Is Religion Violent?

If we misunderstand the complexities of power, we cannot hold those in power accountable.

As William P. Cavanaugh puts it, “the myth of religious violence is inextricably bound up with the legitimation of the state and its use of violence.” In other words, if we lay the blame solely at religion’s feet, we’re letting politics, empire, and the private sector go unchecked for their roles in war, conquest, and other atrocities. The “religio... See more

Another universalist claim that has captured both the public and the intellectual imagination is that religion is intrinsically violent. “Religions do not cause violence,” Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, writes, quickly followed by, “nor do they cause peace.”

To assert that there is a true, good Christianity is to make yet another universalist claim—one that only God can really verify. What’s more helpful is to understand that Christianity is a vast religion with multiple interpretations, all of which coexist and hold varying degrees of institutional and cultural power.

I previously understood faith only as a powerfully destructive force in the world, but I never took stock of all the ways it helped galvanize others or provided insight into our interconnected struggles.

Religion—whether we like it or not, whether we envision ourselves as secular or not—informs how most of us view the complicated issues of our time, including race, gender, sexuality, and so forth. In acknowledging its complexity, we should also begin to understand that essentialist statements about religion will always fall short of accuracy.

When I allowed my language and my views to change—informed by wanting to be a better friend, colleague, partner, community member for the people around me—I could feel my heart start to change, too. I wondered (in typical white, neoliberal fashion) why it was so hard for people to embrace complexity rather than conforming to binary ways of thought.

There are no real absolutes when it comes to religion. Commonly accepted cultural beliefs about religion need reexamining.