Religion shouldn't be used to divide us by Sarah Littman

published January 24, 2006

If I ever needed proof that God exists, it came on Friday the 13th. I was busy crying my eyes out, having experienced the sort of week Murphy must have had when he came up with his law that everything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible moment.

When the phone rang, I answered it reluctantly, with a sniffle. Boy, was I glad that I did. It was Heidi Estrin, from the Association of Jewish Libraries, telling me that my book, "Confessions of a Closet Catholic," had won the 2006 Sydney Taylor Book Award for older readers. My mood underwent a sudden, rather miraculous, improvement.

"Confessions" is a book about faith. The Sydney Taylor committee called it a "vivid, honest story of spiritual exploration ... a search for identity and belonging that will resonate with readers of all religions."

Matters of faith and how an individual comes to their own personal relationship with God are subjects to which I've given a great deal of thought.

In a world where religion has become so divisive, one of the themes in "Confessions" is how we should focus on commonalities of belief among the different faiths we practice, rather than on the rituals that separate us.

Since George Bush came to power, the phrase "Christian values" has been bandied about constantly. I've wondered exactly what that means recently, when I've heard some of the things emerging from the mouths of supposed men of God. Perhaps the most reprehensible example of this was the declaration by evangelical leader Pat Robertson that blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke on his policy of withdrawing Israeli settlers from Gaza. "He was dividing God's land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations or United States of America," Robertson proclaimed. "God said, 'This land belongs to me, you better leave it alone.' "

OK, I'm not Christian, and my knowledge of the New Testament is no where near that of the Torah. But it seems to me that if someone has just suffered a major stroke and is at death's door, the more "Christian" thing to have done would have been to pray for him. It's not just the more-Christian thing, it's the more-human thing to do.

But then Robertson is the guy who said of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one ... strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." After all, as Robertson observed, assassinating the guy is "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."

Well, yeah. But I don't even need to go into the New Testament to find a problem with that logic. It's right there in the Ten Commandments -- No. 6, I believe: "Thou shalt not kill." It appears that Mr. Robertson is guilty of practicing a bit of selective Christianity.

It seems beyond belief that Mr. Robertson, who along with other cronies on the religious right also claimed that both the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina were God's punishments for such transgressions as abortion, homosexuality and the ACLU, gets away with calling himself a Man of God. If religious leaders, who are supposed to set an example to the rest of us for tolerance and love thy neighbor, spout this kind of vitriol and hatred, what hope is there for peace in the world?

But it's not just on the right that the Lord's name is being taken in vain for political purposes. Last week, New Orleans' Democratic Mayor, Ray Nagin, let loose with a diatribe of his own: "As we think about rebuilding New Orleans, surely God is mad at America," Nagin said. "He's sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane. And it's destroying, it's putting stress on this country. Surely, he's not approval [sic] of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he's upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves. We're not taking care of our women. And we're not taking care of our children."

"Confessions" speaks from my own experience, which is that true people of faith (whatever that faith might be) practice tolerance, compassion and understanding -- virtues that some allegedly "religious" leaders do not appear to possess.

Sarah Littman, who lives in Greenwich, is author of "Confessions of a Closet Catholic," published by Dutton Children's Books