It is important to promote peace and not to whip up feelings of
revenge against different cultures who are branded as 'evil'. The
memorial service at Blackburn Cathedral (North West England) was a
model in this respect and blissfully British in the understated way in
which it criticised those who can see only their own goodness and the
evil in others (Matth 7:3: 'And why do you see the speck that is in
your brother's eye, but not the beam that is in yours?'), who want to
punish the evil terrorists but think they have done nothing to deserve
being hated by other nations.
In Blackburn Cathedral (North West England) the events on 11 Sep 2001 in Manhattan were remembered.
Blackburn Anglican Cathedral |
Members of all religious communities had been invited. The Mayor and the usual crowd of normal English worshippers was there. Members of the
emergency services (fire brigade, ambulance, police) were there in large numbers, in best uniform, all sitting together. A fire engine was symbolically parked next to the cathedral entrance. An Asian policeman directed visitors to the cathedral. This is Blackburn,
20% of our population is Muslim.
The Hindu contingent turned up as a group, the women conspicuously sari-clad. There were a handful of Muslim men (I noticed no women), say fifteen, recognisable by their beards and attire, scattered through the congregation.
There were readings from the Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, and Jewish scriptures.
The texts and prayers, carefully formulated, refrained from anti-terrorist rhetoric and talk about evil and were, by that restraint, implicitly critical of the bellicose politicians in the USA and the UK.
Buddhist statues destroyed by Taleban, Afghanistan |
We each had a booklet containing all readings and prayers. The expression
'War on Terrorism' was always given in quotes. The understated sentences which stood out were:
We have come together ... to look to the future and to learn from the past.
We have seen terrible suffering and we have seen reactions that demean the stature of humankind.
The world is a small planet, which we can only inhabit together.
We must once again learn the lessons of history.
We remember all those who have subsequently lost their lives as a result of the 'War on Terrorism' and remember those communities most affected, particularly the people of Afghanistan.
Our only response can be that of praying for, and dedicating ourselves to, peace and justice for all who live in God's world.
The tragic events of September 11th and its aftermath...
... we pray for the people of Afghanistan...
... We ask that the causes of violence and hatred may be addressed.
This last thought is one which is dangerously absent in the pronouncements of American and British leaders and their outraged supporters.
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Only one hymn ('I cannot tell why he, whom angels worship', words by William Young Fullerton, 1857-1932, sung to the tune of Danny Boy) was ill-chosen. It ends with a triumphant vision of the Second Coming of Christ, when peace will
reign on earth because 'At last the
Saviour, Saviour of the world, is King!' - peace because there is no alternative value system or religion left.
This is not easy to stomach for any non-Christian. It is equivalent to the Muslim dream that, in the fullness of time, the whole world is destined, by the will of Allah, to adhere to Islam, the only true religion, and that it is the duty of good Muslims now to do whatever is proper to bring the world nearer to that divine goal. Two religions which have such views at their core must necessarily be at each other's throats.
Blackburn, Whalley Range: mosque in residential street |
Moreover the fervent belief in the imminent Second Coming of Christ, as held by a large number of right-wing Christians ('evangelicals') in the USA, leads them to side unconditionally with anything the Israelis may do to crush the resistance of the Palestinians (known as 'Philistines' in the Bible) and, in combination with the large Jewish lobby, makes it impossible for any democratic American government to rein in the Israelis. Since the brutal Israeli actions in Palestine fuel the Arab hatred against Israel and its sponsor, America, the literal belief in the prophesies about the second coming of Christ has substantially contributed to the Manhattan attacks of 11 Sep 2001 and anti-American sentiment in general.
The Taleban had destroyed, in the name of their invisible god, the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
In Blackburn religious fanaticism was subtly criticised, by analogy, in a passage by Simone Weil (1909-1943): The Romans had conquered Greece in 146 BC and removed the statutes of their gods from their temples to take them to Rome as secular booty. They could not understand the religious and cultural importance of the statues to the Greeks. The Greeks pleaded with them -- in vain, even though they might have known that the Roman mind was incapable of understanding their values. 'There is a duty to understand and weigh the system of other people's values with our own, on the same balance ...' (Simone Weil). It is difficult to determine who, in the present clash of cultures and values, is more at fault in this respect, whose mind, which side, is more firmly closed to alternative perspectives! Each of us will say the others are at fault. Peace will come nearer when each community searches for its own short-comings.
It is gratifying to see that the Church of England will not succumb to the terrorism hysteria among politicians and ordinary people.
Any feedback to Klaus Bung
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