Violence, Religion, and War

Listen or read as popular media talks about religion being the focal point of violence.

Ireland, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq; notice the distinctions of groups could also be along ethnic, economic, and political lines, or other dividing issues. Anglo Saxon vs. Celt, socialism vs. capitalism, controlling government vs. freedom, and invaders versus the occupied are just some other conflict sources. Within current hot spots; are the Shi'a Arabs Babylonian and the Sunni Arabs Persian?


You can bet the combatants know, we aren't told. You could also guess that those involved don't view themselves primarily as Arab, but as smaller groups.

You can find some other root causes if you wish, just being aware they exist does clarify opinions. In fact there are many complex stories that are never told. A single cause is so easy to relate. Hatred for a religion, or all religion, is based on stereotypes enforced by lack of clear thought. The roots of conflicts are diverse:

"A recent visit to Azerbaijan made clear to me that Azeri Turks, the world's most secular Shi'ite Muslims, see their cultural identity in terms not of religion but of their Turkic race. The Armenians, likewise, fight the Azeris not because the latter are Muslims but because they are Turks, related to the same Turks who massacred Armenians in 1915." - Robert D. Kaplan

One of my best friends as I was growing up was an emigrant from Ireland. He was Catholic, I am of protestant roots. He said half his city was English and acted and looked English; and was trying to force its English will on the Irish half. According to him, their different religions were not the issue. That of course is not what we read in the papers when violence erupted or a bomb exploded.

Hitler didn't care if you were of Jewish faith or a professed Catholic, he hunted the Jewish nationality, traced though their parentage. Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian, was imprisoned with her sister for protecting Jews from Nazis.

Her sister died in that prison. Corrie said of Christianity, "Just because you were born in a garage, it does not make you a car."


Religion is a personal choice, on a personal level.

There are few actions as disingenuous as a politician standing on the steps of a holy place waving a holy text. A well publicized claim of religious affiliation while running for office is most frequently just another lie.

A claim of national religion is a claim for emotion based political power, not for religion.

The founders of the United States instituted a small, weak, and passive federal republic for external affairs; and competitive, independent, self-determining state governments for local rule. By limiting centralized power they hoped to perpetuate individual liberties.

For the same reasons of protecting liberty, the individual states each eventually embraced separating church and state. In fact Pennsylvania was noted for religious tolerance - something other states initially debated.

The goal of religious freedom was to insulate citizens from government interference with their personal choice of religion; not to isolate people from considering or practicing religion.

The state leaders saw that what is a personal choice of a free person could become a claim for allegiance to a despot's goals. By stifling domination of religion by government, they limited one tool of emotional coercion. With a weak federation composed of 13 separate nation states competing for citizens; freedom and the right to pursue personal goals were temporarily insured. Free religious choice was universally codified in the Bill of Rights.

The rights listed in these ten amendments already existed in the individual states. They were written and approved by the state governments, and then added to the US Constitution, to restrict all levels of government powers.


To have, or not have, a personal relationship with God is your choice.

Regardless of the political climate in which you live.

Those who engender war may fraudulently demonstrate religious passion as another emotional propaganda tool. A unified front can stabilize factions that would dissent: "Our Country Right Or Wrong," Fatherland, Homeland, Motherland, Conservative, Progressive, Our God, Our Leaders, Our People.

These statements do not normally represent reality beyond small tribal size groups. Many should be individual, not group decisions. These are calculated, manipulative slogans used to include diverse tribal members. The goal is to create artificial tribes, sometimes called nations. The means used are often fear and hatred of the excluded.

References to religion may reflect one surface factor of war, but diverse root causes always extend far deeper. Media commentators and politicos love to sound as if they have inside, specific knowledge. Simplistic sound bites help keep an overextended tribe united against. Well, against whomever the followers are told is the enemy.

In reality, events happen for myriad reasons we will never fully fathom. Media will not go to the trouble of understanding and explaining complex issues, or admit they don't know. Especially when blaming the "opiate of the masses" parallels their world view.

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"If there are several opposing opinions on an issue, all of them can't be right; however, all of them can be very wrong." - Allan R. Wallace