Insight on the News
‘Religion a Threat to Life’
“Should it not be realized,” writes C. L. Sulzberger in the International Herald Tribune, “that in addition to other causes—imperialism, racism, militarism—religion has developed into a persistently greater threat to human life?” Pointing to the armed conflicts in the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Vietnam, he continues: “Religion is sacred and therefore but gingerly touched upon in political discussion. But mankind can never forget the Nazi Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, the sectarian Buddhist wars, the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ Catholic-Protestant war of the 17th century, whose last battles continue today in Ulster.” Noting the close ties between religion and politics in many lands that allow for much bloodshed, Sulzberger adds: “Various godless Communist and Socialist parties have shown themselves less bitterly quarrelsome in their sectarianism.”
The problem lies, not with true religion, but with those of whom God says “[they] honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me.” (Mark 7:6) Rather than allowing religious differences to cause one wantonly to slay others, the Bible’s advice is to “pursue peace with all people.”—Hebrews 12:14.
What should one do when deliberately provoked? “Return evil for evil to no one. . . . If possible, as far as it depends upon you, be peaceable with all men,” advises God’s Word. And rather than retaliating by taking matters into one’s own hands, it continues, “do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath; for it is written: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Jehovah.’” (Romans 12:17-19) True Christians, then, look to God through his kingdom to right all injustices, confident in his power to do so. No ‘threat to life,’ theirs is a stand of strict neutrality in worldly conflicts.
“Sloppy Agape”
“What has gone wrong?” asks John A. Howard, president of The Rockford Institute, when discussing the alarming increase in crime. “When I tell my children that while I was growing up, we didn’t lock the front door day or night, nor did we lock the car when we parked in Chicago, and we didn’t need to, they find it hard to picture such a time. The change in just one generation is awesome.” Citing the failure of religion as a major cause for the drastic increase in crime, he continues: “The churches and synagogues . . . used to help the young understand that there is a difference between right and wrong. . . . But many of the clergy seem to have backed away from the Ten Commandments and preach from the pulpit what a friend calls ‘sloppy agape [Greek word for love, rhymes with sloppy],’ an undefined sort of general good will, with all the sharp corners of specific requirements and sacrifices rounded off to fit just about everyone.”
That this has happened should not come as a surprise, for the Bible foretold that there would come the time “when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth.”—2 Timothy 4:3, 4.
Not Murder?
“The man who stabbed a pregnant 29-year-old woman—killing her unborn baby—will not be charged with murder when he is arrested,” states the New York Post. Why not? Because “state law—designed to protect doctors who perform abortions from being charged with murder—says that the death of a fetus younger than 6 months old is not a homicide, even if its vital organs and limbs are fully formed,” answers the Post. And so her assailant, who ignored her pleas not to hurt her since she was pregnant, will be charged only with the rape and stabbing of the mother.
How far, indeed, men’s laws have strayed from God’s law! The Bible stated that if a man caused a “fatal accident” to occur to the fetus of a woman, “then you must give soul for soul.” God’s Word assures us that shortly now true justice will be carried out, and there will be a proper regard for all human life when His will takes place on earth.—Exodus 21:22, 23; Matthew 6:10.