Anytime you have anyone who thinks he or she has God in their pocket, you have the potential for disaster, ... Throughout history, the claim that God is on your side has been used to justify any action, no matter how violent or destructive. |
I believe religion is an extraordinarily powerful force that has inspired the noblest best and the worst. But now we're in a world where we have many different ways that a small number of people can wreak havoc. The danger has escalated to a totally different level. |
I don't know that it can be comparable. |
It's certainly perfectly understandable to feel very strongly about abortion and even to organize and protest and try to educate and change the laws or whatever, but that's a very different thing than shooting a doctor in a parking lot. |
Politics, Society & Religion under Islam, Christianity & Judaism, |
Religion should be a source for reconciliation, for tolerance and for empathy. |
The vast majority of Muslims all over the world are not violent extremists. There are also tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of Muslims who are very angry and frustrated and may be pulled in that direction more and more depending on what happens in various places. |
There are many parallels. In the United States, we recently had two different Supreme Court rulings concerning the posting of the Ten Commandments, ... The connections may not be as obvious as religious dimensions playing out in the drafting of the constitution in Iraq, but we can see many examples of difficulties in trying to draw the lines that separate religion and politics. |
There aren't as many easy themes or uniting themes that people who come from the left side of the political and religious spectrum all agree on the way we've seen some of the issues on the religious right that have been easier to rally people around. So I don't know that you'll see something comparable - but you are certainly seeing more people getting actively involved in the political sphere from what we could call the religious left. |
We need a lot by way of education because what we don't know and understand creates fear. |
When anybody believes that he or she somehow knows the mind of God and knows what God wants for them and for everybody else, then you have the potential for catastrophe because ... they can justify anything. It's not what I'm doing; it's what God wants me to do. |