The Corruption of Religion: A Guest Post on Holocaust Denial, Genocide, and the Church

Below is a guest post by my friend Ilona, in response to the recent debacle over Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops --- most notably, Bishop Richard Williamson, who denies the mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers in the Nazi Holocaust.

Michael Gerson's piece in the Washington Post yesterday was one of the better pieces I have seen on the issue of Pope Benedict's rehabilitation of Holocaust denier Bishop Williamson. He speaks frankly about Christianity's "greatest scandal" of being complicit in acts of genocide and how the Vatican's move is a continuation of that. Gerson makes the point that "when religion is infected by racism, ideology or extreme nationalism, it can become a carrier of hatred instead of conscience. And when churches are concerned mainly with their institutional self-preservation, they often end up neck-deep in compromise or paralyzed by cowardice."

I strongly believe that, if you look at the core teachings and beliefs of most world religions, you will find that it only wishes to promote peace, love, and justice [I swear I'm not a hippie]. So, it saddens me to no end when religion becomes corrupted by its followers in order to spread hatred and justify violence, as was the case in Rwanda. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church has a long history of this and I cannot fully understand how they can allow this continue in the age of modern genocide. With Darfur (and other atrocities) happening right under our noses, now is when we cannot possibly ignore history. But the Vatican is, in a way, ignoring it by rehabilitating the entire Society of St. Pius X, where members other than Williamson still hold similar views. The Vatican is doing a disservice to itself by making a move that not only damages interfaith relations but damages its standing among current and prospective followers. Shouldn't the Vatican try to make up for past mistakes by being a proactive voice on the issue of genocide, rather than backtracking on any progress it has made? I would also imagine that, especially in a time of economic downturn, it would want to move toward a faith that is friendlier to the poor and downtrodden than the not?

I personally have a hard time believing in a God (or Allah, Yaweh, etc.) that would allow atrocities like the Holocaust and Rwanda to be committed, much less in His name. I also have a difficult time, especially as a non-Catholic, of understanding the connection between the Pope and God. I doubt that He would approve of the Vatican's acknowledgment of a group of people that advocate anything less than love towards your neighbor. I know that some say that God gave free will to man, but c'mon, we are talking about the POPE here. Where are our Oscar Romeros and our Mother Teresas? I wish I knew.

[In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I am not a Catholic but a Unitarian Universalist, so I do not claim to have the last word on this.  However, I am deeply interested in the study of interfaith issues and how they affect politics and international relations, so I would hope that this is a jumping off point for further discussion. ]

[Photo: Church at Nyamata, Rwanda, where 5,000 people were slaughtered after seeking refuge during the genocide in 1994.]