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 Cecilie Strommen
First of all: we’re not
safe anywhere. We knew that a lot of things
could happen when we lived in Israel, but it was often presented more dramatically in the
news than what we experienced in daily life. September
11th came as a big shock to us. It was an
extra stress for my family that I was not in New York at the time, and that we
couldn’t go through the experience together. I
could only follow what was happening from a distance, listening to my husband’s
description of “Apocalypse Now” and watching TV like the rest of the world. I noticed and appreciated the quick religious
response, people gathering in churches and open places, using the religious leaders as
their leaders, singing religious songs and so on. At
the conference I was attending, we gathered Jews and Lutherans and said Kaddish and
afterwards had readings from the Psalms and more prayers.
It was not the differences that counted, but that we were united in a
situation and wanted to act religiously together.
When we have catastrophes in
Norway, people also end up in the church, because we have an apparatus that works, people
available and, not least, because we have rituals. In
the church room there is room for kindling lights, for said and unsaid prayers. It seems that when people mourn they need to do
something.
As Norwegians here after
September 11th, we definitely now feel more like New Yorkers. The town is not
as hostile as it used to; it has been hurt, and so have we. My daughter, aged 11, said:
“We lost so many Mother.” We’re
probably all still in grief. And we’re impressed by the way the American society has
handled the situation, the unique religious response, which I believe wouldn’t have
been so united in Norway. It’s simply
not natural for us to say: “In God we trust!” And maybe we don’t? It was very interesting to read in the New York Times about singles who didn’t find
it so attractive anymore to be single, and to see that the sale prices on second homes are
increasing. It’s a moment that is defining values.
What role does religion have
in this? I believe that in a crisis,
it’s natural to turn to something bigger than yourself, it comes naturally to seek
God. Therefore it’s more challenging to
ask: How is religion valid in all kinds of situations? How does religion work when we are
strong? Or how do we, as religious people, live in a modern society ?
I don’t consider
fundamentalism in itself as dangerous. Fanaticism
is dangerous! The definition of a fanatic is
someone who will not make compromises. Fanaticism can appear in many different forms:
scientific fanaticism can appear as genetic engineering with no respect for life; media
fanaticism when journalists hunt a person down, to destroy him or her publicly. And there
is so-called religious fanaticism in which religion is abused as an excuse. It’s
religious fanaticism and not religious fundamentalism.
I believe that the only way
to encounter this problem is through tolerance. Historically, Jews lived better under
Muslims than Christians; my “Christian” Europe was the place of the Holocaust! Today Muslims live very well in Christian and
Western societies. We have to realize that we
don’t have to fear each other, that it’s possible to live together. Guards are needed in the society, however, such as
the rule of law based on human rights. If human rights are not protected, there’s no
guarantee things will work. Religion in itself is no guarantee! To go on with my challenge: how do we live as
religious and tolerant people!? How can we from the three monotheistic religions help each
other?
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