October 2001

Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends,

As promised last month I want to use this article to reflect further on the terrorist outrage in New York and the events that have ensued since then.
As I write, British and American planes are beginning their eighth night of aerial attack on Taliban positions in Afghanistan, and in the United States a fifth person has been reported as having contracted anthrax poisoning. Unlike the war with Iraq or the involvement in Kosovo, all the signs at the moment are that this conflict could turn into a wider and far more serious conflict between one particular strain of religious fundamentalism and the West. Indeed one could argue that that has already begun. I can only pray that by the time this article reaches you the situation will have improve rather than become worse.

The situation we find ourselves in reminds us that religion can either be a force for good or force for bad. Islam is a peace-loving religion. I know from my experience of living in Jerusalem for six months and working alongside Palestinians in the hospital in which I was a volunteer, hwo gentle, dignified and hospitable most Muslims are, and how violently they renounce the sick and evil ways of extremists bent on mass murder. Indeed it would be just as much a mistake to equate the Crusades of the 11th century with the true Christian Church, as it would be to equated Bin Laden with true Islam. What Bin Laden and his followers have done is to pick out one or two verses from the Koran and twist them to serve his own purposes, and then , most horrendous of all, to call mass murder something that is “Holy”, and “Honourable to God”.

This abuse of religion reminds me of the situation we saw starting in September, when a street in Northern Ireland became a battleground between a Catholic community intent on taking the direct route to school with their children, and a most un-christian Protestant community which tried to block their way. Such scenes blacken the very name of Christ, when so-called Christians use their religion as a tool of hate rather than as a means to love, to forget, and to overcome divisions.

As Christians we are left feeling vulnerable by such scenes, when atheists and agnostics challenge us with the words “see what religion does for the world?” And yet the anger that we feel, and no doubt atheists and agnostics also feel, at such religions outrages, was also felt equally strongly by Jesus. This is a crucial point, so please reflect on it this month. If you read the gospels through, to what group did Jesus most direct his anger and disdain? To the religious authorities of course, the Scribes and Pharisees.

You see, Jesus made a clear separation between those who called themselves religious, who used the language of religion, who read the right books and prayed the right prayers, and yet whose hearts were hollow, cold and full of malice; and those on the other hand whom he saw as truly “Children of God” – the meek, the humble in heart, the loving and the forgiving. Jesus knew the evil that is potentially in every human heart, and he also knew that religious language and ritual can never paper over the true state of the human heart.
The truth will always out in the end.

I would love to write a longer article on this matter, but space prevents me here. All I will say is that the Gospels do not lie. They present a very clear presentation of the difference between a cold-hearted brutal type of religion and true, loving and open religious faith.

Whether it be on the mountains of Afghanistan, the streets of New York or Belfast, or even in the Churches of Kent, God keep us from the former, and lead us deeper into the latter. With every good wish in Christ, Simon Tillotson