“Remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as sacred in the eye of Almighty God as is your own”
William Gladstone (1879)
142 years after William Gladstone's quote, Afghanistan is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. It makes a sad contrast with the international gathering at the Olympics to see such hate and violence breaking out all over this war-torn country.
But can blame really be laid at the Americans’ door? It's been twenty years this September since the awful Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington; there has to come a time for them to say ‘enough is enough’.
So this week we consider why religion so often gives way to fanaticism, and how a better understanding of human conscience might help us reach reconciliation.
Looking back in history, it's easy to see that religious violence has not been the sole preserve of the Muslim faith. Followers of Christianity have fomented terrible violence, both between themselves and against others over the centuries. And this in a faith whose leader said clearly “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven”.
The journey between organised religion and coming to judgement on others is short and, as with all organised structures, it becomes dangerous when authoritarian intermediation sets in.
We've commented often on the challenge of intermediation, a process which is almost taken for granted by political and religious leaders. It cuts right across the freedom of the individual, and the task of staying benevolent, towards both one’s own and others, is hard.
So the first challenge is to hold a presumption in favour of disintermediation, and that needs to be consciously respected.
Then there's the rush to judgement, of which we can all be guilty. ‘Judge not, that you be not judged’ is another well-known saying from the Good Book - but having been a member of the General Synod of the Church of England for the past 26 years, I can vouch for the fact that this simple instruction is not often followed.
Reconciliation between people means respecting their differences - genuine differences, both of opinion and conduct. Respect for others, whoever they are and whatever their views, does not mean trying to impose conformity.
The key to reasonable co-existence means coming to terms with our own sense of morality and using it to challenge our own sense of self-righteousness.
One of the most powerful examples of this is in the gospel story of a woman brought before Jesus who was caught in adultery and, in particular, his reaction to her accusers. It forms the heart of a programme I recorded last winter called ‘Love at the Cutting Edge’.
Is it possible to open conversations such as these with people whose passion for judgement is so strong? The experience of people like John McCarthy and the Archbishop’s envoy Terry Waite (held in captivity in Lebanon from 1987 to 1991) tells us that it is not, and the current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby can speak of his own direct experience of the immense challenge of seeking reconciliation.
But reconciliation must be pursued in the interest of finding a level of human existence more at peace with itself.
Middle Eastern politics do not lend themselves easily to such reconciliation, as Lawrence of Arabia understood when he argued against national borders in the region, 100 years ago.
One could be forgiven for assuming that there must be some linkage between the Taliban and Iran in their mutual dislike of America: but the Sunni-Shi’ite split is deep, as the Washington Institute made clear in its July analysis.
There is no doubt, however, that the highly-charged situation could get much more complex as the US steps up its aerial bombardment, in defence of the Kabul government.
This is indeed a dangerous situation in which war has been tried and has failed over and over again. The human race really must learn to respect others, and their differences, and find reconciliation through dialogue.
Gavin Oldham OBE
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