That's how it works if you're a resident in New Square, New York. The Hasidic Jewish community recently had some squabbles over who worshipped where. The local Rabbi, David Twersky, was upset when some people tried to worship outside of his synagogue. Therefore, he made an edict that no one could pray outside of it. One resident, Aron Rottenberg, set up an alternate prayer group in a nursing home and, as a result, the town launched a series of verbal & emotional assaults on Rottenberg & his family. He found his daughter's school desk & books dumped on his front lawn; the windows in his home & car smashed &, in a moment of particular solidarity, 50 men outside of his home chanting "Aron Rottenberg, leave the neighborhood." The last, most damaging attack came from Shaul Spitzer, a man who lived with the rabbi. Spitzer took the edict as lisence to incinerate Rottenberg's house... along with half of the man's body.
This underlies my problem with humans who believe they (or others) have supernatural authority. If Shaul Spitzer believed that the rabbi had made the edict because he was speaking entirely on his own behalf, Spitzer likely wouldn't have taken "stay in my clubhouse" to mean "burn a man's house down." As it happens, Spitzer believed that Twersky is unique among others in his proximity to God. To you & me, it's readily apparent exactly how this command didn't have any divine roots; that it's clearly a self-centered person abusing his power & influence. But to Shaul -- & any other person in a similar situation -- when you're under the religious rule of such people, there's no way for you to tell the difference. In fact, you're often told not to.
I won't pretend that religion doesn't lead people to do many, many beautiful things. But it also inspires so much terror & destruction. What makes my stomach turn the most is that it comes from the sincere belief that you're serving God, the greatest, most loving force in the universe. Clearly, it's not religion per se; but the disposition religion often requires, when used in the wrong direction can have devastating effects. If we got over complete trust in flawed texts written & interpreted by flawed people, I'm sure we'd see a severe drop in the frequency & most certainly the vigor with which people commit such heinous crimes.
While faith makes all kinds of claims on what is objectively true, there's little you can say definitely about faith as right or wrong, but I will say this: If these are the fruits of your faith, you have the wrong faith.
Inshmomo [MdG]
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