|
Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (PBS)
Frontline: The Question of Religion
Throughout time, religion has been a source of grace and consolation and also of violence and divisiveness. Since Sept. 11, many are asking with urgency,
and anger, how such things can be done in the name of God.
 The Yankee Stadium day was a pivotal day in my entire life. It was a day when everything that I had stood for as a human being, as
well as a person of faith, was going to be on the line. ... When I shared the podium with representatives of all the major faiths and prayed, that prayer became the center of a major controversy. The
very next day, I began to get messages filled with hate. They were messages not from people outside of my tradition, but from within my tradition. And
they were messages that nailed me to the floor, frankly, emotionally. They just said, "You were wrong to be there. You never should have gone to Yankee Stadium. You
are a heretic. You have dishonored your faith." One man said genuine terrorism was me. He said, planes crash and people die, nothing big about that. Genuine terrorism
was me giving that prayer. I just want to say that I have not gotten over that and I can't get through that. Because I lived through the real terrorists driving the planes
into the real buildings. And I've talked to people whose loved ones were murdered. And for me to be put in that same category is just not tolerable to me. I can't take it.
I can't bear up under it. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Within two months, a number of those people put together a petition and filed
charges of heresy, saying that I am not part of the Christian Church because of what I did on that day and should not be part of my denomination anymore, should not be
allowed to preach, should have my collar removed. People who brought the charges against me are clergymen from my denomination. And their belief is that the doctrine
of the church does not allow a Christian to stand at the same podium with someone of another faith or everybody is going to get the same idea that all religions are equal,
and we have made absolute claims, exclusive claims about our faith. If religion leads people to make these kinds of accusations at exactly the worse moment in
American history, then what's underneath religion? Is religion really part of a lust for power and control in people's lives? Is it a desire for absolute security so strong that
people cannot see the need to reach out and help? If that's true, then I've got a lot of wrestling to do with my own religion.
Rev. David Benke
Lutheran Minister
Back to "It's OK to Pray"...The SPIRIT Page
|
