Intra-Faith Divisions and the Dangers of Othering

By:  Heather Abraham aka Religion Nerd                                                                                  

Several weeks ago, my husband and I attended a dinner party at a friend’s home.   As always, she was the perfect hostess, bringing together an interesting mix of people and serving a fabulous meal.  After dinner, we gathered in the den for coffee and of course coffee talk.  The conversation was lively and covered many topics throughout the evening.  One specific conversation caught my attention and I wandered away from my group to listen more intently as two Muslim women were discussing the differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims.  Not surprisingly, the two Sunni Muslim women soon determined that Shiites weren’t “really” Muslim and that they were in reality practicing another religion entirely.  Terms like us/them and we/they were peppered throughout the exchange.   

This conversation reminded me of an encounter I had with a neighborhood acquaintance soon after she and her husband returned from 

If only humans could be so open and serene!

vacationing in Italy.  While showing pictures of her vacation, she mentioned that they had stayed in the home of a Christian missionary while visiting Florence.  Curious, I asked if the missionary used Italy as a home base and inquired where she performed her missions.  I was quickly informed that the missionary worked exclusively in Italy.   Since the vast majority of Italians are Christians I found this curious and inquired as to whom she was ministering.   Well, you would have thought I had opened Pandora’s Box! Obviously agitated, the neighbor informed me that most “Italians are Catholics and Catholics don’t teach the truth about Jesus, they aren’t really Christians at all—they worship the Pope and saints.”  She then admonished me for not “knowing” this as I study religion.  Hmm, I don’t know how I missed that important bit of information.  

Although I often write about the importance of interfaith dialogue, these two examples give us an opportunity to explore the phenomena of intra-faith divisions and discuss the dangers inherent in the process of othering.  

In the above examples, it is apparent that each party questioned the validity of a group within their own religious tradition and found them lacking in authenticity.  By extension of this conclusion, the adherents of the branch in question were relegated to the position of the other.  What does it mean to categorize a person or group as the other?  In The Origins of Satan, Elaine Pagels writes of this common yet problematic worldview. 

The social and cultural practice of defining certain people as “others” in relation to one’s own group maybe, of course, as old as humanity itself.  The anthropologist Robert Redfield has argued that the worldview of many peoples consists essentially of two pairs of binary opposition:  human/non-human and we/they.  These two are often correlated, as Jonathan Z. Smith observes, so that “we” equals “human” and “they” equals “nonhuman.”   

Thus when we otherize a group of people, we are in actuality assigning them an identity that is, to one degree or another, inferior to that of our own.  One only has to reflect on the horrors of WWII, Rwanda, or Darfur, to understand the consequences of perceiving the other as less than human.  

This attitude may seem harmless when it is promoted by attractive women at a dinner party or a retired neighborhood grandmother but when embraced and promoted by a religious organization or when it becomes political policy; intra-faith discord, enhanced by the process of othering, can become a powerful and destructive weapon.  Christian, Muslim, and Judaic history are littered with prolonged bloody wars which evolved out of intra-faith conflict and sadly the 21^st century appears to be walking the same bloody path—deeply embedded in this never ending tragedy.  

Binary opposition is also alive and thriving in America’s political system.   One need only to look at the debacle on Capitol Hill to witness the consequences of this limited way of thinking.  Members of Congress, so deeply invested in defeating the other, have lost sight of their primary purpose of constructive governing.  Each side rigid with disdain for what is perceived as the other’s dangerously misinformed ideals and values.  No conflict resolution or compromise in sight, only the same repetitive childish infighting.  Seeing everything in terms of black/white, right/wrong, good/evil, or us/them is not only unproductive and destructive but is also tragically uninspiring. 

This brings me to the questions of the day:  Is it possible to admit theological or political differences without becoming adversarial?  And, why are we so invested in rejecting the validity of any tradition beyond our own?

Is The Virgin Mary A Bridge Between Christianity and Islam?

By:  Heather Abraham aka Religion Nerd

With the passing of the first decade of the 21^st century, the world is confronted with an ever increasing atmosphere of tension and discord between Christian and Muslim worlds.  Turn on the nightly news or pop into your favorite internet web-news site and you will be confronted with the news of yet another terrorist bombing, another radical Muslim cleric calling for the destruction of America, another ill informed Christian spouting hatred against “Islamicists,” or another report on the most recent casualties of our “war on terror.”  We are living in an era of confusion and misinformation where the mere mention of Islam or Muslim often elicits comments founded on half-truths, anxiety, and fear.  

In this atmosphere of tension, it may be prudent to attempt to find common ground between these two clashing Abrahamic traditions.  Christianity and Islam are in some ways, intimately connected; sharing many sacred stories, devotion to one god, ethical standards, and scriptural figures.  Illuminating commonalities between these two mega religions, whose adherents make up almost fifty percent of the world’s population, may be the first step in building an understanding and hopefully, a bridge between the two. 

Mary In Islam

Although it is a common practice to begin this discussion with the familiar patriarchs whose stories are told in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an, this article will focus not on Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, or Jesus,  but instead, illuminate the role of a lesser known common figure as embodied in the Virgin Mary.  Many may be surprised to learn that Mary is a significant  and highly revered figure in Islam.  Although Mary plays an important but not extensive role in the New Testament, she has a much more prominent position in the sacred text of Islam.  Mary is mentioned no fewer than thirty-four times in the Quran, and she is the only woman in the Quran to have her own chapter or sura.  Mary, the title of the nineteenth sura of the Quran, includes detail about Mary’s life before, during, and after the Annunciation.  

Many of the Quranic stories concerning Mary and Jesus are foreign to Christian ears and sensibilities.  Even though there are many differing accounts, the Quran and New Testament also share similar stories about Mary.  In the following Annunciation accounts from Sura 19:14-21 and Luke 1:30-34, Mary’s reactions to the heavenly messenger are strikingly similar.  

And when she saw him she said: ‘May the Merciful defend me from you! If you fear the Lord, leave me and go your way.’  ‘I am the messenger of your Lord,’ he replied, ‘and have come to give you a holy son.’  ‘How shall I bear a child,’ she answered, ‘when I am a virgin, untouched by man?’ ‘Such is the will of your lord,’ he replied. ‘That is no difficult thing for Him. He shall be a sign to mankind,’ says the Lord, ‘and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree.’ 

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great and be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin.”   

Although Mary has no salvific powers in Islam, she is one of the most revered women in the Islamic faith.  In  various hadiths, Mary is discussed as being one of the four ‘Perfect Women’ in history.  Mary belongs in an exclusive group of women who are considered ‘Perfect’ because of their strength of faith and submission to God.   In Mary the Blessed Mother of Islam, Aliah Schleifer argues that, unlike the traditional Orthodox Christian understanding of Mary, the Mary of Islam is an important figure in her own right.  

Mary, in traditional Sunni Islam is an important figure in herself. Her position is not just that of the most exalted category of women, but she is ranked in the highest category of all human beings. In fact, from the perspective of those scholars who consider Mary to be a prophetess, she is considered equal to this aspect of her son Jesus. And to those who focus on Mary’s outstanding spiritual achievements, she is seen to have been blessed with stages of spiritual development that approach those of the Prophet Muhammad. In no case is Mary seen solely as the mother of Jesus. (95) 

For Muslims, Mary is a paradigmatic servant of God and an example for all humanity to emulate.   

Although there are many theological differences between Christianity and Islam, Mary’s shared importance in both religions can be understood as an opportunity for interfaith dialogue.  The easing of political and religious tension between the Christian and Islamic worlds is an enormous undertaking yet because religious differences are often used to justify anger and distrust, maybe, just maybe, religious similarities may lessen the divide.   This brings me to the question of the day:  Why are the media (Western and Eastern) and religious clerics (Christian and Muslim) not focusing on the commonalities and unifying aspects of these two Abrahamic cousins? 

Modern Images of Mary, The Versatile Saint

By:  Heather Abraham aka Religion Nerd

According to the International Marian Research Institute, eighty percent of all Catholic shrines are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and are among the most desired pilgrimage destinations in the world.  In fact, Marian shrines receive more annual pilgrims than any other religious figure.  Although a dominant figure in Catholicism, Mary’s appeal transcends theological differences, as Mary’s devoted pilgrims hail from all Christian denominations and the many branches of Islam.  Yes, I said Islam.   Mary, who plays an important but not extensive role in the New Testament, has a much more prominent position in the sacred text of Islam.   This article, however, is not about Mary in Islam; that subject I will save for a future posting.  Today, I intend to explore the Mary of the people—Mary as she appears in lived religion.  Most specifically how Mary’s image is utilized by her followers in artistic, new, and unique ways. 

More popular than ever before, Mary has become Christianity’s most versatile, utilized, and venerated figure.  Most intriguingly, Mary’s image has become main-stream and is found in the most unusual of places.   Images of Mary are often depicted on t-shirts, purses, murals, wallets, yard art, jewelry, graffiti, and on the bodies of her devoted followers.  Tattoo images of Mary range from small devotionals to enormous masterpieces— covering an entire human back.  To illustrate Mary’s versatility, I will acquaint you with two recent encounters I had in my hometown of Atlanta—one of the most religiously diverse cities in the south.  

During a recent shopping trip to my local farmers market I encountered what, for many, may seem strange but which demonstrates perfectly how effortlessly Mary’s image shifts from sacred space and into the mundane world to commune with those who venerate her.  While paying for my groceries, I noticed an image of Mary, as the Virgin of Guadalupe, gracing a common scale which stood about 4 feet in height.  Leaving my husband at the register, I wandered over to investigate and to take some pictures.  Above and below Mary’s image were the words “Get Your Daily Inspirational Message” in English and Spanish.  For a fee of 25 cents, customers could weigh themselves and be rewarded with an inspiring message from the Virgin Mother.  No judgmental weigh-in here!  As I delightedly snapped pictures, I caught the attention of the store security who warned that pictures were forbidden in the store by order of management.  I quickly explained my interest to the perplexed security guard who was concerned that I was stealing secrets for the competition until I showed him that I only had pictures of the Mary scale on my camera.  Although he was obviously confused, he finally acquiesced agreeing that “the Virgin is good” and walked away muttering to another employee that I was loco.   Being the nerd that I am, I sat nearby with my patient husband and observed how a few customers interacted with the scale.  I didn’t have to wait long before three teen girls approached the scale and one by one stepped up, blessing themselves first, and received their weigh in and inspirational message for the day.

The most humorously delightful chanced upon image of Mary that I have ever encountered occurred on a hot summer day as I was driving on Peachtree Street.  Sitting at a red light, I noticed a large pick-up truck pull up on my right.  Not one to be impressed with cars (I drive a 23 year old Volvo) I was drawn to the beauty of the pearl white truck which glowed in the sun—highly polished and chromed out.  After proceeding through the light the truck pulled in front of me and thus revealed the amazing mural airbrushed on the tail-gate.  Picture this:  center-right of the tail-gate was an image of Mary, again in the form of the Virgin of Guadalupe, floating a few feet off the ground and surrounded by an indigo sky.  In front of her was a man kneeling in supplication, hands together in prayer beseeching Mary for a boon.  Now comes the best and most creative part—above this kneeling man’s head was a bubble like the ones used in comic books.  In the bubble was an image of the exact truck that the “real” man was driving.  I was blown away at the artistry of the images and the message they conveyed.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera and my cell was lost in the black hole I call a purse.  Sadly, I have been looking for the truck ever since.  Although I don’t possess a physical photo of the vehicle, I can still conjure up the image in my mind’s eye and delight in the iconic representation which was so devotedly created in honor and veneration of this versatile Saint.  

For those devoted to her, Mary is a compelling figure who provides solace, reassurance and hope.   Mary is also an elusive figure impossible to simply define, for she has played many roles in the lives of those who have bowed their heads in request or supplication.  Leonard Boff, In The Maternal Face of God: The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions, argues that Mary’s persona changes to meet the needs of her devotees. He writes, “Each new generation finds itself in Mary, projecting its dreams, its sociocultural ideals, upon her.  In her, each new generation discovers the revelatory path of the feminine archetype that crowd our unconscious.” (251)  Mary is the most human of historical and scriptural figures; welcoming the masses and participating in the daily lives of her followers who embrace her as one who has experienced and transcended human fragility.  It maybe that those who venerate Mary do so because they feel she somehow “lives” in the world with or around them and is not a distant figure, too aloof to take part in their everyday world.    

This leads me to the question of the day:  Although these images are not indicative of the “standard” understanding of religious art, they obviously play a crucial role for modern day Marian devotees.  Why does Mary’s image lend itself to such displays of art and do these examples represent a new wave of early 21^st century religious art? 

P.S. If any Religion Nerd reader finds my elusive truck, please snap a picture for me and send it to the editor along with any other unique representations of Mary. 

UNXVZPRRC849

 

“Christian Militias” and the Unpredictable Nature of Religious Diversity

 By: Kenny Smith,  See biography at Guest Blogger menu

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is said to have taught that, “you cannot step into the same river twice,” because a river (like everything in the physical world) is continually changing and hence never the same. The implication of this insight for the study of religion can be profound: religions are also constantly changing, developing, becoming something new, and, to some degree, one can never step twice into the same church, synagogue, mosque, or temple, or religious tradition.

It is especially difficult for Westerners to think in these terms about religion.  Religions tend to have a great deal invested in the view that they represent unchanging truths, and so pointing to evidence of historical change may well be interpreted as an assault. Protestant ideas about a coming Rapture in which faithful Christians are plucked up and out of a hostile secular society, for example, are relatively new, arising in the late 19^th century.  Though many Rapturists read this theology back into the Bible and conclude that such teachings can be traced to the days of Jesus of Nazareth.  Also, as a culture, for the past three centuries or so we have tended to imagine the religious landscape in terms of distinct, walled-off religious institutions, such as “Christianity,” “Islam,” Buddhism,” “Judaism,” and so forth.  Taken together, these factors lead us to expect unchanging and uniform religious traditions where none in fact exist.   

Take, for example, what we call “Christianity.” There are currently some 2.5 billion Christians worldwide. About 1.1 billion are Catholic, 800-900 million are Eastern Orthodox, and 500-600 million are Protestant.  There are enormous theological differences separating these three branches (to say nothing of the many differences in language, culture, ethnicity, economics, politics, and history). For many Catholics and Protestants, it is Jesus’ death that makes salvation possible.  In this view, he is thought to have “paid the price” for all human sin, thus wiping away even the “original sins” of Adam and Eve.  In many Eastern Orthodox Christianities, however, notions of “original sin,” which first emerged in the 4^th century in Western Europe, never caught on.  Eastern Orthodox traditions tend to place much greater emphasis upon the birth of Jesus, in which God is thought to have taken physical form, and thus seriously “upgraded” human nature in important ways.

Catholics and Protestants, of course, differ profoundly as well.  In traditional Catholic teachings, the ideal (if not the only) path to God is through the religious institution that God Himself created and ordained, the Catholic (or “universal”) church, whereas for most Protestants one can go directly to God for forgiveness, atonement, understanding the Bible, knowing  how best to live, rather than relying upon an institution.  This may seem superficial, but it’s actually a very important difference about where religious authority (to determine what the Bible says, how to relate to God, how to live, how society should be structured, etc.) resides.  There is of course a great deal of diversity within each of these three branches.  Protestantism, for instance, is comprised of virtually thousands of denominations, Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Pentecostals, being some of the largest and most well-known.  The concept Protestant” (like “river”) may lead us to expect a unity of belief and practice, but there are in fact enormously important differences here as well, differences so profound that one kind of Protestant might have serious doubts about whether other kinds are really Christian at all!  In many Pentecostal churches, for instance, one cannot be certain that one is “saved” (going to heaven after this life) unless one displays the “charismata,” (“gifts of the Holy Spirit”) such as publicly speaking in tongues (usually in a church setting). The very loud, frenetic, highly emotional, and seemingly out of control behaviors associated with this religious experience, however, would for many other Protestants be regarded as a sign of mental illness, or even demonic influence, certainly not the salvific power of the divine.

Within Baptist denominations, one debate that has been going on for centuries involves fundamental notions about God’s power and human free will.  Some (often called Predestinationists) argue that, because God is in full control of everything that happens, he must have already determined, from the very beginnings of time, who will be saved and who will be damned.  Others, however, argue that because God is infinitely good, he would surely leave human beings free to decide for themselves, rather than determining in advance everyone’s fate.  My purpose here is not to resolve such disputes, but only to point out why one kind of Protestant might fail to recognize other kinds as not properly Christian.       

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