless represents an abundant seam for the enrichment of those who find themselves at the coalface." Expository Times, 126:5 - 2015, pp251-252.

"A helpful overview of ancient Christian and Jewish views on sexuality." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society - via Amazon.com

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance, by Linda K. Wertheimer (Beacon, 2015, hardcover, 240 pages) <www.goo.gl/8u43i0>

2 - Religious Hostility: A Global Assessment of Hatred and Terror, by Rodney Stark and Katie E. Corcoran (ISR, 2014, hardcover, 160 pages) <www.goo.gl/xXueCE>

3 - Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, by Karen Armstrong (Knopf, 2014, hardcover, 528 pages) <www.ow.ly/C1PZQ>

4 - Making Sense of Sex: Attitudes Towards Sexuality in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, by William Loader (Eerdmans, 2013, paperback, 176 pages) <www.goo.gl/0vKe5Q>

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