Religion
Introduction
It’s common to hear vehement talk of religion being the perpetrator or instigator of oppression in society at large. By secularists and humanists it is considered dangerous. For example, Richard Dawkins says:
Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where’s the harm? 9/11 changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism.
The importance of understanding the issue
When Daniel and his colleagues were taken to Babylon as captives, they faced a clash of civilisations. The Jewish way of life was incompatible with the ways of the Babylonians. Daniel’s challenge was to maintain his integrity in a foreign culture where religion shaped the society in a completely different way to the way it did in Judah. Refusing to worship the king as a god, and being sentenced to death for praying to his God in his accustomed fashion would have cost him his life, had not God supernaturally intervened.
As in the days of Daniel
We live in days when we’ll have to face the same issues Daniel faced, albeit in different forms. Knowing what the issues are for us today is a step towards standing firm and being confident that religion will always be the enemy of the prophetic church and the enemy of God, who will not conform to our image of him.
Religion in International Relations
In International Relations debates, until recently, religion has been privatised, largely because the discipline of IR was practised from the outset to end the Wars of Religion which ravaged Europe for centuries. Modern international law was conceived on the basis that theologians should keep silent about matters outside their province, meaning that international politics would be examined from a secular rather than a theological standpoint.
Religion is back in IR
However, today we don’t have to look far to realise that religion is back in world politics! IR theory has to face the problem of dealing with religion as an important factor in the equation, and it has to recognise that religion has the potential to revolutionise IR theory. The challenge is nothing short of that posed by the end of the Cold War or the increase in globalisation.
IR theory and religion
Up until now, IR theory hasn’t developed a good theoretical understanding of religion in general and the recent resurgence of religions in particular. A framework needs to be developed for this understanding, bearing in mind that the West embraces religion as a voluntary, private thing, whereas in developing countries religion strongly shapes the whole of society.
Visit by Canon Andrew White
On Wednesday 27th October we had the pleasure listening to Canon Andrew White share the story of his own journey with God as well as the work he now does in Baghdad.
The event was extremely well attended by a number of local churches and response to the event has been overwhelmingly positive. Numerous copies of Andrew's talk have been ordered and those in attendance gave generously to support Andrew's work.
Andrew began by sharing the story of his own journey from his early passion for medicine to his time at St Thomas' Hospital in London. He shared about his move to work at Coventry Cathedral and finally to Baghdad where he currently leads St George's Church.
St George's is located just outside the Green Zone in Baghdad and has a growing congregation of over 4,000. The Alpha courses at the church attract over 2,500 people and Andrew recounted remarkable stories of children being raised from the dead, numerous miraculous healings, and frequent angelic visitations. Andrew affectionately refers to this church as his 'other family'.
Andrew has been working in Baghdad since 1998 and shared with us his thoughts concerning Iraq's eschatological significance in connection with Israel and Egypt (See Isaiah 19). He shared openly the difficulties facing Christians in Iraq where in the last year 93 of his congregation have been killed. Of the 13 people he has baptised in the last year 11 have been killed the following week.
Despite this, Andrew commented that 'Not once have I thought "I don't want to be here." I do! I love it here!' He relayed remarkable stories of God's supernatural provision and communicated to us an unshakable confidence in God. He poignantly referred to the 'perfect love' he felt he had received from his congregation and from his Lord and credits this with his complete lack of fear in the face of great danger.
Andrew's visit was certainly significant in that he drew our attention again to what God is doing at this time in the Middle East and how the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached despite considerable difficulties.
Andrew is clearly a man doing God's work and has made himself completely available to the will of God. Toward the beginning of the evening he told the story of how one evening, whilst working on the cardiac arrest team at St Thomas', he stepped outside to pray. His prayer that night was simple, it was "what next Lord?" It's that willingness to serve the Lord wholeheartedly that marks Andrew out as a true disciple of Jesus.
today we don’t have to look far to realise that religion is back in world politics! IR theory has to face the problem of dealing with religion as an important factor in the equation, and it has to recognise that religion has the potential to revolutionise IR theory. The challenge is nothing short of that posed by the end of the Cold War or the increase in globalisation