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A Scary World?

27/7/2017

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PictureRobot Erica
July is considered the holiday month in Scotland even though we have more rainy days than sunny ones. This week we had a really warm day and I went walking with a friend to a little village called Kilcreggan on the Firth of Clyde. All seemed perfect – blue skies, clear water, sailing boats, the occasional small fishing boat, rolling hills to the right and left. It was a perfect day. That is until a dark menacing shape made its way slowly up the river accompanied by a number of small tugs.  It was making its way to Faslane, the Naval Base which houses Britain’s nuclear arsenal, possibly having come from Coulport, the Armaments Depot eight miles away, where the key elements of the Trident Deterrent Missile System are stored, maintained and issued. The dark menacing shape was one of the four Vanguard Submarines, described as “hunter-killers” and they live in this quiet, beautiful, peaceful part of the world.  They are a regular sight on the River Clyde but no less threatening because of that. They are a constant reminder that peace in our world is an uneasy peace. The missiles they carry are called deterrents because their very existence is meant to deter any other country from using their nuclear arsenal. For one country to launch nuclear weapons is as likely to bring about its own destruction as it is the destruction of its enemy.  We don’t like having them in our country. The Scottish Government doesn’t want them, people constantly protest against them but we are powerless against these suicidal and killing machines which are so costly in renewing and maintaining.
 
I’ve not been able to get the image of the submarine which so disrupted the peace of the day out of my mind. If God is in all things, where is God in this?  If all things are connected (as I believe they are) then I have a connection with those who support nuclear weapons and maintain them, no doubt believing they are contributing to world peace. What does it mean to be a peacemaker in the light of the arms trade and nuclear weapons? Is it enough for me to work toward peaceful co-existence with my neighbour?  Does trying to generate non-violent and engaged encounters with others contribute to the overall peace in our world? I have often told myself yes, believing that the way to peace is peace, as Tich Nhat Hanh would say. I’ve liked the image of the iceberg, believing that to influence the culture around me will have an impact on lessening problems that in themselves are too big to tackle. But now I wonder. So much of our lives are dominated by government decisions that it’s hard to know how free we are to carve a society that we consider healthy, inclusive, open to the well-being of all, ready to live in good relations with others.
 
It’s not just because of the submarine that these questions are in my mind. I’ve just been reading Yuval Noah Harari’s book ‘Sapiens’. It’s a good and interesting read and gives an account of how our species ‘Homo Sapiens’ came to dominate over other human species, how we have evolved through a series of revolutions and are continuing to evolve through what he calls the scientific revolution. It’s what we might become in the future that’s challenging and more than a bit scary. I’ve heard before that scientists are talking about trans-humans but didn’t really know what it meant. While Harari outlines experiments which show scientists trying to replicate the human brain in a computer, substituting DNAs so that we might have the first mammoth born in five million years and a Neanderthal baby it’s the idea of robots which I find unnerving.
 
 Harari has a sequel in which he puts forward ideas of what the future might be for homo sapiens. I’ve not yet read it but I’ve just watched a television programme about robots. There are at present nine million robots in the world and this is increasing. Many of them work in factories on production lines for cars and other goods. But many of them are being designed to replicate human beings. The most human of these robots is called Erica. She looks human, she can engage in conversation, her encounters with others build up experiences that allow her conversation to be more spontaneous and real. It raises the whole question of what it means to be human and what it means to be a robot. The programme even talks of robots being another species. This is the stuff of science fiction come true. Scientists and engineers are mechanically replicating the way the human body works so that mechanical anatomy mirrors biological anatomy.  At present the robots are subject to human control though liberating them from this was mentioned. This programme was the first in a series so no doubt there will be more disturbing information before the end of the series.
 
While I find some of these developments scary and unnerving I’m also fascinated by them and find them really challenging. Where does religion fit into it all?  Where is God in it all?  Erica, the most human of the robots, said that robots would become what humans wanted them to become. Will robots enhance life or threaten our survival? As human beings we have made rather a bad show of living well together. Will it be possible for us to influence the future and growth of robots in a positive way?  If we are to do so we need a conversion of heart and need it now or we will make as big a mess of the future as we have of the present.  

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The Benedict Option

14/7/2017

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​Scotland is a beautiful country.  With its loch and rolling hills, its mountains and glens it can look quite idyllic. Visitors often think that if only they could live in such a beautiful place it would bring peace and contentment. There’s even a television programme called ‘Escape to the Country’. How often have we thought, have I thought  that all would be well if only I could escape from it all – the politics, the tensions, the rush, the humdrum, the struggle, even though these are to be found in the countryside - and sometimes more so than in cities? 

This sense of opting out is being discussed at the moment in an idea called ‘The Benedict Option’. When I first heard the term I thought it referred to Pope Benedict and was some kind of traditional Catholic group who were not too enamoured of Pope Francis’ approach and wanted to turn the clock back to a seemingly more traditional pontificate. But no, the Benedict in the Benedict Option is actually St Benedict, the father of monasticism.  The idea is put forward in a book of that name, written by Rod Dreher, an American Eastern Orthodox Christian.  It’s considered by some to be the most- talked about book of 2017 – at least among religious conservatives. I’ve not actually read the book but reviews and commentaries suggest the idea is that if Christianity is to renew itself and contribute to the transformation of society Christians should withdraw from public and political involvement to concentrate on living a deeply spiritual and focused religious life.  In this they are following in the tradition of monastics who separated themselves from the world to concentrate on living the Christian gospel more radically than was possible if they were involved in so called worldly matters.

This desire to live a religious life more fully and completely is found in nearly all the major world religions. Hinduism has its saddhus, Buddhism its monks and nuns, Islam its Sufi brotherhoods, Christianity its monastics, both men and women. All of these religions have their saints who have refused to conform to the expectations of the society in which they lived and opted out to concentrate fully on their love for God and neighbour. This was often difficult for women whose position in society was restricted by the patriarchal context in which they lived. There are many stories of women saints in all of these religions who refused marriage to commit themselves fully to prayer, often at the cost of being rejected by their families or thought of as mad. There’s no doubt that this kind of life is a genuine calling for some and often monasteries, ashrams, holy men and women attract  others who seek them out for spiritual counselling and guidance. But it’s not for everyone.  

Dreher is not advocating this kind of physical withdrawal.  Rather it’s a psychological withdrawal that does not engage politically, nor get caught up in the current mores of a society that is immoral and materialistic. He wants Christians to be truly counter –cultural.  There’s a lot to be said for this though it could be debated what that actually means.  I can’t think of any religious person who would not applaud or agree that society would benefit from believers who are true to the best in their faiths and who live a life of love and service. Society would certainly benefit if believers countered the greed and materialism of the age by living a life of simplicity with a concern for justice and equality.  Society would surely benefit if believers were open to the wisdom and goodness in others and took positive steps towards reconciliation and peacemaking. What I don’t like is the idea of withdrawing from political and social engagement – suggesting the world is bad, that ‘we’ are good, that this is the only way to live out the Christian life today. It smacks too much of dualism for my liking. This sense of dividing the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’ suggests the kind of superiority that in the past has led to division and even violence.  It suggests the world is bad and religion/ spirituality is good as though God is not to be found in all things. It speaks of fear and suspicion, rather than love and hope.
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It’s Dreher’s sense of withdrawal that has caused some controversy and debate. His call for Christian communities to renew themselves and deepen their prayer and spirituality is a good and challenging one.  Christians, like other believers, need their centres, parishes, communities  where their faith can be nourished and sustained, where they can reflect on the meaning of the Gospel and be energised to put it into practice in a world which is becoming increasingly secular but is not necessarily bad because of that.  It’s important I think that believers dialogue with the society in which they live. We cannot separate ourselves from our culture.  We need to engage with it in humility and show the true nature of a religion that in the past has been so identified with oppression and conformity but can be so transformative when lived out in love, compassion and service.

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Two Saint Josaphats

5/7/2017

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Last week a bit of Catholic news caught my eye. On 25th June Pope Francis remembered in his weekly Angelus prayer the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church who were celebrating the 150th anniversary of the canonization of St Josaphat.  Why it caught my eye was because the St Josaphat I knew about was Buddhist!

A little bit of research on the web soon showed more than one St Josaphat. The one being honoured in Ukraine was a 16th cy. monk, a bishop who was martyred by members of his own Church because of his desire and commitment to Christian unity. He lived at a time of great enmity between the eastern and western churches but even as a young monk he worked for the unity between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church without in any way compromising the Eastern Catholic Church’s own traditions.  Like many other great people whose commitment to a cause is too much of a challenge to others he was persecuted and finally killed. Again like other great people he was ready to die for his truth “You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, and in the marketplace. I am here among you as a shepherd, and you ought to know that I would be happy to give my life for you”.

“Happy to give my life for you” - in this Josaphat stands in a long line of martyrs and campaigners that reaches to our very day.  Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero immediately come to mind.  But today the word martyr is used for freedom fighters and suicide bombers whose commitment and willingness to die for a cause cannot be in doubt. What is doubtful in many people’s eyes is the validity of the cause – but not in theirs I presume.  Is it the cause that makes the martyr or simply the willingness to die for it? Is every cause worthy of such commitment, especially if it militates against religious freedom or respect for the other? Were Josaphat’s opponents in Ukraine afraid of losing their identity and their own customs? Some of them died defending them.  Is the answer not to seek martyrdom (something that could be sought for some kind of personal satisfaction or imagined glory) but to be true to a cause and a belief so that it goes against one’s integrity to deny or be deflected from it knowing that it could well lead to death. This was the dilemma of Thomas More who struggled with the idea that he might be choosing to be a martyr for some kind of personal glory rather than a refusal to compromise his beliefs. Thomas More’s life was not very saintly but he’s recognised as a saint because he was faithful to the integrity of his beliefs.  And yet in Shusako Endo’s book ‘Silence’ was the Jesuit Rodrigues right to deny his faith and save not only his own life but that of other Christians?  All religions have their saints and martyrs, honoured because they are seen to defend a truth central to that faith. They are brave and courageous and many of us, maybe most of us, know that we would not be able to live up to that ideal. However we can admire it and be challenged by the questions it poses.

The second St Josaphat is a different kind of figure. In fact he has no reality at all. Along with St Balaam he is a legendary figure who was popular in the Middle Ages. He was recognised as a martyr and people honoured him as such for over a thousand years. But scholars tell us that the story of his life is in fact a Christianised version of one of the legends of the Buddha. The name Josaphat itself is derived from the Arabic Yūdhasaf or Būdhasaf which is derived from the Sanskrit  Boddhisattva. It’s rather amusing really. Here we have a saint honoured as a Christian for centuries at a time when Christians believed that they alone had the truth and would probably have seen Buddhism as leading to perdition rather than salvation. Were they misguided?  Did it matter if people were inspired to honour a good person and encouraged to live a better life?  Is Yuval Harari right when he says that much of what we take for reality is in fact imagined and kept alive by the stories we tell?  
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Religion is a funny, mixed up kind of thing.  It likes to think of itself as pure and distinct but it’s good at appropriating aspects of another religion into its own belief system.  Hinduism, for example appropriated the Buddha by making him the ninth incarnation of the god Vishnu.  Hindus are happy to see Jesus as an incarnation of God though not the only one. Islam has done it by making Jesus one of the 4 major prophets of Islam – not seeing him as the Son of God the way Christians do – but nevertheless making a place for him in their system of faith.  Christianity appropriated many pagan practices and festivals and much of its worship practices and beliefs come from its parent faith, Judaism. Religions are as interrelated as everything else in our universe. If only religious people could realise this. What a difference it would make to the way we view our own faith never mind that of others.

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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