Q & A: Ethics, Islam and the God of Your Understanding
The main point of the key note address I delivered yesterday (you can read my notes in the previous blog post) was that the God of your understanding, the God to whom you turn over your life in the context of Twelve Step spirituality, is just that—the God of your understanding; that is to say an extension of your own ego. Your God is only as loving, sane, and rational as you are. And if your God is hate–filled, angry, fearful, violent, and damning… so are you, even if you deny the fact. Theology is psychology.
Here are some of the questions I was asked (along with my answers) during both the formal Q & A session, and after the talk was over.
“Please clarify the difference between religion and God, and the religion and God of my understanding. Aren’t these the same?”
In your mind they may be the same, but in fact they are not. There is no “Christianity,” only the Christianity of your understanding. There is no “Judaism,” only the Judaism of your understanding. And there is no “God” only the God of your understanding. This is why we have so many religions, so many variations within any given religion, and so many competing Gods.
“I respect all religions and all people. Don’t you?”
No, I don’t. I don’t respect any understanding of religion that promotes misogyny, homophobia, homicide, genocide, demonization of the other, or the exploitation and oppression of the less powerful. I don’t respect people like Omar Mateen, or the Islam and God of his understanding. I don’t respect the Israeli terrorists who burned to death 10-month old Ali Dawabshe and his parents, or the Israeli wedding guests who joyously stabbed a photo of baby Ali and hence vicariously participated in his murder. And I don’t respect the Judaism and God of their understanding.
“Shouldn’t we trust God?”
No, we shouldn’t. The God we know is the God we imagine. And the God we imagine is a projection of our own egos. Because people are flawed, our Gods are flawed. What we should do is investigate the quality of our Gods and the religions they sanction.
“Do you believe in evil?”
Yes. Evil is that power that feeds our fear, hatred, exploitation, and oppression of the other. Evil is as real as good which is that power that feeds our capacity for wisdom, generosity, courage, compassion, reason, love, etc.
“Why does God allow evil to exist?”
Evil and good go together the way front goes with back, up goes with down, and in goes with out. All of these are aspects of God, who I understand as the source and substance of all reality. God doesn’t allow evil, God simply manifests reality and reality contains evil.
“Do you believe we have free will?”
We have choice, but do we have the power to freely choose? I’m not sure. Omar Mateen had a choice: to murder the people at the Pulse nightclub or not. Was he free to choose not to kill? Given his understanding of God and Islam was he free to do other than he did? I doubt it.
“But without free will how can we condemn his actions? Without free will how can we hate him?”
I condemn his actions because they are evil. But I don’t hate him. I have compassion for him. He is trapped in a religion that is evil—not Islam, which is an abstraction, but the Islam of his understanding and the understanding of so many others no less trapped in an understanding of God and faith that is rooted in fear and hate.
“How can you blame Islam for Omar Mateen or other Islamic terrorists?”
I don’t. Islam didn’t tell Mr. Mateen to murder 49 people at an Orlando nightclub, his understanding of Islam did. I blame his understanding of Islam and those who helped shape his understanding of Islam.
“His perverted understanding of Islam.”
When you add the adjective perverted you imply there is a true understanding of Islam, and I challenge that. There is no true understanding of any religion; only the understandings people have of their religions which they claim to be the true understanding. Mormons, for example, claim Mormonism to be the true Christianity, but Baptists and Catholics would take issue with that claim. Haredi or Ultra–Orthodox Jews claim their Judaism is the true Judaism, but Reform Jews would challenge that. There are understandings of religion that lead to hate and violence, and understandings of religion that lead to justice and compassion. While I prefer the latter, the former are no less “authentic.”
“Are you a relativist? Are all religions and ethical systems of equal value?”
Not at all. I believe in right and wrong, truth and falsehood. I just know that my understanding of right and wrong, and true and false are conditioned and need to be continually challenged and refined.
“Homophobia and misogyny in Muslim countries is cultural, not religious. You can’t blame Islam for these things.”
I’m not blaming Islam; I’m blaming certain understandings of Islam, and those clerics who promote those understandings, or who do not challenge them with different understandings. Religion should stand up to evil no matter how deeply that evil is engrained in a culture, and when it fails to do this it is acquiescing to evil and loses its very raison d’etre.
“So what are we to learn from your approach to God and religion?”
Radical humility. Don’t trust the God of your understanding. Question what you believe, and critically examine what you are taught. Choose to believe in a God of love and justice who doesn’t condone or promote fear, hate, and/or the oppression of others. Take your religion seriously enough to challenge it. Take yourself seriously enough to grow beyond Gods and faiths that promote or acquiesce to evil. Do not abdicate responsibility for what you believe. If the religion of your understanding sanctions fear, hate, and violence in this life or the next, get a new religion. If the God of your understanding is drenched in blood, get a new God.