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Can One Bishop Save the World From Fundamentalism?

© Lynne H. Schultz

As we inch closer to the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, we again feel some of the sadness and anger we felt last year. For some of us this is compounded by the baseless McCarthy-esque insistence by Christians in the U.S. on the pairing of patriotism and religiosity, particularly belief in God. (The implication is that if you don't believe in God, you must be a totalitarian communist or at least someone opposed to democracy.) This insistence is born from that aspect of religious fundamentalism that labels nonbelievers in that religion as not just mistaken, but morally corrupt and in extreme cases, worthy of death. Unfortunately, the religion of Islam, which has not experienced a Reformation or an Age of Enlightenment, lends itself to that sort of thinking too readily (as evidenced by the consequences of Islamic Law in practice) and the world witnessed the result of that on September 11, 2001. Christianity can be, and in the past has been, just as dangerous although it has been tempered by eras of reform and the relative loss of political power. On the other hand, if everyone were to become a Secular Humanist, it sure wouldn't happen anytime soon. The good news is that it isn't necessary. Over time, Christianity has evolved such that it causes considerably less harm than it used to; Islam is lagging behind but it also has reformers in its midst and so there is a spark of hope in the east as well. Last year I had written:

"We want to discourage the bigotry that can lead to atrocities against fellow human beings, and encourage the idea that human life is valuable in and of itself. 'Other worldly' concerns are never a justification for acts of violence. Let's hope that someday we all realize this."

Of course, plenty of religious folks already realize this, but how do they differ from the ones who do not? It is important to remember that one's metaphysical beliefs, or beliefs about what is real and what isn't, are distinct from one's ethical or moral beliefs, and it is the latter that are really more important. The average Secular Humanist would probably have more in common with a liberal Christian than with an atheist whom happens to favor a strict interpretation of Ayn Rand's Egoism. The closer that religions get to ethics that are consistent with the ethics of Humanism, the better off everyone will be since Humanistic ethics are based upon human welfare. (This is not to say that all Humanist ethical ideas originated with Humanists, or that they somehow belong to Humanism alone - far from it.) That is why I was delighted to watch the videotape "A New View of Christianity", a sermon by Anglican Episcopal minister, Bishop John Shelby Spong. (Yes, I'm still an atheist and a Secular Humanist.)

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