A Call to Alms

An opportunity sits before the leadership of the leading monotheistic religions

["The Works of Mercy”, David (the younger) Teniers (1640s, 57 x 77 cm, oil on copper, The Louvre). Found for this article in a “The Catholic Reader” blog post entitled “Spiritual Almsgiving by Saint Augustine”.]

Published: 2024-01-10

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Preface

Thank you to those of you who chose to read my quick dive into why I find science a sufficiently rich substitute for a "church". (Quick note: I use 'church' to abbreviate 'religious institution' although its obviously christian-centric.). The beauty of the nature of our best understanding of how the components of the Cosmos interact has such elegance and mystery within it that I feel filled with wonder and do not need an old story to provide this.

Moral Leadership

Religious institutions do good things. Their provision for the poor and care for the sick are laudable. They are NGO's not bound by political whim. Their economy is transnational, not tied to national trade relations. There are no military alliances with which to adhere. The "churches" have the freedom to choose how and on which issues to engage.

Religious doctrine proclaims that they provide a morality, which is usually transcribed from an ancient 'thought leader', a luminary on understanding how to live a fulfilling and moral life according to various tenets. All of the major monotheistic religious moralities contain within them the core understanding of 'do unto others as one would have done unto oneself' which can be simply re-expressed in the negative: "don't do nasty stuff". But, religious dogma is expressed in the affirmative. It's language positions itself as a guide.

Which brings us to the beef I have with the current leadership of the dominant monotheistic religions. Lets name them, to be clear: Christianity is represented by the Catholic and the various Protestant or Eastern/Orthodox churches, Islam is represented by the Shia and Sunni houses and Judaism by its orthodox and more liberal or secular elements.

The question is, what leadership has been shown in the face of an obvious genocide by the leadership of these churches? I do not read religious news, but assume that I would have heard about the Pope or some other major leader proclaiming that the genocide being conducted in Gaza by Israel's national armed forces at the express command of its political leadership is a moral outrage and that it needs to be opposed. Then, they would do something rather than just talk about it.

Giving

This event is a gift to church leadership. A situation in which they can seize their moral authority and lead.

The "How can we stop this" article was a lament that governments, hampered by various geoeconomic and political restraints, would not act to intervene. For I, like every other caring person on this planet, wanted this atrocity to be stopped for the benefit of all on both sides and outside of the conflict. Vengeance killings create vendettas and the cycle of violence can become multi-generational as 'the sins of the father are visited upon the sons'. Indeed, this was already the case, and was, nay is becoming alarmingly worse.

The hope was that, given that governments have shirked their responsibilities (with some exceptions[*]), people would take up the mantle. However, things like marching into Gaza armed with nothing but water and flour take organizing. There are plenty of logistics involved. Someone, or some collection of people needed to take the lead.

And there is the natural place for the moral authority of the churches to find itself.

Can you imagine a union of priests, rabbis, imams, monks and nuns walking into Gaza carrying water and flour to tend to the sick and wounded? WTF would Israel's political leadership do about that?!!

So where are they, these religious leaders? I’ve not even heard them protesting in language, let alone organizing or acting.

The only message which has come across my radar from religious leaders was from the Pope condemning an attack against some Christian building/institution/people. I thought church dogma was based on the idea that God loves us all, independent of whichever belief we have or do not. Thus, a religion's leadership is to care for all of God's creations.

Each religion promises its own version of the afterlife. One is in the presence of God and surrounded by its version of good things, like saints or angels or virgins. So, religious leaders should not be worried about dying. Attempting to save those stricken by a genocidal war should count very strongly in the saint or martyr column.

The land of Palestine/Israel is ancient for these religions and there are political considerations between the churches. To counter these what one needs is to have a coalition. Hence the rabbis and monks and priests etc.. I mean, how hard could it be? There are rabbis in Russia, priests in Peru, Imams in India, monks in Mongolia and nuns in Namibia.

From the absence of this coalition of religious leaders I detect an absence of moral leadership.

And so we are back to 'do unto others'. If you were a 13 year Palestinian whose parents had been murdered by US munitions and had to care for a 5 and 7 year old, would you like some help from members of these religious houses?

So far as I can see, the logistics aren't that hard either.

If you are a caring person who is a member of a religion it seems likely that you too would be frustrated by this lack of leadership. Please, if you also see this lack, petition your local synagogue, mosque or church to support an effort like this to help us all.

Footnotes

[*] The exceptions are: Anṣār Allāh [Houti] in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Republic of South Africa (RSA).

RSA is now being supported by other nations in their submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). RSA deserve praise for their adherence to the Genocide Convention. Equal praise is to be given to the first round of supporters, for they lead the way for wider support. So, also well done Malaysia, Bolivia, Türkiye and Jordan.

The ICJ have decided to act swiftly and publicly, for which they themselves deserve praise. The proceedings of the court will dominate news from mid Thursday (2024-01-11) Eastern US time for several days.

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Sources

Proceedings instituted by South Africa against the State of Israel on 29 December 2023, International Criminal Court, 2024-01-03

Despite denials, world becoming more convinced genocide is underway in Gaza, John Bachtell, People's World, 2024-01-09

Stakes high as South Africa brings claim of genocidal intent against Israel, Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, 2024-01-04

Spiritual Almsgiving by Saint Augustine, The Catholic Reader (a blogspot site), 2013-06-27

• the lead graphic was inspired by this article

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