CLAL Special Features
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Jewish Public Forum Seminar:
“What Is Religion For?”
November 19, 2001
Pre-Seminar
Response
“What Is Religion For?”
By Bob Scott
Shortly after the terrorist
attacks, the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said on Robertson’s TV show that
the tragedy could be blamed on a variety of people they didn’t like (i.e., liberals)
whose behavior had caused God to allow this tragedy to happen. After the predictable
uproar, Falwell explained that the comments were meant to be heard in the context of
Christian theology and were intended for a particular audience, and he was sorry if they
were offensive out of context.
What I think most people
missed was that the two men were not suggesting that the behavior had somehow weakened our
country in any rational cause-and-effect manner (i.e., made us soft or overconfident). I
believe that their statement was made out of a purely premodern worldview. Even
pre-Christian: It was Oedipus Rex, where the protagonist’s sin of sleeping with his
mother caused a plague to fall on Thebes, not by transmitting disease, but by displeasing
the gods, who sent the plague.
Such a statement only
convinces many in our culture that religion equates with superstition and has nothing to
say to the post-Enlightenment world. Yet at the same time, if religious voices are to be
true to their traditions and of service to others, we need to articulate a worldview
beyond pure scientific rationalism, one that describes a universe rich with meaning.
I know that those
voices are emerging, but my question is how can we find our voice in time to make a
difference?
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