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SEPT11-RELIGION Aug-30-2006 (710 words) With photos posted Aug. 29. xxxn
Religion called a powerful force for peace
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- While many view religion as "one of the chief bad guys" behind current conflicts, religions can be "incredible tools" for peace, said Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America.
"Religion is an important motivator," she said. "It is an important vocalizer of symbols, of language, of values, in ways that secular institutions find difficult to do. And that can be used for good or evil."
Cusimano Love was one of three panelists in a round-table discussion convened by Catholic News Service Aug. 21 to look at terrorism and war and peace issues five years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Also on the panel were Jesuit Father John Langan, a professor of Catholic social thought at Georgetown University, and Franciscan Father Louis V. Iasiello, president of Washington Theological Union, who recently retired as chief of Navy chaplains.
"There's one clearly recognized role (in the struggle against terrorism) that the Protestant and Catholic churches would have in the church community," Father Langan said. "And that would be to teach the intrinsic wrongness of terrorism and the immorality of using terrorist techniques and tactics."
He said it is then tempting to demand that Muslim leaders do the same.
"In fact that would in the long run be a very desirable conclusion for the Muslim community to reach," he said. "But in practice, it's become a kind of prior stipulation, and I think in that case unwise, because in effect it asks the Muslims to begin their contribution to things by a kind of internal break within the Muslim community, saying the first thing we want you to do is bring this highly critical message to your co-religionists, to get them to shape up."
He said there is a need to get back to what we have in common as humans "and to say all of our peoples have been perpetrators and victims of injustice in different times and different ways. And we need to agree on certain ground rules for how we go forward -- among which the rejection of terrorism has to be very important."
That approach comes at the issue in a different style, he said. "We want to get a way of showing forth and modeling forms of collaboration, respect, a clear priority for peace, that will speak to people in ways that the kind of technicalities introduced by lawyers and diplomats doesn't ordinarily speak to people. ... That's where religion will make its long-range contribution to working this out."
Father Iasiello called religion "a powerful critical dimension of statecraft."
"I mean we're in the business of building the kingdom of God," he explained. "You know, that's what it's all about. And that translates very easily into political categories and into not only political motivation but structures."
Theological discussion should "help frame what we do as political scientists or even as military theorists," he added. "I think it's an important dynamic that we can't ignore."
"We're schizophrenic in our approach to religion and politics," Cusimano Love said.
During the Cold War and long before that, international politics was regarded purely as power politics, with any reference to religion or morality viewed as simply "window dressing," she said. "And then post-9/11 you have this reawakening and concern over religion, and all these conflicts are caused by religion."
Calling the Israeli-Palestinian war a religious war addresses "one dimension" of it, she said. "But it's also a war over land and water, you know. So those things coexist, and understanding those things coexist helps you to look at the different layers and also helps you to understand what religious leaders can and can't do."
"Religious leaders can't necessarily solve all the political problems that these groups face, but they certainly can take responsibility for and realize the impact that their words, messages, symbols have to add fuel to the fire or not," she said.
"I think within all major religious traditions there are wonderful symbols, values, language and texts that can be used to pull society back from the brink, that counsel gospels of life and peace, that can be incredible tools mobilized for peace," she said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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