55 – Gods and the Good Life

Editorial

Presidents pray: "God bless America!" But how do the people of the U.S. see this god and make their moral judgements? Popular culture celebrates the ‘good’ violence of Rambo and Mad Max in their triumph over ‘evil’. But how does President Bush judge Iraq (with Iran and North Korea) to be the ‘axis of evil’ and worthy of invasion? Is the god—whose blessing is invoked and The death of god does not mean there are no truths and that all perceptions are morally relative whose law is upheld by force—the god of the American dream: a god who upholds the ideals of freedom, equality and democracy? Or is this the god of an unjust market; protecting free trade, while defending American trade tariffs?

Others find their identity in a different god, even a "merciful and compassionate" Ruler and Judge, Allah.

They find the American dream to be a nightmare for the poor, and so judge its god to be evil. It is not surprising that when their cultural identity is threatened by Western material values they view the USA to be Satanic and Western economic consensus (of the WTO) to be demonic. Nor should it surprise us that, among those who submit to a Just Rule, a few will fight that evil in His name. (Such a god of war is always male). On September 11th, their targets were the lifeblood of that ‘evil’ god: the symbols of economic and military supremacy, the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon. That is not to justify these actions by some universal criterion, or mean that I condone the destruction of human life. It is to recognise that as the threat of the American god has become greater, so the sacrifices made on behalf of Allah have appeared to be more urgent and seemingly more just. It was an extreme and violent response of a few religious idealists and freedom fighters, not all Muslim people, but it was in response to that material "god" that has been so tacitly accepted by the so-called "moral majority" of the economically advanced nations. What non-violent way is there for poor peoples to protest against the violence of globalization? How else can they protest against military and economic inequality? ; With Nietzsche's proclamation “ God is dead” we discovered that there was no single "God's eye view" of events and no eternal and given moral order of Good. Some people have read this along the lines of Dostoyevsky, who asked ‘If there is no God, isn’t everything permitted?” But the death of god does not mean there are no truths and that all perceptions are morally relative. That would leave us with no means to judge between actions that cause or oppose suffering. Rather, Nietzsche was arguing that what we take for morality is linked with those who hold power. Therefore, the relationships between cultural values, power and economic interests need exploring.

Gaining from Nietzsche's insight, we have become more suspicious of power. We can see that our media are frequently ready to be selective in what they report and to present us with one overriding interpretation of events. During the so-called "war on terrorism", our newspapers pictured the faces of those who died in the atrocious acts of violence on September 11th. They Nietzsche (1844-1900) Sof 55 September 2002 fuelled our anger and support for a military retaliation.

But where are the forgotten faces of the 24,000 people who die of hunger on an average day? Many of these die as a direct result of international debt and the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment programmes, which in terms of the numbers of lives involved must surely be judged to be more violent.

Where are the faces of those who have died of drought or flooding, in storms and from pest-borne diseases as a result of global warming? The Kyoto agreement was an attempt to control this i warming, but the agreement i. was abandoned by the United ii States, even though the U.S. ie produces a quarter of all carbon dioxide. And where are the forgotten faces of Palestinians made homeless by American Christians’ support of Israel, or of the ‘Communists’ that Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts were armed and trained by the CIA to kill, when it suited the United States political interests to do so. The received view of such global events has simply been aligned with the cultural and economic interests of those corporations that have ownership of the mass media.

But this post-modern recognition that there is always perspective and interpretation involved in our understandings should lead us to suspicion of those who have economic interests in a particular point of view.

Nietzsche’s Platonic "God" may be dead, but gods of the religions will not lie down and their followers continue to wreak economic havoc and human destruction on earth. But we in the Sea of Faith who no longer believe (with King Lear’s Gloucester) that ‘as flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods’ might well be suspicious. This is not a simple metaphysical suspicion of the gods, but a moral one. Cultural values need evaluating in terms of human life: the remaining gods need evaluating as givers of life in its fullness.

There are then two areas of this moral evaluation that will be of concern to members of the Sea of Faith and others of like mind. First, facts still need reporting and ig statistics need detailing, though while we do this we should be suspicious of holding a bias regarding our choices of accounting. But if life is our criterion, then accounting by life will reveal the number of malnourished children, the average life expectancy of a country, the number without access to clean water, the proportion of government expenditure on weapons, debt repayments and healthcare. It is not for us to immediately proclaim a political solution and create a new god, but for us to be suspicious of the actual roles and relative powers of culture’s gods.

Secondly, in order to know whether these gods give life or deal destruction, we need to understand other cultures far better. We need to see what roles the gods play within cultural value systems and in response to perceived threats. We need to understand how cultures and religions evaluate quality of life.

But in economically deprived countries, education is not generally available. And in highly specialised economically advanced societies, education directs people from an early age towards examinations in subjects that will lead to skilled and specialised employment. This leaves both types of society largely theologically illiterate and susceptible to those who create and use violent gods. ihese gods demand justice, and this justice costs lives. Although the British educational curriculum has become less biased towards a single faith system over the last decades, and although since September 11th there has been much more interest in Islam, there remains an important need to promote greater theological literacy within the network and further afield. Theological literacy will help cultures reflect on their particular gods and adapt the gods to the changing world, which all cultures share.

This present issue is a reflection one year on from the events of September 11th. May it provoke us to a theology in which life is the criteria by which we evaluate the gods of the nations and name them after their deeds! Then we can reclaim life as holy, sacred and of moral value.