Hilton Head Island, SC – September 13, 2015
The Chapel Without Walls
Leviticus 20:10-18; Matthew 23:27-36
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” – Matthew 23:27 (RSV)
Moderate Religion Vs. Extremist Religion
To begin, I hope you asked yourself earlier why on earth I chose a bizarre reading from the Book of Leviticus to insert into an otherwise respectable order of worship. Here is why. Leviticus 20, every terrible word of it, is an example of the worst kind of extremist religion. Scholars call this section of Leviticus the Purity Code, although in truth it is quintessentially the Impurity Code because of its draconian demands. It tells, in lurid prose, that certain sins are to be punished by death. Among them: allowing one’s children to worship foreign gods, cursing or striking one’s parents, committing adultery or incest or marrying a woman and her mother (those were polygamous times), and being a medium or wizard, whatever that might specifically mean. Everyone who did any of those things was to be stoned to death, according to this gentle, altruistic litany of don’ts, of which there are a multitude, and do’s, of which there are but few.
Oh yes, and I assume you noticed, inserted into the middle of Leviticus 20 is one verse which declared that anyone engaging in homosexual acts is also to be executed. There are two verses in the entire Bible which clearly condemn homosexuality, and both of them are in Leviticus (see also Lev. 18:22). There are some good ideas in Leviticus, but not many. I am sure the book made it into the Bible because of the lobbying efforts of well-organized religious extremists.
What is religious extremism? It is religion that finds its essence in rules and regulations, in attempts to delineate mainly what the people of God should or should not do, and it spends much of its energy disapproving of other people’s behavior while never examining one’s own behavior. Extremist religion is The Scarlet Letter, Elmer Gantry, fundamentalist Christianity, some forms of evangelical Christianity, extremely liberal Christianity, ultra-Orthodox Judaism, Salafist Islam, Al Qaeda, ISIS, ISIL, or the Islamic State (take your pick), or Burmese Buddhists killing Burmese Muslims. Extremist religion comes in many guises and forms in all religions.
In the mid-17th century in Salem, Massachusetts, over 150 Puritans were accused of witchcraft, including an 80-year-old and a 5-year-old. Over 20 people were hanged. It was zealous Christianity gone amuck, and it burned with a fiery fanaticism for several years.
Jonathan Sacks was for many years the chief rabbi of British Orthodox Judaism. Unlike many of his fellow Orthodox Jews, however, Lord Sacks is not an extremist. He has just written a book called Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Rabbi Sacks does not deny that there is and always has been religiously prompted violence, but he believes any kind of violence among any religious people is a tragic misreading of the tenets of that religion. Still, the widespread historical and contemporary illustrations of religious violence cause some people, especially the so-called New Atheists, to insist that all religion is evil and provokes violence. Not surprisingly, Rabbi Sacks disputes that, saying that valid religion always seeks peace, not bloodshed. I also believe that is true, but nevertheless extremist religion often acts cruelly.
Karen Armstrong is a scholar of the history of religion who has just published a book called Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. Her primary argument is that nation-states evolve, wars evolve, and religion blesses both the states and the wars, but it is not the primary motivation for them. Perhaps so, but many times throughout history the record does not make it appear that way. Extremist religion frequently has provided the call to arms to go off to fight “the infidels,” “the infidels” always being other folks, not us. Furthermore, many terrorists have no doubt utilized religion as a tool in their struggle as surely as they have used AK-47s, IEDs, and suicide bombs. Thus religion may not have been the motivation for the actual bloodshed, but one of a whole host of motivations: cultural, ethnic, political, and religious.
Twenty years ago, the highest number of Europeans were killed in European warfare since the end of World War II. Between April and October of 1995, over eight thousand Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered in what then seemed like, and still seems like, religiously motivated extremist bloodshed. The rest of Europe and the West stood by while the carnage continued. It was started by Serbian Orthodox Christians. However, the Charlie Hebdo assassinations in Paris were initiated by Muslim extremists, as was the recent beheading of a French employer by a disgruntled French-born Muslim employee of Algerian extraction.
The nation of Iran evokes the greatest fear among many Americans. Therefore the nuclear-arms pact made between five western nations and Iran engenders deep anxiety among millions of Americans. Iran is the largest mainly-Shiite Muslim state in the world, and Shiites historically are more extreme in their religious views and attitudes than Sunni Muslims. Many anxious Americans are completely unaware of that fact, but it must be noted. However, Iran has good reason to be as suspicious of America as America is of Iran, because over the last century our government has done several things to undermine the internal solidarity of the Iranian people. But because Iran supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and strongly opposes Israel, Iran is seen to be in “the axis of evil” by many Americans, some of them religious extremists.
How can people become so fearful and agitated that they might attempt to kill others who may (or may not) subscribe to another religion, as happened in the former Yugoslavia twenty years ago or could happen tomorrow in Iran or Syria? It is very important to note that many religious extremists within any religion have not had modern liberal educations. It is crucial to remember that. Furthermore, extremists seem incapable of perceiving shades of gray. To them, everything is either black or white. When looking at their own holy scriptures, they tend to focus on particular laws and injunctions contained therein, and not on the larger picture of love and justice and forgiveness that exists in all major religions.
Some Westerners, including some Americans, are convinced the primary Muslim enemy is not Iran but Saudi Arabia, which still finances countless extremist religious schools all over the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South Asia. And it is often pointed out by Saudi skeptics that fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were young Saudi men.
It would be impossible to argue that there is as much overtly Christian extremist violence as overtly Muslim extremist violence in the world today. There isn’t. Whether Muslim violence is the result of perceived unjust actions by Western (and thus presumably Christian) nations is a vital issue which needs to be addressed, but not in this sermon. Suffice it to say that with alarming regularity headlines scream of yet another atrocity against innocent civilians by Islamist extremists in various parts of the world. That pattern is highly unlikely to dissipate in our lifetime. Furthermore, Christians are specifically being targeted in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, and elsewhere by Muslim extremists.
However, it further exacerbates an already explosive situation when the US and other western nations send troops into the Middle East or elsewhere to confront Islamist extremists. That is absolutely the best impetus for creating other Muslim terrorists. Western nations can support those who fight Islamist terrorists, but they must not provide any manpower for doing it. Our direct military involvement will only guarantee armed conflict on an indefinite basis. Only moderate Muslims can effectively defeat extremist Muslims.
So far this sermon has concentrated on religious extremism elsewhere around the world, especially Islamist extremism. Nonetheless, it also exists within the borders of the USA. Physicians who provided abortions have been shot and killed in this country from time to time by right-to-life zealots. Abortion clinics have been bombed. Gay couples have been refused service in certain businesses owned by very conservative Christians. I officiated recently at the wedding of two women who told me an employee in the jewelry store where they went to get their wedding rings would not talk to them. This lady was not the owner of the store, but merely an employee acting on her own volition. Similar business people have also refused service to Orthodox Jewish or obviously traditionally-dressed Muslim customers. A recent American convert to Islam has brought suit against her airline employer because she, as a flight attendant, will not serve alcohol to any passengers. The Quran forbids drinking alcohol, but it says nothing about serving it. How this ultimately shall be adjudicated in the courts only God knows. The Ohio legislature is considering a bill which would prevent fetuses diagnosed with Down’s syndrome to be aborted. The agonizing decision to take such a step is surely in the province of the prospective parents of that fetus, and not the Ohio legislature. But extremists will get legislative action whenever and wherever they can, because extremists vote in higher percentages than any other group of citizens, and cowardly politicians recognize that and bow to it.
The biggest such flap in the past few weeks has been the thrice-divorced Kentucky county clerk who would not sign marriage applications for gay couples. Apparently she was willing to ignore the many biblical statements about divorce but became ethically convulsed by an occupational mandate to do something about which the Bible is totally silent. For her refusal she was sent to jail, where she was visited by two presidential aspirants. Now she has been released, provided she agrees to meet the obligations of her job. Remember: extremist religious people tend to obsess about certain religious laws and to ignore other similar laws altogether. However, most of us also do that, but in our selective outlook it seldom appears that way to us.
Matthew Becker is a professor of theology at Valparaiso University in Indiana, a college associated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The Missouri Synod is a very conservative denomination, as anyone ever associated with it will readily agree, both positively and negatively. Prof. Becker is from Montana, and the president of that district of the denomination forced him to resign his ordination as a minister for questioning the Church’s refusal to ordain women and its insistence on teaching creationism. The denominational president, Matthew Harrison, upheld the defrocking, saying, “If my synod does not change its inability to call such a person to repentance and remove such a teacher where there is no repentance, then we are liars and our confession is meaningless.” To that I can only say, “Wow!” And in addition, “Holy cow!”
Letters to the editor of The Island Packet are usually an exercise in discerning moderation from extremism. We have at least five Chapel members who have written letters to the editor, but they, naturally, are all reasonable and moderate. However, there was a letter a few weeks ago which was the epitome of extremism. It claimed, among other things, that only 20% of Christians vote, that because of that self-serving politicians govern our country, that our children are taught to hate God and worship the earth, that borders are kept open for terrorists and criminals, and so on. There was no attempt to substantiate any of these statements. But the letter warned that “If Christians don’t start voting, powerful parties will continue to mobilize enough of their godless friends to win elections.” Since I addressed elections and voting in last Sunday’s sermon, I have no doubt this gentleman would be thrilled with absolutely every word I uttered.
In Israel, Jewish extremists set fire to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes on the Sea of Galilee. Five people were arrested, and two were indicted. The leader of the group had blogged the following: “Only those who deny idolatry and fight against Christianity and aspire to remove the churches from the Holy Land (can be) called Jews.” These particular extremists think the Israeli government has done far too little to build and expand settlements in the West Bank. That’s odd; some of us thought the Netanyahu government was doing far too much to expand West Bank settlements. It seems that one person’s extremist is another person’s moderate.
It is obvious from a reading of the Gospels that Jesus’ most evident theological adversaries were the group always lumped together as “the scribes and Pharisees.” It is more likely that Jesus’ primary religious adversaries were the Sadducees and the temple priests, but that is a scholastic historical argument about which you probably have no interest. In any event, in Matthew 23, only three days before he was crucified, Matthew tells us that Jesus strongly and publicly attacked the scribes and Pharisees. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” he thundered. “You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” Jesus could hardly have made a more scandalous accusation against his theological enemies. Jews were forbidden to have anything to do with dead bodies, except under very circumscribed circumstances. To tell these men they were whitewashed tombs was a huge and intentional insult.
Throughout the 23rd chapter of Matthew, Jesus was attacking the legalistic extremism of some of the leaders of Judaism. He said they emphasized minor matters of the religious law while overlooking the major essence of what religious laws are all about. Biblical laws are meant to promote love and justice and tolerance, not hatred and injustice and intolerance, said Jesus. Jesus was very opposed to the religious extremists of his own time, and we need to remember that. It was Jewish extremists, not Jews in general, who rejoiced in his execution, just as presently religious extremists rejoice in the deaths of those they consider to be the worst of sinners.
Religious extremists always latch onto minor issues and ignore the essential elements of their religions. It has ever been, and it shall ever be. Therefore religious moderates must firmly but non-violently resist them in their perverted efforts to re-shape the world in their own image. Those who insist their concept of morality is the only valid one must be called to account. Extremists must not have the final verdict on such issues as abortion and same-sex marriage any more than they should have been allowed to continue the enforcement of blue laws or laws against the sale of contraceptives in the Bad Old Days of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.
Mosques and synagogues are being bombed or burned in this country, Europe, and elsewhere. Moderates must push hard against such religious extremism. Novelist Mary McCarthy once said that religion makes good people better and bad people worse. That is not entirely true, but it too true to ignore. Religion makes good people better and bad people worse.
Religious extremists are not inherently bad people. But their extremism can make them act badly. People carrying placards march outside the US Supreme Court or Capitol Building. They demand their views on abortion or marriage or forbidding Muslim or Jewish women to wear head scarves or veils must become the law of the land, and they must be defeated. As Jesus and the prophets resisted that kind of thinking, so must we. Do not look past religious evil when it manifests itself. Speak up for justice, or else injustice may win out. Christian moderates, unite!