Violence is everywhere. There are constantly wars, battles, arguments, and fights. It seems that anything can be a cause of violence, even religion. But is that really true? Today we’re going to analyze and respond to the statement by Sam Harris: “Religion is as much a living spring of violence today as it was any time in the past”.
What Sam is saying here is that Christianity, or any religion, is a source for violence. He's saying that it always has been and it always will be. This statement is fairly straight forward, and it has pretty easy answer too. Religion is not the source of violence, we are.
Ever since we let sin into the world in the garden of Eden, we have been broken and sinful. Satan doesn't just want you to break the ten commandments, he is happy causing any trouble. He loves to stir up anger and hate. Deep within us we have a battle cry woven into our hearts. People will choose anything and everything to fight about! It’s the same way with our faith. The Human mind, instead of reasoning or calmly discussing the topics of religion, finds it so easy to let that battle-cry leap from our hearts and to take control. Weather it is politics, religion, sports, or even who gets the last candy from the jar, we are the source of anger. Look at this example:
let us say that there are two children fighting over who presses the buttons on the elevator. They are screaming and hitting and crying... At this point they are acting like cave men. Should a mother blame the elevator, or the designer of the elevator, for her children fighting? Should she yell at the buttons saying “Look what you've done!”?, Of course not, she needs to discipline her children and teach them not to fight.
It’s the same way with people who fight over their faith. Don't blame the religion when it is the broken people following it that are causing trouble. Don't blame religion for violence when literally everything can be a spring of violence.
Now, throughout history we see groups of people, especially in early America, who pillaged the villages and murder the people in the name of Christianity. While the twisted minds of these false missionaries might think otherwise, the gospel gives Christians no right to act this way. Those people just warped the truth of the gospel to justify their sinful behavior. These were sinful broken people, choosing one more thing to be an excuse for violence.
So in closing, the idea that religion, especially Christianity, is a source of violence, is false. It was Jesus who taught us to turn the other cheek. If you’re looking for a source of violence, look inwards. Look at the media and pastimes created by our culture. Now consider how we could possibly fix a problem that we all cause every day. The solution is not us, the broken people who promote violence, but our almighty creator. Our God who is slow to anger, and fast to mercy.
In closing, let’s look at Proverbs 3:31 “Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways,”.