Archbishop of Sydney

Religion Today

By + George Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
8 December 2002

There would be many different answers to these questions, but most Australians are not anti-religious. Fewer people today than 100 years ago would see religion in general, and Christianity in particular, as opposed to science, freedom and progress. Perhaps a larger group would see religions as causing wars and give Northern Ireland and Moslem fundamentalism as examples.

Most wars do not have religious causes, but the claim that wars and religion are connected does highlight two important truths, which many Australians are tempted to reject.

Religions often differ from one another on basic issues. The great religions are not merely pale reflections, slightly different versions of one single truth, all heading in the same direction. They differ a lot, although all religions are examples of the human striving for meaning in the face of evil, suffering and death.

The second truth we are tempted to ignore is that religious ideas are powerful, able to cause great good or to provoke great harm when they are mistaken. Bad religion can be dangerous. People continue to die for good religious causes and more Christians were martyred, killed for their faith, in the twentieth century than in any other century. But bad religion can produce dangerous fanatics willing to kill themselves and others. Some at least of the suicide bombers were religious and the suicides at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978 are another example.

Are strongly orthodox believers of any tradition usually examples of bad and dangerous religion because they will be intolerant of others? Do most of those who believe they have discovered the truths about life also believe that everyone else is wrong, have no right to their mistaken beliefs and should be coerced into accepting the truth?

This only has to be stated for us to recognise that the logic is mistaken. Australian Christians cheerfully acknowledge that other believers and non-believers have a right to their views (provided they are not damaging to public safety) and we should never underestimate what nearly everyone shares together on moral issues (the importance of love, justice, truth, family) and even on issues of faith. Christians, Jews and Moslems all worship the one true God.

War leaders often try to enlist religion to their cause but only a minority of war-criminal leaders are genuinely religious. The great criminals of the twentieth century, Stalin and Hitler, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot were fanatically anti-God and anti-religious. Christians do not have to be pacifists, who refuse to go to war in any circumstances, but Christians value peace, echoing Christ's beatitude "Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called sons of God".

Some will be supporters of religion because religions help produce social equilibrium and stabilise the psyches of many individuals. In other words religions are useful as the idea of Father Christmas or the tooth fairy is useful.

For me that is not enough. To my mind the crucial issues about any religion are its claims to truth on God and on morality. Are the central claims true or false?

If Christ spoke the truth, the way forward is to follow His teaching, not abandon parts of it as too tough and old fashioned.