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SEPTEMBER 7 - (^13 2019) NO
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scholar Karenuhammad
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‘bad religihreats from
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on the biaoatard sshines
being barking mad.
Peter Dornauf
(Hamilton)
“Gods & monsters” reminded
me of the importance, or lack
thereof, of learning about reli-
gion. When I was at boarding
school in Nelson, on Sundays
we would dress in our best and
walk down to the cathedral,
where we would sit through
a service while admiring the
boarders from the city’s girls’
college. The combined colleges
made up about 90% of the
congregation.
Imagine my surprise when
we were told one Saturday
that there would be no church
for us the next day because
the Governor-General would
be there and there wouldn’t
be room for us. The hidden
agenda seemed to be that
the local glitterati wished to
be seen at church. At that
moment I knew the whole
thing was a ruse and I have
avoided attending ever since.
Geoffrey Horne
(Roseneath, Wellington)
STOKING FEARS
The September 7 Editorial is
both stirring and foreboding. It
is also very dangerous.
It evokes all the fears and
assurances of a bygone era
with little recognition of how
greatly the world has changed
in the past 80 years.
God bother
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Karen Armstrong’s insights
(“Gods & Monsters”, Septem-
ber 7) into the rise – indeed
the resurgence – of fundamen-
talism are not only timely but,
for me, bring back memories
of similar observations some
30 years ago.
English theologian Leslie
Weatherhead writes in his 1965
autobiography The Christian
Agnostic of, effectively, his need
to put aside religion in order to
find faith. He shares an ancient
Hebrew legend about the flute
Moses the shepherd used to
play. As the years following
Moses’ death passed, this simple
wooden pipe was treasured and
revered – a relic to be adored.
But its simple structure seemed
too plain. Artisans from around
the region were commissioned
to overlay it with gold, silver
and mother-of-pearl. The result
was unquestionably a relic
worthy of their adoration.
Unfortunately, it could no
longer play a note.
In the past year, we have
observed Donald Trump
stirring nationalistic fervour,
loudly encouraged by the
fundamentalist Christian right
who conveniently ignore
great tracts of Christian moral
guidance against which Trump
has enthusiastically and
proudly transgressed. In the
past week, Boris Johnson has
pursued a similar nationalistic
line, accusing even those in
his own Government who do
not support him of betraying
their party’s principles, if not
their country. Thank god – of
whichever breed you may
choose to follow – that there
are those in his Government
who are vocal in their commit-
ment to putting their values
ahead of political expediency.
Again, we face the risk of polit-
ical accretion so overlaying the
core purpose of the instrument
that its music may no longer
be able to be heard.
Max Reid
(Mornington, Dunedin)
In acknowledging the left-
and right-brain processing
of matters of religion, Karen
Armstrong hovers over the
dilemma that is the cause for
most religious misunderstand-
ing and confusion.
Many religions are not about
coming to know a living and
personal god and become
weighed down with doctrine,
dogma, rules and regulations
that often create much division
and conflict. Intellectualis-
ing religion is a product of
left-brain thinking, often
neglecting the spiritual aspect,
which is right-brain prominent.
There is hope in what
Amstrong has written and
further dialogue may help
bridge divisions. To break from
tribalism would be miraculous,
however.
Gary Parker
(Rotorua)
Karen Armstrong is your
bog-standard liberal religious
apologist whose stock line is
to blame all the fundamental-
ists out there and their bad
religion for distorting the
precious truths of worthy and
respectable faiths. And if these
bad fundamentalists, who
appeared on the scene just
yesterday, could only return to
the true, non-literal and mysti-
cal brand of spirituality to
which she adheres, and claims
existed for centuries, all would
be sweetness and light.
Apart from being pure
romantic twaddle, this is a
desperate ploy involving a
rewrite of history to save eve-
ryone’s (especially the liberals’)
religious blushes. The reality
is, most were card-carrying
fundamentalists back then –
Jesus, Dante, Martin Luther,
even Charles Darwin – before
it became embarrassing to be
so (if you were a scientist or
scholar), somewhere around
the mid-19th century.
Fundamentalists, it must
be remembered, are basically
literalists of things attested to
in the creeds, themselves ages
old.
And spraying exegetical air-
freshener over the sacred text
won’t get rid of the smell of
racism, sexism, homophobia,
promotion of violence and
practice of slavery along with
all the silly stuff like walking
on water and rising from the
dead, unless the makeover
paint’s an inch thick.
For the more sceptically
minded, it’s a plague on
both your houses; liberals for
their disingenuousness and
fundamentalists for simply
Letter of the week
The letter
of the week
winner will
receive a guide
to recording
family history
plus a block
of Whittaker’s
Honey Bubble
Crunch.
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