A common flaw in cultures that are strictly dominated by a religion is that they honor institutional rights above individual rights. They sustain the overall culture at the expense of the individual.
Imperfect People Doing an Imperfect Job
All major world religions have gone through times when its members or leaders practiced Ruler’s Law in one form or another. The actions of those imperfect and short-sighted humans should not automatically become an excuse for outsiders to re-define that religion’s core belief as evil or degrading.
But when a religion’s leaders or membership stand by doing nothing to rectify the excesses and anomalies of force and terror committed in their name, or even engage in propagating the abuse themselves, that leaves the rest of the world wondering if that religion is really everything that it says it is. It’s a murky and difficult subject to tackle. Here is one approach—
RELIGION: Catholic Church and Christianity
ADHERENTS: 2.1 billion worldwide227
STORY: The life of Jesus Christ is recorded as one of service, compassion, love, healing, and the ultimate sacrifice of his own life to benefit others. The message of obedience to God, loving others as yourself, and the promise of forgiveness and resurrection, are key foundation stones that helped his apostles spread “the good news.” Today, that message has been embraced by a third of the world.
Christian Socialism
As a political distinction, Christian socialism can be traced to a meeting of Christian Socialists in London in the mid-1800s. They rejected individual rights and the selfish aggression brought on by market-place competition. They thought Christian-type cooperation was the best replacement for competitiveness, and gave it a test drive by financing co-partnerships and profit sharing in industry. Henri de Saint-Simon was an early advocate, Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles Kingsley and others followed suit.
Today, Christian Socialists have melted into the background of so many other political parties. They are not much different than any other groups attempting to secure governmental power for their own interests.
After the death of the apostles, Ruler’s Law was found infiltrating Christianity in a variety of ways. Some examples:
Believe or Else: Killing people for their negative opinions about Christianity (the heretics) began as early as A.D. 385 when the Church had Priscillian, the bishop of Ávila in Spain, executed by Roman officials. The actual civil charge was practicing magic.228
Heretics: The Cathars, starting about A.D. 1150, are an example of heretics targeted for slaughter by a formal Church-sanctioned Crusade. After killing and driving the Cathars away, the pope permitted the army to confiscate the Cathars’ lands.229
Church Armies: The Crusades (1095-1798 A.D.) were nine major military campaigns (and dozens of lesser campaigns), launched by the pope to regain control over the Holy Land, and to fight Muslims, heretics, and pagans. The pope gave his blessing to the troops and indulgences to those killed in battle. The invaders were hardly Christian. Crusaders were guilty of massacring civilian men, women and children—and instances of assault, abuse and cannibalism.
Executed for Thinking: Jan Hus (1369-1415) (see Chapter 27) was a Czech priest who berated the Church for its lofty arrogance. He was excommunicated. During this same time, a fight over who was the real pope had been raging since 1378. The Council of Constance was convened to resolve the matter in 1414. Hus was invited to attend the Council and express his concerns and reasons for his apparent apostasy. It was actually a dirty trick—after Hus’s arrival on the scene, the soldiers grabbed him, threw him in prison for heresy, held a quick trial, and burned him at the stake.230
Torture: The inquisitions were extreme efforts to suppress heresy in the Church using torture and death. They didn’t start out ugly like that, but abusers twisted it so. They began around A.D. 1184, and continued in various forms, including torture and death, in different countries until about 1860.
Forced Tithes: Many of the clergy in medieval countries, especially France, benefitted from royal decrees that let them force extraction of tithes from the peasantry. The clergy also avoided paying taxes on Church-owned land. The great Reformation was a rebellion by Christians who didn’t believe the leadership of the Catholic Church had the right to rule and reign in civic affairs, or had the right to oppress others. The Reformers called for a return to the original teachings of Jesus and to put the Bible at the head of the Church. The Reformers were not guiltless in their rebellions—they too were guilty of unchristian behavior such as driving out, killing, and burning devout Catholics.
Over the centuries, Catholic clergy functioning closer to the people on the local level remained diligent and, for the most part, practiced true Christianity. They served their flocks with devotion and compassion, often in conditions of extreme poverty and stress.
The primary problem in the Catholic Church during its first 1,500 years was the upper clergy’s penchant for entangling alliances with the powers of the monarchies to force religious obedience. In places where this grew into an all-powerful culture from which no one could escape, Catholic or not, that was Ruler’s Law replacing the Gospel of peace. The fruit of that shift away from free religious practice was misery, heavy burdens, taxation, punishment, war, and death.
In recent centuries, many dozens of Christian churches have been formed with the declared intent to restore true Christianity and become more in line with the New Testament. These assorted churches encompass approximately one billion followers of Christ outside of the formal structure of the Catholic church.231
Catholic Church Today: Despite some bad apples and abject foolishness among some that do great harm against the true teachings of Jesus Christ, for the vast numbers aligned with Christianity, a refining and refreshing spirit of love, service, and selfless labor dominates the Catholic Church, its leadership, and Christians everywhere.
RELIGION: Buddhism
ADHERENTS: 376 million232
STORY: Buddhism is both a religion and a philosophy that dates back to about 600 B.C.233 Its founder, the young prince Buddha, desired to learn more about life, and left the sheltered care of his father’s palace to learn the normal earthly pain and suffering of others. Along the way he learned important lessons about his own mortal desires, stresses, and failings, and a pathway to control them, a pathway toward enlightenment.
Hunting for Perfection: Seeking to conquer his mortality, Buddha experimented with forms of meditation. The end result was an earthly perfection of his body and soul through complete personal control. Buddha formed a monastic society whereby he shared his insights.
Modern Leader: Buddhadasa (1906-1993) was a modern-day philosopher of Buddhism in his native Thailand. He taught that socialism is a natural state of being. “Look at the birds; we will see that they eat only as much food as their stomachs can hold. ... Therefore a system in which people cannot encroach on each other’s rights or plunder their possessions is in accordance with nature and occurs naturally ... The freedom to hoard was tightly controlled by nature in the form of natural socialism.”234
Not Forced: Buddhism is voluntary, although some fringe groups have used force to regain members who convert to other religions, but these are infrequent. Buddhism’s modern view is to seek world harmony through natural socialism—to live within one’s own sphere, share what nature provides, and don’t be an exploitative capitalist.
Surplus is Wasteful: While Buddhadasa called for mankind to become like the birds and eat only until they’re full, he implied at the same time that any surplus must therefore be evil. His problem that remains unanswered is that the surplus he objects to as wasteful is not an extravagance. It is the only means whereby people may serve one another. After they eat, are there no crumbs for the hungry? Surplus is how people are able to care for themselves and also help others less fortunate at the same time.235
RELIGION: Islam
ADHERENTS: 1.5 billion236
/> STORY: Islam is the only major world religion that combines civic and religious law into one. Islam’s doctrine, tenets, and commandments mandate death and violence against apostates and non-believers. That orthodoxy, however, is generally practiced by only a minority of its followers.
Islam had its beginnings with Muhammad (570-632 A.D.). He was a merchant who, at 40, started receiving revelations from the Angel Gabriel. These messages were written down as the Quran, and claimed to restore the fullness of God’s teachings, beginning with Adam to Moses, to Jesus, and to others.
Muhammad’s religion was intended to put followers on a path away from worldly ways and toward obedience to God’s commandments. Today that path is manifested as both peace and terror. In countries where it has been allowed to rule society, it is imposing a way of life that must be obeyed or violators are faced with fines, jail time, dismemberment and death.
Quran
The Quran is the cornerstone of all Islamic belief. Muslims view the book as sacred scripture. It is organized in sections that are not chronological, but are ordered roughly according to size, approximately from the longest chapter to the shortest.
The book is a mixture of war and peace. The verses written by Muhammad while in Mecca are mostly peaceful and encourage cooperation with people of other beliefs.
That changed after Muhammad became a rich and powerful warlord in Medina. There he attracted his first followers and established his theocratic government. The verses he wrote in Medina took on a much more forceful and violent spirit. They express a very intolerant view toward other religions. For example, Surah 2:256, written in A.D. 614, the more peaceful years in Mecca, says, “There is no compulsion in religion ....” meaning no one should be forced into a religious belief system; they should be free to choose participation or not.
Some 13 years later, Muhammad is in Medina. There he writes in Surah 9:5 that people should be threatened with death if they don’t join Islam, and actually be killed if they ultimately refuse: “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them. ... But if they repent and accept Islam ... then leave their way free.”
Sharia Law: Religion and state are not separated in Islam. It is a complete way of living. In Muslim nations, Islam governs all moral, spiritual, social, political, economical, and intellectual aspects of life. This makes breaking away, or expressing opinions critical of Islam, not only blasphemous but against civic law—and very punishable.237
There is an extensive record of Islamic warfare all through the middle ages.238 The aim was not necessarily to win more converts to Islam but to protect the Islamic empire. There is debate over interpretation of the Quran’s role regarding jihads during this period, whether or not the wars and battles were for an offensive or defensive purpose. In either case, bloody conflict in connection to Islamic law and society has continued up until the present time.
The Individual Muslim: The nuclear family and vast populations of the Islamic community look to make God the center of their lives. Many of them wish to stand apart from today’s political activists.
When the extremists (or more precisely, the orthodox Muslims) dominate the world’s top news stories day after day, Muslim families truly ignoring the Ruler’s Law aspects of Islam can only hope others will understand that the monster parading in front of the media is brutal fanaticism—evil expressions of compulsion and slavish indulgence—and nothing like their peaceful version of Islam.
The public appearance of Islamic tenets extracted to an extreme has been forming and molding western opinions about Islam for many decades. It’s a public relations nightmare for many Muslims, especially those enjoying freedom of religion in the West.
Unalienable Rights Denied: In terms of natural and unalienable rights, the western view is that Islamic traditions of managing all human rights has cost untold millions of people the joy and prosperity that true religious freedom brings. It is Ruler’s Law of tyranny and force rather than choice and conscience.
Dying in the Name of Allah
News of another suicide bombing somewhere in the world has become an almost weekly event. Suicide bombers, however, are not really suicidal according to Islam. Suicide is contrary to the Quran. But dying while in the act of killing nonbelievers is acceptable.
According to Surah 9:111, “Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties for (the price) that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allah’s Cause, so they kill (others) and are killed. It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him in the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and the Quran. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded. That is the supreme success.”
In modern times, Christians and Jews have sought peaceful coexistence with Muslims, and in lands where the freedom of religion exists, such peace often works. However, authorities point out that in the 49 or so nations where Muslims are the majority, and in the dozen of those that have installed Islamic or Sharia law, Christians and Jews face persecution or worse. “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘I have been ordered to fight with people till they say, None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’”239
No Central Authority: There is no top-level governing body in Islam to guide, restrain, instruct, and advise all the people. Various factions compete for leadership. The Sunni and Shi’a Muslims have long clashed—often with lethal violence—to argue points of doctrine or settle prejudices.
For lack of the cultural virtue necessary to enjoy true freedom, various pockets of extremists froth their way to the world’s attention with terror, stonings and beheadings as if they hold some moral high ground over everyone else, which God’s law makes clear they don’t.
Ruler’s Law and the Seven Pillars of Socialism
The pillars of socialism most prevalent in Muslim-majority nations include the iron-clad use of force to impose religious obedience; an all-powerful ruling class that will punish the violation of laws; the destruction of personal freedoms of choice; strict control over all associations (especially between men and women); and the violation of property ownership rights for women. This slavery mentality is forced on millions who, for the most part, are trapped into obedience. In some Muslim countries these extremes are being challenged or eased, and support for more individual rights is growing.
RELIGION: Judaism
ADHERENTS: 14 million240
STORY: The Jews descend from Abraham through his grandson, Jacob. Judah (1700 B.C.), was one of Jacob’s 12 sons. With the political breakup of the twelve tribes around 930 B.C., only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with some remnants of Levi and Simeon, remained in the regions around today’s Jerusalem—they formed the southern kingdom of Judah. Later, they were joined by members of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Scattered: For 3,000 years, the Jews have been scattered to all corners of the earth. At the same time, they developed a remarkable reputation for outstanding scholarship, science, business, and artistic talents that are exceptional from such a relatively small group.
The modern development of the state of Israel initially embraced socialism. In the early 1900s many Jews were driven from Russia, most going to America but some settling in Palestine. Being too poor to buy land or start farms individually, they pooled their labors and funds to create a collective.
The kibbutz (meaning “community”) began as “... a voluntary collective community, mainly agricultural, in which there is no private wealth and was responsible for all the needs of its members and their families.”241
The earliest kibbutz pioneers cleared thousands of acres, first around Galilee. They planted orchards, crops, raised poultry, dairy and fish farming. They made the barren lands blossom. Membership ranged from 40-50 to more than 1,000, with most of them averaging today around 400-500 residents. The median age is 30.
The political side of the kibbutz was a pure democracy, “one man, one vote, the majority rules.” Both men and women could vote. The structure they created allowed members to be as
signed their work positions, and had routine duties such as kitchen and laundry rotated.
For many years, children were raised in communal children’s houses. Modern times have changed that, and the assurance of an intact family unit has become important to new couples moving in.242
With only 2.5 percent of the nation’s population, the kibuttzim produce about 33 percent of the agriculture and farm produce, and 6.3 percent of manufactured goods for all of Israel.
Declining: The number of kibbutzim in operation has been declining but has stayed around 270 nationwide for the last couple of decades. There are about 117,000 people participating.
The kibbutzim have struggled to keep up with changing times. Where large investments would upgrade and modernize their equipment and facilities, the collectives are generally too poor to handle large capital improvements. An association of kibbutzim has helped solve that problem, but the greatest improvements have come when the lands and facilities were privatized as profit-making operations.
An important difference in the socialistic nature of the kibbutz and similar farming communities (called a moshav) is that these establishments are all voluntary—people may join or leave at their pleasure without being arrested, punished, or forced to remain.
Free Religion: The tourist to Israel will find that Jewish beliefs and traditions are not imposed by law. Even so, many Jews observe tenets at their businesses. For example, most Jewish establishments in Israel will close for the Sabbath, elevators will go into automatic mode and stop on every floor of hotels (so a person doesn’t “work” by pressing a button for the desired floor), and only Arab-operated taxis and shops are open.
But come Sunday morning, it’s business as usual for the Jews—and time for the Christians living in Israel to put on their Sunday best and attend church—freely, encouraged, and welcomed.
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