We are discussing Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ 1995 book Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Read earlier posts linked below and catch up on the entire “freedom under threat” series starting here.
Each day this week, we are tackling one of the topics below. All bold and underlining is mine. All of Rabbi Sacks’ words are in italics.
- Political religious extremism – what is it and why is it happening now?
- What social and psychological processes lead to altruistic evil?
- What is the first warning sign of a world order in danger of collapse?
- What does “apocalyptic politics” mean and what causes it?
- Where do we go from here?
A kind of pathological dualism dominates discourse in Iran and other Islamist countries today.
“The primary victims of Islamist violence are Muslims themselves, across the dividing lines of Sunni and Shia, modernist and neo-traditionalist, moderate against radical, and sometimes simply sect against rival sect. Violence is what happens when you try to resolve a religious dispute by means of power. It cannot be done.
“You cannot impose truth by force. That is why religion and power are two separate enterprises that must never be confused.“
Western liberal democracy does not strive to be pure good and righteousness. It’s job is to keep the peace between contending factions. That’s what makes it:
“…the best way of instantiating the values of Abrahamic monotheism. It does not invite citizens to worship the polis, nor does it see civic virtue as the only virtue. It recognizes that politics is not a religion nor a substitute for one.“
Religion deals with eternity; politics deals with the here-and-now.
“More important still is what liberal democratic politics achieves. It makes space for difference. It recognizes that within a complex society there are many divergent views, traditions and moral systems. It makes no claim to know which is true. All it seeks to do is ensure that those who have differing views are able to live peaceably and graciously together, recognizing that none of us has the right to impose our views on others.“
“Apocalypse is what happens to prophecy when it loses hope, and to politics when it loses patience. Apocalyptic politics is the strange phenomenon of a revolutionary movement whose gaze is firmly fixed on the past. It arises at times of destabilizing change and speaks to those who feel unjustly left behind.“
Religion is at its best when it resists the temptation of politics and opts instead for influence. It tells us is that:
“Civilizations are judged not by power but by their concern for the powerless; not by wealth but by how they treat the poor; not when they seek to become invulnerable but when they care for the vulnerable.
“Religion is not the voice of those who sit on earthly thrones but of those who, not seeking to wield power, are unafraid to criticize it when it corrupts those who hold it and diminishes those it is held against.“
