Research

Understanding Religious Resurgence: Devotion, Reform, Sacrifice

Description: NECF Malaysia Cross-Currents Consultations
        Author: Steven C. M. Wong

For much of recorded history, religion has contributed directly or indirectly to geopolitical forces that shaped major world events. For a while, it seemed as if its relevance to global affairs might wane if not disappear altogether. In 18th century Europe, scholars predicted that religion would be rendered obsolete by rationality and scientific empiricism. Two hundred years of secular intellectual onslaught and rapid socio-economic progress, however, have failed to quell interest in religion. On the contrary, the 20th century has seen a rising wave of fervour among all major religions-a wave of not only major spiritual significance, but also economic, sociological and political.

Religious resurgence is simply a renewed interest and participation in spiritual matters by a growing segment of society. "Resurgence" means, "to rise again" and is closely connected with revivalism or a religious awakening and/or enthusiasm. This, in turn, is commonly associated with fundamentalism or a return to foundational or original beliefs, values and principles. All three terms are in themselves value-neutral but have come to be regarded as synonymous with religious radicalism or an overturning of existing norms, structures and practices. This has given the impression that the modern revitalisation of faith in God is among the primary causes of civil conflict and threatening rather than redemptive and celebratory in nature.

Certain faiths in particular are singled out as prone to extremism. A leading expert on Islam, John Esposito, notes: "A focus on 'Islamic fundamentalism' as a global threat has reinforced the tendency to equate violence with Islam and fails to distinguish between the illegitimate use of religion by individuals and the faith and practice of the majority of the world's Muslims who, like adherents of other religious traditions, wish to live in peace." One can readily agree with Esposito's complaint for it is a commonly heard one. But while it is undoubtedly true that all the majority of any religion's adherents want is to practise in peace, when does that practise constitute a threat? When exactly is the use of religion by individuals "illegitimate"?

The search for clarity can be confusing for a number of reasons. First, religion is deliberately linked with everything from deadly struggles for political autonomy and ethno-cultural rivalries to territorial homeland issues and control of resources. Thus, guerrilla insurrections and coup d'états can be disguised and given respectability by being carried out in the name of establishing a religious state. Military commanders, needing a basis for authority over the populace, also find it rewarding to co-opt religious leaders and vice versa.

Second, religious resurgence needs a higher-order cause (or cause celebré) to energise, motivate and, in the case of anti-social activities, to excuse, adherents. In one South Asian country, for example, a senior official of a religious council justified the murder and rape carried out by its adherents by describing the victims as "traitors" and the latter's activities as "anti-national." Acts of terrorism are also routinely defended by pointing to oppression, international conspiracies, new imperialist tendencies and so forth. Once the political theory becomes entrenched, the cause becomes the religion and the religion the cause.

Third, there is the problem of imprecision. The global mass media often uses concepts that place a higher order of priority on brevity than accuracy when communicating to the public. This may get the general message across but many people use these caricatures without critical thinking or filters and the resulting errors can be multiplied many times, leading to unhelpful situations. On the other hand, defenders of radical religious establishments have been known to intentionally use vacuous terms, rubbery concepts, exaggeration and falsehoods when arguing their cases. Many times, this can happen because of the restricted nature of political discourse. In countries with liberal democratic values, social norms such as the desire to be tolerant and politically correct can mean withholding intellectual dissent. Religious autocracies, on the other hand, do so by law and governmental fiat.

The purpose of this paper is to help Christians think about the phenomena of modern religious resurgence. First, Christians have an ongoing responsibility to fulfil the Great Commission. As the world's most persecuted people, especially in the area falling between 10°N & 40°N of the equator (the "10/40 Window") or the area from West Africa to East Asia, we have a vested interest to understand the dynamics of religious resurgence in order to strategise and co-ordinate mission work. Second, we are commanded by our Lord Jesus to "watch and pray." Discerning prayer obviously avails more than indiscriminate and especially prayer, that involves heart, soul and mind. Third, the Church needs to regain its prophetic role and engage international and national governmental and non-governmental instrumentalities. Prayer and action must converge if the world is to be changed to Christ.

The religious continuum

How does one go beyond simply avoiding the generalisation that all violent fundamentalist extremists are from one particular religion and begin to make richer distinctions about the beliefs, norms and practices that constitute Esposito's "illegitimate use of religion"? As mentioned, the latter is also important because this has allowed religious extremists to resort to all manner of semantic wordplays and sleight-of-mind arguments to defend the illegitimate use of religion.

Figure 1 presents religious resurgence as one or a combination of up to seven discrete stages. The first of these stages is that of personal and corporate worship, prayer, study of sacred literature, meditation and making offerings and service. Even at this stage, there can be intense politicisation, the object being to exert authority and win control over the believing masses. Thus, the appointment of religious officials, management of institutions and performance of obligations can all be heatedly contested between incumbent governments and fundamentalist challengers. Frequently, the practice of religions other than the approved one is banned or constrained and believers imprisoned and executed.

The second stage is that of propagation, an important one for all major religions. Again, while essentially non-radical, it has been the catalyst for many violent conflagrations. In almost all of the 10/40 Window countries, propagation of some religions is prohibited or restricted by law and force while funding for missionary activity from these countries has risen, much of it directed towards the liberal and open countries of the West.

Third, either as an extension or as complement of missionary efforts, it is usual for religious organisations to seek to uplift social welfare by addressing such concerns as children, drug addiction, education, homelessness, poverty alleviation and so forth. Many have such global reach, funding and influence that they are seen as posing political threats to the home government. One such institution in the Middle East has been officially banned for this reason although it continues to operate due to the widespread support it receives from the masses.

Fourth, religious groups can go one step further to seek to political and social reform through activism. Activism though can be of two kinds: one that exists with the ambit of pluralistic democracy and the other, within some form of religious autocracy. The first involves active political participation, such as that of conservative religious groups in mainly Western countries, while the other may also do so or resort to radical extra-legal means. An interesting case is that of a North African country where in the early 1990s, the religious political party garnered more than fifty percent of the votes in first-round voting and was virtually certain of leading a coalition of like-minded groups to form the next government. The army, however, sacked the government, jailed the religious political leaders and suspended further elections. The result was a civil war that continues to this day.

When winning a mandate to form a government through existing political means is not possible, or where it is denied by the ruling regime, agitation quickly escalating to all out militancy can occur. Agitation entails the use of civil disorder such as the organisation of strikes, riots and demonstrations to attempt to bring down the government and precipitate a politico-religious ruling council. Suppression can further lead to political assassinations and outright guerrilla warfare. Militancy envisages organised, trained and funded fighting forces, with the possibility of acting even on an international basis. Some militant groups have managed to reach such elevated heights, assisted no doubt by funding from sponsoring states. The pinnacle is reached when a government is set up and total political and military control rests with the religious establishment concerned.

Escape from modernity - Devotion

What is the driving force behind religious resurgence? The standard and still most respectable answer is modernity, the "first truly global culture in the world and the most powerful culture in history so far." Modernity is a state of being caused by the forces of modernisation. Modernisation has led to the adoption of impersonal work cultures, the break-up of social and family relationships and changes to human core values, beliefs and perceptions of reality. Among its central hallmarks are rationalism and materialism, both of which have steadily eaten away the pillars that hold up social, cultural and psychological stability causing a deep sense of loss of identity, powerlessness, frustration and alienation. Ravi Zacharias put it well when he said: "There is a longing to find a connectedness in life. Cultures seek coherent answers within themselves because without coherence in community there is evil in the home and on the streets. And there is no coherence in our communities because there is no coherence in our individual lives."

Modernity has the effect of driving people away from the spiritual and then towards it. Disillusionment with modernity has taken the form of the rejection of objective truth or as summed up in the phrase, "truth is made, not found". According to this system of thinking, called postmodernity, culture and environment are critical in determining truth and there is therefore a need to appreciate multicultural, multi-religious environments.

Rationalism in developed countries has been significantly eroded by postmodernist relativism in the 21st Century but the same is not true of those that are still developing. Modernisation has not transformed the Third World anywhere close to that of the First and, consequently, modernity has mainly been confined to urban centres. Postmodernist thinking is still finding its way into these countries. Disenchantment with modernity and materialism is nevertheless still the dominant trend and characterised by a return to traditional values in general and religious in particular. This is especially among the ranks of the most modernised, i.e., the educated professional class.

Religion provides a means for the affected to manage and respond to social change by resorting to its rituals, symbols and beliefs to evoke a more idealised and meaningful existence. Figure 2 depicts a situation where the reaction to modernity in the First World has been primarily to turn to postmodernist philosophy whereas modernity among the lesser developed has been towards religion. Obviously, since objectivism in the Third World is far from widespread and largely restricted to urban enclaves, it is a more natural response for the populace to return to fundamental orthodox spirituality.

The First World's reaction to relativism can include the form of pre-modernism or the turning of the West to the Third World for answers. This has been one of the driving forces behind the entire New Age movement. The god that relativists worship, however, is diversity and its devil is homogeny. As a footnote, it may be added that objectivists are trying hard to re-invent more acceptable forms of modernity, so-called neo-modernity, so that mankind may have its "cake" (progress) and eat it as well.

Roots of conflict - Reform

As earlier noted, renewed interest in the religious needs to be energised by a political theory (or set of causes and effects) if it is to gain the kind of support that is needed to overturn governments and overhaul societies. The more elaborate, organised and articulate a religion is, the greater is this potential. In the West, such issues do not arise as social order is based on strict separation of the state and religion. Only the state has the right to impose sanctions and apply physical coercion to achieve its ends. Religion and other social organisations, on the other hand, must depend solely on their powers of persuasion. This is not so, however, for Eastern religions. As Mitchell concisely puts it: "Primitive tribes...recognize no distinction between the social and the political. ...Everyone has his place in the pyramid, and every social subgroup is a subordinate part of the whole. Some societies have maintained a unified, hierarchical, and essentially tribal structure...Most Western nations are still political societies, with a political system easily distinguishable from the rest of society, and a political hierarchy representing just one way in which the society is organized."

This difference is fundamental. Tensions between the secular and religious have long existed in the developing world and nowhere more so than in countries where religion has been turned into a total way of life. The state only exists as the political dimension of collective endeavours of believers and there are no boundaries between the two. With rising interest in religious matters, it comes as no surprise that the incidents at the meeting points of the secular and religious have multiplied in number and intensity. Religion had previously been taken to be only a meaningful basis for social identity among the common masses. Those with higher education and were upwardly mobile had more in common with their foreign counterparts than those in their own societies. A significant proportion of the religious, not wishing to give up the benefits of modernisation, may choose the path of moderation by taking on a more active spiritual dimension. Others with fewer material temptations will believe that religion must be the sole legitimate source of identity for all of society and that secularising influences on the elite are insidious forces of alienation.

With the educated middle-classes swelling the ranks of the religious and joining hands with traditional leaders in developing countries, religious institutions have acquired immensely sophisticated mindsets, skills and funding. These organisations are better organised, equipped and motivated than governments themselves in many countries. As modern corporations, they have mission statements, strategic plans and organisation and methods manuals, while externally they are empowered to propagate, network and influence on a scale and speed not possible before. The religious have therefore become a force to be reckoned with and political parties are forced to either cultivate them or face them as strong opposition both from within the political system or outside of it. Many ruling administrations have had problems in the voluntary cooptation route and had to resort to open hostility instead.

In the first place, local culture and secular political ideologies may not be strong enough to give a sense of national identity and resilience needed for nationalism. Sometimes the bases for nationalism (such as independence from colonisation) will wear thin over time and lose it appeal. This lack of strong "glue" to bring the masses together, plus the inability to deliver the stable economic progress and public goods, has caused a diaspora of adherents from poor countries moving to North America and Europe. Development in home countries has tended to be highly dualistic and skewed towards urban elites while problems of inflation, unemployment, housing shortages, crime and infrastructure bottlenecks, are prevalent and invariably affect the poor disproportionately. This can be compounded by a culture of corruption, which deepens the rifts in income distribution, causes widespread indignation and strengthens the hand of religionists promising a moral and ethical order.

If the disaffection is on a large enough scale, governments will not be able to maintain social order within a democratic political system and will be forced to be authoritarian, elitist and repressive. The state may also exert tight control over religious institutions in an effort to prevent them from undermining its power and achieving political objectives. Moderates within this system will tend to capitulate to the strong pressures for accommodation but the most disaffected will reject it in ever more vocal and stronger terms. Finally, the roots of conflict are seen in terms of political oppression by Western countries that are seen to manipulate geopolitics and subvert national culture, religion for their own ends. A typical example given is that of the United States' support for Israel in the Palestinian problem.

The more comprehensive the failure of secular states, the greater is the attraction and clamour for alternative solutions. The strongest point in favour of the religious option is that it is perhaps the most completely legitimising. Legitimacy is when the public accepts the basis by which authority and power is acquired and exercised even if not the ways themselves. Where governments are legitimate, such as those that are representative and democratically elected, less coercion and sanctions are needed to ensure compliance. Where they are illegitimately established, however, opposition will be strong and governments will need to constantly invent rationale and strategies after the fact to stay in power and ensure obedience. They may do so by appealing to the need for political stability and inter-racial harmony, rapid economic growth but, ironically, also by the co-opting of religion through a combination of strong control and high-profile initiatives thereby managing it for their political ends and establishing their religious credentials.

The establishment of some modern religious states are sometimes seen as attempts to establish political legitimacy for the new regimes and administrations especially after revolution or coupes. Governments often make it mandatory for religious officials to be officially appointed, allocate state funds to build places of worship and activities. They even dictate the sermons to be preached. By showing their own brand of religious zeal, such as through religious legislation, institution building and so forth, they hope deny opportunities to the religious opposition to gain political mileage.

Realising the religious state - Sacrifice

If, despite efforts of secular governments to keep the religious opposition within established political processes fail, there will be a high probability that the latter will take their struggles outside of them through acts aimed at agitation and open conflict. These incidences should, however, be recognised for what they are, viz. failures of conflict resolution and short-circuited mediation of competing claims. They are, first and foremost, comprehensive failures of the polity. Those striking out are or see themselves as victims who are justified in direct proportion to the repression, injustices and acts of violence suffered by them or communities they represent. Studies show that they have a sense of discontent and have very strong "us versus them" mindsets that enable them to remove doubts about their actions. The root causes of these injustices may differ but there is a common hope or goal of the resolution-the religious state.

Although Figure 3 sets out three possible goals, political, religious and ideological, it should be recognised that all goals are ultimately political and indivisible in nature although separate elements may rise and fall in the collective consciousness over time. Thus, struggles for autonomy and homeland can initially override religious ones even though the two are closely inter-connected. Likewise, it may be difficult to sift out and unravel a single motivation for actions but it is nevertheless possible to identify a dominant mode out of the rational, psychological and cultural at a particular time.

In order to make the ultimate sacrifice, there must be strong religious indoctrination. The United States Army's Field Manual states: "Religion may be the most volatile of cultural identifiers because it encompasses values deeply held. A threat to one's religion puts not only the present at risk but also one's cultural past and the future. Many religions, including Christianity and Islam, are so confident they are right that they have used force to obtain converts. Terrorism in the name of religion can be especially violent. Like all terrorists, those who are religiously motivated view their acts with moral certainty and even divine sanctions. What would otherwise be extraordinary acts of desperation becomes a religious duty in the mind of the religiously motivated terrorist. This helps explain the high level of commitment and willingness to risk death among religious extremist groups."

By virtue of their willingness to die for the sake of religious goals and principles, the members of religious radical groups are deemed as passionate wild-eyed fanatics. Nothing, however, may be further from the truth. According to Sprinzak, there are six stages to their activities: target acquisition, intelligence gathering, recruitment, physical and spiritual training, preparation and transport. The targets of radical religious groups are rationally selected and at each successive stage, sophisticated planning and organisation is required. This opens up the strong possibility that certain nation states or their proxies covertly back transnational terrorism in order to achieve coldly calculated strategic goals, while minimising the risks of direct confrontations between states. Modern terrorist groups have had no qualms in attacking civilian targets as, so the theory goes, this generates public anxiety and places demands on governments to protect potential victims. Such groups typically are inclined to be relatively small in nature and operate through cells in order to avoid detection. When governments are unable to halt these attacks due to their unpredictable nature, confidence is eroded and eventually the public demands for concessions to be made.

Quo Vadis?

The simple framework laid out for thinking about modern religious resurgence no doubt glosses over many facets and nuances. The Devotion-Reform-Sacrifice, however, seems to capture some of the major aspects of modern trends and explanations. From this then, it might be asked 'Quo vadis' or where to from here? Religious resurgence is not a new phenomenon. The unspeakable horrors that have been unleashed on the world from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to recent times may well be played again and again until its culmination in an apocalyptic close. The Bible does not specifically state it but by pointing to wars and rumours of wars among "nations" (i.e. people groups), it at least hints that ethno-religious conflict will be undiminished to the end.

For any other people, this unstoppable tide would be grounds for depressing fatalism. The Christian, however, does not look to circumstances no matter how bad or good but puts his or her trust in the Living God and His Living Word. Whatever the sequence of one's eschatological beliefs, the Bible is crystal clear that the road to the New Heaven and Earth is also lined with sacrifice, that of lives given to save lives-not take them. Justin Martyr is reported to have said that the Romans could kill Christians but that they could not hurt them. Realising the deficiencies of the "feel good" Gospel, clear focus and redoubled efforts must be on evangelisation, discipleship, intercessory prayer and speaking prophetically to the world. The costs, as with the Apostle Paul, must be counted as nothing.

 



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