One thing that every religious person must take seriously in this century is the rise of religious violence. The most extreme examples of religious violence that the media expose us to are the religious clashes between “The West” and “Muslims extremists” in the Arab world and the continuing confrontations in Israel. But, many more exist, including tribal clashes in Africa, religious clashes in the fragmented states that used to make up the Soviet Union, and the war of words between “conservative Christians” and “liberal Christians,” which are aiding in polarizing our own nation. When the fundamentals of the world’s religions preach peace and reconciliation, why is there so much religious violence and division? Why do Americans hear hate coming from the mouths of Christians when Christ taught us not to continue in anger with our brothers and sisters and also taught us to reconcile with each other as soon as possible?
I just read an article, The Dangers of Thin Religion, by Dick Keyes that helped to put things into perspective.
"I recently heard a radio interview with Miroslav Volf, a Croation Protestant theologian now teaching at Yale that was very helpful in making sense of what is going on. He reflected on his experience in the ethnic violence and horror when Yugoslavia came to pieces after the fall of Communism. The violence was between Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim, so he was asked what made religion so violent. His answer was interesting. He distinguished between “thin” religion and “thick” religion. Thin religion is superficial. Thick religion is deep. Thin religion has little solid content, but exists in slogans, clichés, hot-button issues and formulas used to quickly separate good from evil, friend from enemy. Thick religion is built on deeper reflection and awareness of the scriptures of the tradition, its history and a prophetic voice that questions all expressions of the faith."
Thin religion was what I participated in when I was a senior in High School. The local cable network was planning on cutting a “Christian” station from the airwaves in our community because it had almost no viewers. I and other local Christians took this as a personal attack against Christianity, quickly formed an action team (a small clan of Christians you might say) who rebuked the Christian hating cable network, and succeeded in preserving a station that none of us ever viewed.
Thin religion is tribal and clannish in nature. It works by gathering a group of “us” who will seek to attack “them.” Thin religion can be a very powerful force, but it is in no way thick. It is bound together by common enemies, but almost always has very little depth of theological reflection.
A thick religious outlook would have never supported what our little clan was doing. In fact, the pastors of the area did not support it. They had a thick religious understanding. They knew that the station we were sweating to preserve had very bad and even hateful points of view. The “Christian” station we preserved was a very poor reflection of Christianity indeed. Local Christians would have been better off not having the station’s hate speech reverberating through the TVs of our community, because it made all Christians appear hateful and stupid.
Thin religion always serves a false god that puts unity against an enemy above the core religious message. Thick religion puts God and God’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation first. For the sake of the world, we ought to preserve thick religion. Maybe, in keeping thick religion, we won't have a perfect world, but we will have a more peaceful world.
To read Dick Keyes full article go here: http://www.christianheritageuk.org.uk/Mobile/default.aspx?group_id=32432&article_id=43923
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