I've been musing on this a lot in the past few days, and I'd like to know what people think here.
I’m still thinking this through, but I’ve seen a lot of "These people aren’t Christians!" arguments made about the killer of Dr. Tiller and his enablers. It’s comparable to the argument that Al Qaeda doesn’t accurately represent Islam. Both of these things are largely true.
But not completely true. I’m much more comfortable writing about Christianity, and I can say that based on my best readings of Jesus Christ’s teachings, violence of any kind is abhorrent, and a Christian morality would not endorse bloodshed of any kind. Gandhi and King managed to pull this off, the former learning from Christ without actually being a Christian.
That said, there are millions and millions of self-proclaimed Christians in the United States who have no problems with violent acts, ranging from the death penalty to the War in Iraq to this murder. Not to mention the Crusades and the Inquisition, but let’s not get into that. So are these people truly Christians? Does it matter? If they’re not, what are we supposed to call them?
It’s even more complicated with Muslims and Jews (I’m Jewish), where the doctrine of mercy is much less prominent, and there are clear religious endorsements for violence: after all, Mohammad was a successful military commander, and Moses is notable not only for having the calf-worshippers butchered in the desert, but disseminating law that calls for execution for all sorts of crimes.
So the point here, at least, is that while you can make an argument that true Christians are largely pacifists, the majority of people who call themselves "Christian" are not. And the majority of people who call themselves Muslims or Jews endorse violence in certain circumstances, and all three groups use either scriptural justifications or else generally cite their beliefs while endorsing violence.
And the question is this: Are someone’s religious beliefs subject to scrutiny and objection, or is this bigotry? While it’s clear that it’s bigoted to say that all people who believe Jesus is the son of God/Mohammad is the True Prophet etc. are bad people whose views are abhorrent, or anything of the sort, is it fair to say that someone who believes God endorses their decision to murder Dr. Tiller has an abhorrent faith? Or that Allah supports their campaign against American troops? Or that Palestinians must be cleansed to do the will of G-d?
Because fundamentally, it doesn’t matter if you think that these are improper readings of holy texts. These are often the authentically-held religious beliefs of people in this country (remind me to write about the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints sometime). And when is it acceptable to argue that the authentically-held religious beliefs of a person in a free society deserve wholesale condemnation?