Religion and power make awkward bed-fellows. Speaking in
January 2015 on religious fundamentalism, Pope Francis suggested that violence
belies claims of religious validity. That is to say, actions speak louder than
words, and harming other people effectively renders a person’s claims of
religious motivation null and void. Unfortunately, the typical assumption that
people have that they cannot be wrong when it comes to their own religious
beliefs also operates when political ideology is the actual motivation. Such
pride, which I suspect is rooted in self-idolatry, stands as a wall preventing
such remarks from influencing potential culprits.
The full essay is at “Religion
and Violence.”
