The Battle for God

Close your eyes for a moment. Remember the scenes from 9/11. Remember the emotions - disbelief, fear, anger, a sense of vulnerability, bewilderment and the thirst for retribution and vengeance towards those "radicals" and "Islamic fundamentalists" who suddenly became front and centre news. Now think of the scenes from the news of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Palestinian suicide bombers - Jewish victims. Jewish retaliation - Palestinian victims. Now think of the Catholic/Protestant conflict in Ireland. The cycle goes on. Events such as these have suddenly thrust the whole issue of fundamentalism and fundamentalists, whether Islamic, Jewish or Christian into the forefront of our consciousness. Where did they come from? What do they want? Why do they resort to such violence? Can we ignore it? The answer to this is clearly we cannot. It is both too dangerous and too easy of a solution to simply dismiss these groups we call "fundamentalists". They will not go away and our world will not return to the way it was "in the good old days". Instead, we must prepare ourselves the best we can with the reality we are presented with, no matter how unappetizing it seems. I believe the most useful weapon we have at our disposal to accomplish this is that of UNDERSTANDING. For regardless of whether we dwell in hope or despair of building bridges or finding peace between us and "them", the only way to begin is by embracing the word UNDERSTANDING. According to the Websters dictionary - the word understanding has the meaning "to have a sympathetic awareness of the character or nature of; know how to deal with, be sympathetic to". Understanding will not be easy and to be truthful I'm not sure I want to understand as personally, fundamentalists scare me. However, we cannot stop trying because of our mistrust and fear. We have to take the next step - they are scary to us because they are scared themselves. In fact they are just AS scared as we are and AS uncertain of their place in this world that we all live in. A world that feels welcoming, sensible and rational to us is a world that is strange, alien, inhospitable and harsh to them. A world that gives us comfort and meaning has done the opposite for them - it has challenged and struck deep at the very heart of their traditions and belief systems - an eternal source of comfort, strength and hope. As Karen Armstrong states "sometimes, to prevent an escalation of conflict, we must try to understand the pain and perceptions of the other side." And this I believe is our primary task as we move forward into this book study. For I strongly believe that understanding is the first step towards finding solutions and that's the reason why I'm here and not at home watching CSI. Let us pray: Oh God, in the silence of whose presence the clamour of the world dies away, give peace to our hearts this day. For we are full of the unrest of our time and the quietness we once knew has left us. All about us is the loudness of discordant voices, seeming sometimes to shake the very earth. Inspire us in our quest for understanding and compassion. Give us sympathies too strong to tolerate injustice, a love too true to be lenient with wrongdoings; yet, let there be no malice in us, nor any bitterness or rancour; and may we blend with charity the blame we cast on others. Amen.

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