,,,"Social psychologists call it “herd behavior” or the “mob mentality” and have
been studying facets of it since the nineteenth century. No one knows better
than economists the dangers of it now. And no small part of it happens in
religion. Because some people begin to predict the end of the world, other
people set calendar dates for a world catastrophe and stack their backyard
bunkers with supplies enough to last for years. Worse still, religious madness
may well be more engrained in social thought than other social ills. The witch
burnings in the United States—the executions of women for “consorting with the
devil”—completely belie the very founding ideals of the country. Suppression of
religious freedom throughout the world exposes the grain of ignorance that runs
through every society that claims concern about God. The attacks on churches in
the Middle East, the tribal wars in Africa, the laws of exclusion that followed
the great wars of religion in Europe right up to the twentieth century, are
clear proof that we have all sinned. We name “differences” madness and make mad
attempts to stamp out the other.
But the Desert Monastics, the most
“catholic” of Catholics in an age of pristine revelation, would have none of it.
Abba Antony brooks no doubt: Exclusion in the name of God is the very worst of
religious sins. God speaks in many tongues and to every color and age of people.
It is not ours to decide where God’s favor lies."
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