Anxiety and Extremism – Religion’s Gift?

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 1:07 pm by Robert Hunt

Anxiety and Extremism – Religion’s Gift? 2015-06-19T13:07:07-06:00 Robert Hunt

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Jewish extremists torch a famous Christian shrine on the Sea of Galilee. Of course the Israeli government and Jewish leaders worldwide condemn them. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jewish-extremists-suspected-of-torching-sea-of-galilee-loaves-and-fishes-church-in-tabgha-10329998.html.

ISIS destroys ancient religious shrines and communities in Syria and Iraq. Of course government leaders in the Middle East and Islamic leaders worldwide condemn them. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/islamic-state-destroys-church_n_7009072.html.

An young white terrorist kills 9 people in an American church. From the US President down to every Christian leader there is condemnation of his action. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/17/charleston-south-carolina-shooting/28902017/.

These three cases, different as they seem, have something in common. They have taken place in an environment of felt existential threat and impatient apocalypticism. Israel’s government continually highlights the possibility of the nations immanent destruction, even as the halting negotiations for a Palestinian state spur the settlement movement to quickly establish an immovable Jewish presence in both Galilee and the West Bank.

ISIS, whatever other motivations we may attribute to it, has made the existential threat to Islam and Muslims a central part of its propaganda and recruiting. And as its precipitate announcement of a new caliphate shows, it is impatient to engage the grand battle that will once again establish Islam as the world’s dominant religion.

And the gunman who killed in Charleston? He justified his actions by reference to old racist narratives of the destruction of the white race by Africans or African-Americans. And he couldn’t wait to act, like others before him apparently believing that violence would catalyze others to engage a final battle for white supremacy.

There is an additional similarity in these cases. The immediate and inevitable condemnations by religious and political leaders did not address the underlying justifications for the violence. And that is not surprising. Because the atmosphere of existential threat and impatient apocalypticism has been a major tool of both political and religious leaders in solidifying their power.

There are Jewish leaders, both in Israel and the US who genuinely despise the extremist settlers and grieve for the destruction they cause. Nonetheless they hound their followers into existential anxiety and frantic action. Perhaps they are afraid, more certainly it is the only strategy they know for getting the votes and the money to keep their own agendas alive.

There are Muslim leaders who find ISIS frightening and its violence revolting. But they still cannot resist alarmist rhetoric about the threats to Islam and Muslims they see rising across the world. “Act now!” their websites and newsletters scream, if you are to ward off Islamophobia and all the other enemies of the faith.

And Christian leaders, including those who hate racism and even those who are its victims urge their followers to save the church, the Christian nation, civilization, and the world from spiritual destruction and social disintegration before it is too late. They fan the flames of existential anxiety and apocalyptic fear even when they identify racism and gun violence as both a source and symptom.

Back in the 20th century there was a magazine called “Christianity and Crisis.” Long gone, it set the tone not merely for Christianity, but all religion in the late 20th century. The first half of the century saw Christendom swept away, the Islamic world fragmented by colonialism, and the Jewish world shattered by the holocaust and its rebuilding in Israel a fraught endeavor. So a sense of crisis is not surprising.

Yet anxious emotional energy is no help in solving the real problems faced by these three religious communities. An inevitable spin off from a constant state of anxiety and crisis is extremism of one sort or another. It is the way an emotionally charged social system keeps its stability by throwing off energy. Whatever is current in the way of bigotry, or sometimes simply whoever is closest at hand will determine the target of extremism. But the energy comes from carefully cultivated fear and anxiety that religious and political leaders thought they could use for more constructive purposes.

In South Carolina endemic racism pointed the young man’s gun, but the energy that propelled him to the church and pulled the trigger came from far more diffuse sources within American Christian society. The same is true in Syria and Galilee. These events are not senseless. They make perfect sense within the framework of existential anxiety and impatient apocalypticism.

It is time for our leaders to, as we used to say, chill. Do they not believe their own rhetoric about our world being in the hands of a merciful and loving God? A God that will never abandon the children of faith?

I suppose not. Even in the time it has taken to write this blog I’ve received another dozen frantic emails from the AJC, CAIR, AIPAC, ISNA, and of course all the Christian groups that are my homeys. Give money now! Call your congressman now! Get excited now! All of them want an emotionally supercharged community to support their causes. Breath deep and delete. If we all do that the world might become a better place.

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