Effects of Religion on Society Today
by Bernie Meyer
After watching the impressive documentary, The Ghosts of Jeju, at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Martin Luther King Jr. 2014 weekend, I was prompted to ask, “What is the religious makeup of the young police who were arresting the blockaders at the U.S. Navy Base construction site entrance?” (Jeju is an island off the South Korean coast.) These young men and women arrested Catholic nuns and priests, Buddhists, officials of the village, and many lay people who were courageously acting on a daily basis to prevent the construction. I wondered what was going through their minds. The response was that Koreans are 80% Buddhists, 10% Christian, and 10% other religions. And, “most are conservative.” What effects does the religious symbolism have on the young police? What effect does religion have on society today when it comes to the pursuit of justice and peace?
As FOR enters the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1914, we consider our “ecumenical” roots. The world is becoming aware of the changing meaning of culture and religion. What effect is that having on the work for justice and peace? FOR has gone from “ecumenical” among Christian denominations to “interfaith” among world religions. My sense is that FOR is still interfaith and somewhere beyond “interfaith” now. Certainly, the population of the West is. My experience of the East in India illustrates change too. The election of Mayor Bill DeBlasio in New York City has meaning in this regard. DeBlasio, a Catholic by birth, although his mother did not raise him Catholic, characterizes himself as “spiritual, but not religious.”
These questions not only have import for peacemaking, they are critical for survival as humanity enters a century of radical change challenging life on earth. I was glad to hear Joe Cirincione of The Plowshares Fund at the Town Hall presentation in January say that not only do nuclear weapons threaten the existence of earthly life, but that the climate crisis does too, because that is my sense. And, natural resources of all kinds, including water and tillable soil, are being consumed steadily. People must feel that the ground is literally moving from underneath them. Humanity, along with all species, will experience a new economy, a new energy, a new climate. And, as the ground moves, so does the sense of meaning and cultural symbolism. How survive? How do we keep going?
As the people of Jeju and Korea struggle, what effects do the religious and spiritual views have on the efforts not only for peace and justice, but for human community in the 21st Century? I feel like the retired general who lamented the entrenched establishment of the nuclear weapons industry during the 1980’s. “With tears in his eyes, he begged us not to lose heart, to condemn as immoral the possession of nuclear weapons. He said that the arms race, fueled by the military and industrial complex, had generated a life of its own, that not even the president could stop it, that the only institution capable of doing so was the churches through the moral force of their voices.” I have my own answers to these questions. This article is too short to go that far. But, FOR’s identity calls for responses.