IN THEORY:Looking back, ahead

What do you think was this year’s most significant religious event or news story, and what do you look forward to in the coming year?

One of the most frightening predictions I ever heard was offered by an Arab leader who foretold that if Israel agreed to every one of his demands, Muslims would come to behave toward Jews as they act toward their fellow Muslims.

While he meant this as a positive development, I trembled, for who would aspire to be treated as Muslims behave toward their other Muslims?

After all, the religion story that shook the world in 2006 was the ongoing battle in the centuries-old war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Hacking one another to death, blowing each other up, employing rocket-propelled grenades to level shrines sacred to co-religionists, Muslims demonstrate they can brutalize one another with a facility matching their ruthlessness toward Jews and Christians. Professor Salim Mansur writes: “More Muslims have been killed by Muslims, more Muslims continue to be victimized by Muslims, and more Muslims are in danger of dying at the hands of Muslims than non-Muslims.” The number of casualties inflicted by Israel, in wars forced upon the Jewish state, is paltry compared with the millions of Muslims murdered by fellow worshippers of Allah.

While Islam is a belligerent, expansionist philosophy that flourishes in a culture of incitement, and while it seeks the defeat and destruction of other faiths and systems of government, its rampages are not confined to annihilation of Jews and Christians. Internecine warfare is rife, and not a day passes that we are not sickened by spectacles of intra-Muslim mayhem and Islamist rage, fomented against fellow believers in the Five Pillars.

Here is a war that dates to the 7th century, as old as Islam itself. Begun over succession issues related to Muhammad’s death, it has spawned strife in every generation. The list of unspeakable atrocities committed by Muslim against Muslim is vast, and the sands have covered over oceans of blood. How ironic that internecine warfare spikes during the supposedly holy month of Ramadan. While atoning, many Muslims observe the sacred time by priming their weapons. They are no doubt observing a fast from food when they go forth to slaughter. Muslims in Iraq are at each other’s throats, condemning one another as traitorous and heretical and consigning each other to death with a savagery propelled and praised by countless clerics. Each side appeals to Islam to justify carnage and embolden future warriors in the cause. This is replicated in Darfur, where both aggressor and victims are adherents of Islam, and in the ferocious battles pitting Hamas against Fatah in Gaza.

Islam has been many things, but a religion of peace is not one of them.

Unvarying in Islam’s past and present is the willingness, if not eagerness, to take up arms against opponents, emulating the viciousness accompanying the succession struggle in the wake of Muhammad’s death.

I anticipate that 2007 will see more of the same, much more. Begun in the year 632, Muslims are now in the 1,374th year of their civil war.

Who doubts that there will be a 1,375th?

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

The midterm election was the most significant religious event of the year because it indicates that America is maturing politically and spiritually. Everybody is accountable and everybody is responsible for how we, as a nation, interact with the world.

The war in Iraq demonstrated an enormous miscalculation regarding the Iraqi people, their Islamic ideals, and the complexity of their society. My friends who are knowledgeable about the history of foreign domination in Iraq and the customs and politics of that region are in shock over the lack of planning and misunderstanding of how we have sought to impose our form of democracy and manipulate the news of how things are really going in that country. I look forward to a more informed approach that will bring peace and stability to a very unstable situation.

I am also optimistic about the possibility of a more cohesive tolerance for other religions. The extreme wings of some religious groups have had too much influence on national policy. It is time for a more moderate and mature tactic in the separation of church and state, and church and school. God is for everyone. God plays no favorites. God’s love is for all. No one is excluded. Learn to pray unceasingly and you will advance.

SENIOR PASTOR JIM TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

Though it may sound like an odd choice, in the spring of this year, the public became aware of the Gospel of Judas and “The DaVinci Code” movie. It doesn’t seem like much now, but the public forgets what it wants to. These are the greatest religious events of the year.

As to the coming year and what I look forward to is as follows. This fall of 2007, I look forward to the completion of 40 years of studying western religion intensely, which started for me at American University in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1967 as an undergraduate. What I find fascinating through my journey into religion, is that there is a struggle among religionists to find the truth and to still reinforce their faith. However, the question arises: What does one do when the truth leads you away from your faith? We only build our faith based on historical information and interpretation of biblical data. An example of this in the Jewish faith is that the oil really never burned for eight days as the Hanukkah legend tells us. However, most people think that this is the real meaning of Hanukkah. It is not.

My wish for the new year is that all Christians look at the Gnostic gospels (like the gospel of Judas), and even the gospel of John alone and how it differs from the synoptic gospels, and demythologize their religion to seek the truth.

Religion must evolve to suit the needs of the modern day. The people who founded our religions were not God and wrote from their own points of view. Differences in each religion exist. The Jewish Bible has been mistranslated so many times by people wishing to make and reinforce their own religiosity. Some have distorted the original texts. I would like to see the interfaith council in this area and all religious councils work together to understand our differences and strengthen our similarities of religions. We should stress for the truth. For there is truth in all religions, and nobody has a monopoly on God. It is amazing how little we all know as lay people and how much we have to learn and share with each other.

I hope that all who read this column have an open mind and are ready to study their religion more objectively. We have a wonderful adult education class at Temple Isaiah every Tuesday night. It is called Judaism Outside the Box. It is open to the public. Classes are from 7 to 9 p.m. The class is intended for people who wish to learn about Judaism to better appreciate their own religion. Why not attend and enrich your religious life?

RABBI MARC S. RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach

I wish Pope Benedict XVI’s first papal encyclical, which was about love, had received more attention and prompted more discussion. Such consideration could have moved us beyond simplistic notions of love found in greeting cards and in poetry or music — like the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” — and beyond this pope’s critique of overly hedonistic eroticism. Properly understood, love puts into perspective other concerns covered in this column in 2006: politics, science, tradition, progress, giving, grief, miracles, freedoms, faiths and so on. Knowingly or not, consciously or not, the pope understands the difference between like, which is subjective and sentimental, and real love, which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. defined as “understanding, redemptive, creative goodwill for all people.” The most significant religious events happen whenever, wherever, however love triumphs.

Perhaps we don’t truly understand “creative goodwill for all people” because our poor English word love is too frail to bear the burdens, which, for lack of a sturdier vehicle, we impose on it — as if ice cream, the family dog, one’s spouse, justice, peace and God were perfectly interchangeable objects of the same verb. The Greeks did better, attaching four different terms to varieties of love. Last February, I cited C.S. Lewis’ “Four Loves”: “storge,” the affectionate loyalty one holds for one’s family and community; “philia,” the bond of comradeship shared by teammates and troops; “eros,” romantic or sexual expression of physical passion; and “agape,” caring, servant love, which hungers to unearth a need in order to fill it.

I hope that in the coming year, love will motivate us more and more to change our ways of thinking and acting. We must move beyond tolerance to mutual respect. Tolerance is increasingly necessary in our delightfully complex world to simply survive. To thrive, we must hold in esteem all children of God, especially regarding with concern those who are different from ourselves.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON) PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

So many events have religious underpinnings, like the genocide in Darfur. I think the most important news is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s global positioning. His nuclear ambitions are religious. He is a “Twelver” who believes that the coming of the twelfth imam — the Mahdi — can be encouraged by violent means. His conference to discredit the Holocaust and statements about the necessity of the destruction of Israel make this ominous news for the region and the world.

I look forward to change in 2007, change in the direction in Iraq, change in the news, change in the way we treat the environment, and change in the way we treat others. I am hopeful that Americans will begin to see their stewardship as global citizens of both the wealth and the power given to us with a greater sense of responsibility. I know that we can start making changes in our lifestyles that will have a positive effect on our environment, our politics, our relationships, our way of life, etc. That hope is based on believing that we are not a bad people, just misguided, and that when confronted with reality, our hearts remain good and will do the right thing.

With that in mind, I know that my savior gives me the strength to make choices that I wouldn’t make otherwise. He gives me the ability to hope for myself and for each person reading this column. Each of us must choose what 2007 will look like. Good or bad, we have a choice in how we respond to it. I know it will be a good year.

RIC OLSEN

Lead Pastor

The Beacon

Anaheim

Public dissatisfaction with the war, as expressed by the election results. I look forward to the end of the war in Iraq. I look forward to the United States taking a more constructive role in global affairs and again being a nation respected around the world.

Ongoing disclosures about clergy sexual abuse and its many ramifications continued to be disturbing news in 2006. A Roman Catholic bishop who was my college Latin teacher faces multiple allegations, and the diocese where I grew up has recently filed for bankruptcy. I think Roman Catholics and non-Catholics alike are shocked by the extent of the abuse of children by priests, but even more so by the irresponsibility and coverups by so many trusted bishops.

All religious organizations have scandals, and our society is negatively affected by widespread disillusionment with religious organizations and spiritual leaders. At our Zen Center, we educate practitioners about how to evaluate spiritual leaders, about spiritual abuse, cults and other potentially negative aspects of religious experience. I look forward to people taking more personal responsibility for their spiritual path and helping religious organizations to become more responsive and accountable.

I am optimistic about the news this year that Bill and Melinda Gates, all of our former U.S. presidents, rock stars and celebrities, along with so many other people, are putting their resources and talents to work in building coalitions and forging new directions for change for the common good. I look forward to another year to learn to grow in wisdom and compassion. In Zen, we compare this process to polishing a diamond. Each of our lives has great value and beauty, and it is our very nature to let this to shine forth as fully as possible. Enduring appreciation for our lives is the most significant religious event of the year.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

The recent rejection of the Bush policies by the general electorate is the significant event of 2006. That is a news story, of course, but it is also a religious event inasmuch as it indicates that many religious people are no longer just one-issue voters. They have learned that the actions of politicians do not often follow the promise.

The president who claimed to be guided by God has certainly ignored many of Jesus’ rules and has been actively feathering the nests of the super wealthy (those who can provide generous political donations to his party) at the expense of the average family. And no help to the poor from him! He has put the country so far in debt that future generations will be hard-pressed to pay it all off, but he continues to give tax breaks to those who already have the most money, further increasing the gulf between the wealthy and the poor.

Admittedly, our economy is doing well, at least as indicated by the stock market, which has been charging ahead, but if we were actually starting to pay off the great debt from the unnecessary, ill-conceived, and evil Iraq war, there wouldn’t be the available money circulating around that the economy needs to maintain itself.

Secular governments have many advantages over theocracies in pluralistic societies.

When a government is run by a dominant religious group it can end up as in Iraq, with hatred and violence between the factions. Secular governments, as established by the founders of our country, where no one religion is allowed to dictate rules of general behavior, permit those of any belief to feel secure and happy.

For the coming year, I look forward to many more general decisions being made based on reason and common sense.

JERRY PARKS

Member

Humanist Assn. of Orange County