Theology is key to bombings, says broadcaster
-19/07/5
A leading Methodist broadcaster and writer has said that it is impossible to understand suicide bombings without tackling theology, and that Christianity and Islam have to revisit and reaffirm their core doctrines of life overcoming death.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4ís Thought for the Day slot yesterday morning, the Rev Dr Colin Morris, who is a former President of the Methodist Conference in Britain, said that suicide bombings showed that ìIraq and possibly now in Britain we are witnessing a growing worship of death.î
Dr Morris, who has also held a senior BBC post in Northern Ireland, went on: ìAnger at western foreign policy may indeed be an element in the psyche of the suicide bomber, but I suspect the actual trigger is to be found not in the realm of politics but of theology.î
He explained that the motivation involved might be ìsome alteration of religious consciousness, akin to conversion, which incites the most unlikely people to do the most extraordinary things; in this case, making paradise seem fatally attractive and the lives of the innocent expendable.î
Morris said he thought it was likely that ìthis is not a case of Islam versus Christianity nor of one branch of Islam against another. At the most elemental level, it is death contending against life.î
Dr Morris declared that both Islam and Christianity might ìhave to revisit and reaffirm their doctrines of eternal life in order to repudiate utterly the ultimate egotism of those who believe they can achieve their eternal destiny at the expense of the innocent.î
Last week the UK Christian think-tank Ekklesia said that the link between terror and religion could not merely be pushed aside, and that although people who planted bombs were a small and unrepresentative minority, it was up to the different faith communities to confront their texts, traditions and histories when they appeared to sanction violence.
It made these points as part of its response immediately after the London bombings, Beyond the Politics of Fear.
ìIt is too easy to say ëthis has nothing to do with religioní, just as it is too easy to try to blame Islam or to assign the cause of these terrible events to just one factorî, explained Ekklesia Co-Director Simon Barrow.
He went on: ìFaith leaders are doing their utmost to condemn indiscriminate killing. The next step is to make a clear move towards active non-violence, theologically and practically.î
Theology is key to bombings, says broadcaster
-19/07/5
A leading Methodist broadcaster and writer has said that it is impossible to understand suicide bombings without tackling theology, and that Christianity and Islam have to revisit and reaffirm their core doctrines of life overcoming death.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day slot yesterday morning, the Rev Dr Colin Morris, who is a former President of the Methodist Conference in Britain, said that suicide bombings showed that ‘Iraq and possibly now in Britain we are witnessing a growing worship of death.’
Dr Morris, who has also held a senior BBC post in Northern Ireland, went on: ‘Anger at western foreign policy may indeed be an element in the psyche of the suicide bomber, but I suspect the actual trigger is to be found not in the realm of politics but of theology.’
He explained that the motivation involved might be ‘some alteration of religious consciousness, akin to conversion, which incites the most unlikely people to do the most extraordinary things; in this case, making paradise seem fatally attractive and the lives of the innocent expendable.’
Morris said he thought it was likely that ‘this is not a case of Islam versus Christianity nor of one branch of Islam against another. At the most elemental level, it is death contending against life.’
Dr Morris declared that both Islam and Christianity might ‘have to revisit and reaffirm their doctrines of eternal life in order to repudiate utterly the ultimate egotism of those who believe they can achieve their eternal destiny at the expense of the innocent.’
Last week the UK Christian think-tank Ekklesia said that the link between terror and religion could not merely be pushed aside, and that although people who planted bombs were a small and unrepresentative minority, it was up to the different faith communities to confront their texts, traditions and histories when they appeared to sanction violence.
It made these points as part of its response immediately after the London bombings, Beyond the Politics of Fear.
‘It is too easy to say ëthis has nothing to do with religion’, just as it is too easy to try to blame Islam or to assign the cause of these terrible events to just one factor’, explained Ekklesia Co-Director Simon Barrow.
He went on: ‘Faith leaders are doing their utmost to condemn indiscriminate killing. The next step is to make a clear move towards active non-violence, theologically and practically.’