Red, Brown & Blue

Will Religion Ever Lead to Peace?

During his recent Nobel acceptance speech, President Obama pointed out that at the crux of our catastrophic failure at achieving peace lies the divisive, fear-inciting force of religion, saying:

“People fear the loss of what they cherish about their particular identities — their race, their tribe, and perhaps most powerfully their religion. In some places, this fear has led to conflict. At times, it even feels like we are moving backwards. We see it in Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and Jews seems to harden. We see it in nations that are torn asunder by tribal lines. Most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint — no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or even a person of one’s own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but the purpose of faith — for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”

His words remind me of one of my favorite movie lines of all time, when Robert DeNiro tells Mickey Roarke in Angel Heart: “They say there’s just enough religion in the world to make men hate one another, but not enough to make them love.”

While America’s Constitution calls for a separation of church and state and we have no official religion, preventing us from ever becoming a theocracy like those we have often dealt with in the Middle East, it is no secret we are largely a Christian nation. As Christians, should we not look to the teachings of Jesus Christ for guidance on our approach to attaining peace? After all he is often referred to as the “Prince of Peace.”

This is the first time I quote scripture, but as long as we’re on the subject of how religion drives conflict, why not? According to the New Testament, Jesus Christ once said during his Sermon on the Plain:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
—Luke 6:27-31. NIV

So that’s what Obama was talking about. Yet, that’s not what America has ever done. After the towers fell in New York City on September 11th, we made a choice. Peace was not the choice. Perhaps only one of our cheeks is bloody, or perhaps rather than let another strike the flipside of our face, we chose to gouge it out ourselves. And when the President spoke at West Point recently to announce our expansion of the war in Afghanistan, again, peace was not the choice.

The Presidents’ Nobel speech closed with: “We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that — for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.”

Frankly, as war rages on in the regions where it always had, between Christians and Muslims and Jews as it has for over two thousand years, I’m not sold on our progress when it comes to peace. I believe that it is a story yet to be told. But I do agree that it is our challenge and that at some point we must stop “striving” and start “doing.”

Why do we even pretend or attempt to seek out peace if it seems so hard to reach? Why bother, when we seem to love conflict and drama so much? When even our own president acknowledged upon receipt of the highest peace honor offered in our world that: “War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease — the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences.”

Perhaps, just like our spiritual instincts, it’s because something inside us tells us that while it’s not what we’re doing, it’s what we ought to be doing. Something intangible and invisible tells us that peace is good and that peace is better. Peace is safe and warm and happy. At times like these holidays, we often see, hear and even profess wishes of joy and peace to all. But do we mean it? We should.

Only by laying down our arms and seeking that common ground in our diverse faiths that Obama alluded to, will we ever achieve some semblance of peace on Earth. Only through tolerance, and each religion and its leaders desisting from convincing their flocks that theirs is the only path to enlightenment and the afterlife, might we attain mutual respect and empathy, supporting each other’s culturally unique pursuits of the divine rather than undermining those pursuits and descending into the hell of war.

Would it be worth it? Of course, it would. Peace on earth would free us to end suffering and elevate ourselves to a higher iteration of ourselves, an evolution. We could truly create a shared paradise here on this little planet, a preview of heaven. If only we could stop killing each other over religious differences and realize that what we agree upon is greater: that God wants humanity to live up to its potential and the only way to do it is to stop fighting and start working together.

After all, as my 5-year old son pointed out to me when he heard me discussing this topic: “God wants peace.”

Let’s start making it today.

Rudy Ruiz has been hailed as a cultural visionary. A published author and multicultural advocate, Ruiz is an acclaimed multicultural communications entrepreneur. He founded Red Brown and Blue as well as Interlex, one of the nation’s leading advocacy marketing agencies ranked by Ad Age as one of the Top US Agencies across all disciplines. Prior to that, Ruiz earned his BA in Government at Harvard College and his Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

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