Scholar explores 'evil' in religion

Ordained Baptist minister, religion professor and author Charles Kimball spoke Monday about the connection between religion and evil, an issue that he argued has been particularly timely due to recent events, including the terror attacks of Sept. 11.

Kimball began by saying that "religion is an extremely powerful force in the world that inspires people to do their best, yet some of the worst things done are justified by religion."

He went on to say that "Sept. 11 was a violent and destructive manifestation of religion."

Kimball continued discussing the terror attacks, saying that they awakened the world to the reality that it "doesn't take very many people to wreak havoc on a global scale." He made a point to say that a "vast majority of Muslims across the world are horrified and offended by extremists."

Yet, he said that there are "millions of angry and frustrated people that may be driven towards the arms of violent extremism."

While Kimball is an ordained Baptist minister, he comes from a pluralistic religious background. His great-grandfather was Jewish and was forced out of Poland in a pogrom.

His Jewish grandfather and brother began a vaudeville song and dance team that became quite successful.

While traveling with his vaudeville, Kimball's grandfather met and eventually married a Presbyterian woman.

She made the choice to raise her children to become Christians. Kimball says that he "would have been Jewish in any other part of my family."

Kimball points to several "warning signs" that prelude corruption occurring in religion. The first of these warning signs are "absolute truth claims." Kimball said, "there is such a thing as absolute truth, but it rests with God, not with one of us."

He went on to say that "anyone that thinks they have God in their pocket can justify anything. This is not necessarily destructive, but it can be."

The second warning sign Kimball discussed was "blind obedience." Kimball said when "too much power is in too few hands, there is a potential for danger."

The danger is especially clear, he said, when people "abdicate responsibility to a charismatic religious leader. ... Healthy religion challenges you to think and ask questions. We are all responsible for ourselves."

The last warning sign that Kimball spoke about was the "pursuit of the ideal time." Kimball said that he knows "personally many people that are convinced we are at the end and are completely focused on piecing together bits and clues of the theological puzzle."

This focus, Kimball said, "misses the central focus of the New Testament. There are people all over the world who are hungry and sick."

Kimball emphasized that everyone has a "different understanding of God."

Yet somehow there are people that "separate Jews and Christians and segregate Islam and write it off." Kimball closed with a passage from the Koran that states "if God had so willed, God would have create you in one community."

Kimball is a professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University. Kimball has devoted himself to the study of Islam and is an expert analyst on issues related to the Middle East, Islam and Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations.

From 1983 - 1990 he was the director of the Middle East office at the National Council of Churches, and he worked closely with Congress and the State department during the last 20 years in regard to the Middle East.

The intersection of religion and evil is also the subject of Kimball's book, When Religion Becomes Evil.