People opposing religion often claim that organized religion has led to more suffering, wars, and violence than any other causes. Such rhetoric is designed to neuter religion by shaming its practitioners. However, I have often wondered about the veracity of these claims. If I combine the death tolls of the war in Congo, the Rwandan genocide, and the countless killings at the hands of atheistic communist ideologies – Mao, Stalin, and Lenin, for example – I suspect this would outweigh the death tolls caused by religious wars.
What does this prove? It proves that any ideologies held militantly can degenerate, since we humans are all savage brutes whose hearts are desperately wicked, bent towards doing the wrong thing. As Congolese-Belgian rapper Baloji says, “L’horreur est humaine” (“horror is humane”). But most people still ascribe to that tired tenet stipulating that religion is the root of all evil. For them, religion necessarily leads to chaos, bigotry, and intolerance – cute!
Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary produced by Abigail Disney, represents a thorn in the side of that anti-religion narrative. The film tells the story of the peace movement Women of Liberia Mass Action of Peace. The movement is led by Leymah Gbowee, a social worker who managed to mobilize both Christian and Muslim women (you still don’t believe in miracles?) to participate in a nonviolent protest demanding that Charles Taylor and the warlords attend a peace talk in Accra, Ghana and come to an agreement to end the civil war in Liberia.
At first, the Christians and Muslims were a bit apprehensive to work with each other, fearing their union would lead to syncretism, compromising their respective faiths in the process. But they were able to transcend their differences in order to work for the common good of the whole nation. “Does a bullet choose between Christians and Muslims?” one of the women asked. Their protest, courage, and tireless effort ultimately led to the resignation of Charles Taylor, the end of the bloody war, and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female head of state in Africa.
This story provides a remarkable witness that religion can serve as a means for bringing change on this side of heaven, that believers can coexist in this pluralistic world and work hand and hand with people of differing ideologies. And though it’s not always the case, religions can also further the feminist quest for emancipation and equality. Perhaps the beauty of religion is in its ability to evolve and adapt in new contexts. Hopefully, this evolution will continue to promote peaceful coexistence, equality, and justice to help create a world were particularists, relativists, universalists, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, homosexuals, and heterosexuals can share the same space, holding firm to their own beliefs without demonizing or killing each other.
Is this a utopia? Tell that to the Liberian women!
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