Coercion, persuasion, conversion and faith

Lent 2020 - Day 40 - Palm Sunday

To quote from Blackadder: "Sir Thomas Moore, burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism, must have been kicking himself as the flames licked higher, that it never occurred to him to say, 'I recant my Catholicism'."

I certainly wouldn't give up my life on a point of theology. Only God can see into my soul; my consciousness is judged by the Infinite Universe, my true faith known only to myself. The dialogue between myself and my God is a phenomenon of purest subjective experience.

So many people have been slain for religion over the centuries, for not publicly recanting their beliefs. Adherence to one creed or other has at certain points in history been exceptionally dangerous. Unlike wars fought between nation states, where your language determines the side you fight for, religious wars defined by dogmatic difference are subtly invidious - who is friend and who is foe?

The Crusades are a rare example of an explicit religious war between two separate religions; more usually, its wars between denominations of religions. To this day, Sunnis are blasting Shi'ites and Shi'ites are blowing up Sunnis because one lot believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib is Mohammed's successor while the other lot are convinced that it's Abu Bakr.

The Thirty Years' War claimed the lives of some eight million Europeans, including some 30% of the population of Germany, along the front line of the religious battles between Reformation and counter-reformation. Prior to the Reformation, Europe was Christian, beholden to the one Pope, with the exception of Jewish communities here and there. Martin Luther published his 95 Theses in 1517, and thanks to the power of the printing press, his ideas had spread across Europe in two years.

Christian communities found themselves split on theological grounds - those who supported the Reformation, and those who remained loyal to the Pope. Religious wars (of which the Thirty Years' War was the culmination) raged from the 16th to the 18th century. What divided people were matters of dogma, of creed. Was the Holy Eucharist the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ - or did it merely represent them? Did Jesus have any brothers and sisters? Was the Pope infallible? Millions of human lives were prematurely terminated because of perceived heresies.

But what was really at stake? Was this about temporal power, or about the Divine mystery? God cannot be reduced to words, any more than a cat's miaowing can express the truth about its condition. Humans creating dogma, using tightly defined language, like a lawyer, can never define the metaphysical. Dogmas achieve nothing more than segregating true believers from heretics or unbelievers; and thus conflict between 'us' and 'them', leading religions and religion-based societies into conflicts and barbaric behaviour - torture, persecution, death and war.

Today in the 21st century, we can see that converting heathens to Christianity at the point of the sword was wrong. It was not the way that the Jesus Christ portrayed in the Gospels would have behaved.

Attempting to change a person's view of the Divine, one has to ask - why? In most cases, it is about social control, about the creation of a cult around a leader; it is the biology inherent in the ladder of authority. Stand up to bullies who threaten your livelihood, your peace, your physical freedoms, your right to vote - but then it comes to matters of religious doctrine - the spiritual realm is exclusively a matter between you and your Maker.


This time last year:
My father at 96

This time two years ago
My father at 95

This time three years ago:
Happy 94th to my father...

This time six years ago:
Happy 91st to my father!

This time seven years ago: 
My father at 90

This time eight years ago:
An independent Scotland - what if?

This time nine years ago:
Królikarnia

This time 12 years ago:
Happy 85th to my father!