Over the past few days the world has witnessed scenes of desperation from Afghanistan as the Taliban have taken over the country after 20 years of military presence by the United States. I have tried to listen to commentators on the political right and the political left, and as far as I can tell there is general agreement on a couple of things.
1. It was highly unlikely that the war in Afghanistan could have had any other outcome. I have not heard anyone say that if only the United States forces had stayed longer things could have turned out well.
2. The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban was more rapid than had been expected.
There are approx. 80,000 armed Taliban fighters and over 300,000 better equipped fighters trained by the United States, but I have not heard anyone with knowledge of the situation say that they expected the Taliban to be defeated. The point mentioned by commentators is that they did expect more of a fight when what mostly happened was surrender without resistance.
Very many years ago, when I was a pastor working with high school students I included in a prepared Bible study on morality and faith, news clips of the Taliban in Afghanistan destroying Buddhist religious sites and carrying out punishment on people who had been deemed immoral. This was before 9/11. The Taliban had not yet become famous as hosts and supporters of Osama Bin Laden and others.
We talked in that Bible Study over 20 years ago about the problem of imposing morality on other people. The point I was trying to make was that if we think the imposition of morality by groups like the Taliban is terrible, then we ought not to think that the imposition of morality is good when done in the name of Christian faith.
The Taliban had (have?) a government department called, “The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”. It is this department that interprets religious law and imposes punishment. For example, someone who has been found guilty of stealing has their hand cut off. A woman who has been unfaithful to her husband is executed. This is what is called the “propagation of virtue and promotion of vice”.
A government that seeks to impose religious law and rule by an assumed blessing of God is called a “theocracy”. Those in control in a theocracy maintain that they are simply establishing what God wants in the world. This is the terror of what is happening in Afghanistan. The all too common and horrible reality is that one of the first areas of control in most theocracies is over the bodies of women. Such control is exercised in actual national theocracies and in smaller realms of religious control such as some Christian communities or churches. This is happening already in Afghanistan.
As a Christian my call is not to figure out what is questionable about various forms of Islamic faith or various interpretations of the Quran. My call is to consider how in Christian faith we too readily accept small versions of “the committee for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice”.
You may have seen this as well. Did your church exercise “discipline” in the congregation? If so, was it about sex and sexuality? That’s a bit of a giveaway. Did you hear of or experience a church leader pulling aside a young woman to correct her on the appropriateness of her choice of clothing? Watch the eyes and demeanor of the Taliban leader explaining to the CNN reporter what is acceptable for a woman to wear. If you were treated as a moral problem by church leaders you have seen those eyes before.
Moralism does terrible damage to people and it is a depressing distortion of true Christian theology that sucks the life out of the promise of renewal and love in Jesus Christ. It offers fear instead of hope. It depends on control and coercion rather than trust and invitation. It betrays the truth that bad religion hates the world. This is the same world that theocrats claim that their God loves.
We are in a cultural moment in which the imposition of morality is an excess that we can see on the political right and on the political left. Depending on who I am speaking with this is pointed out to me. Often those on the right are eager to talk about the “cancel culture” of the left, while those on the left are eager to talk about how the Republican party in the United States looks like something from Handmaid’s Tale. In other words, they want to impose their moral views on everyone else.
The question that we can ask ourselves is what we have to offer that is better than this.
Imposition of morality from the left and from the right comes from a bleak view of the world and a bleak view of humanity.
True Christian faith is not bleak.
We can do so much better.
I do not need to insist that everyone should believe what I believe. In fact, I think that insisting upon this shows a lack of faith, not the presence of faith. However, I can seek to become aware that the worldview I hold comes from a hopeful Christian view of humanity, of history and of the future.
A prayer:
Dear God;
What are we to make of this terror in Afghanistan right now? I see that young man speaking in the news story and I am overwhelmed by the fear and resignation in his voice. I hear how the beauty salon mentioned in Kabul has painted over images on the walls that displayed women with uncovered faces. Why are religious men so juvenile? Why are they unable to see women as people? Why do we still think that controlling others by fear is some kind of victory?
I pray in my Christian faith that Christian religious leaders would be moved to see the emptiness of moralism in our faith and in our churches. Show us a better way.
And we pray for the people of Afghanistan and for all of those who are being deeply impacted by this recent turn of events. Give us eyes to see.
I thank you, dear Jesus, that you did not impose morality on anyone. I thank you that those deemed to be without virtue were drawn towards you while those seeking to impose religion and morality were angered at you, repelled by you. They rightfully saw you as dangerous to their desire to control others. I thank you that the way of the moralist is not a Christian way, even when it has been walked by Christian leaders.
Why have you seemingly allowed so much suffering from such ignorance? Jesus, how are you present in the plight of those devastated by this kind of terror? How are you with the ones who have had their hands cut off? How are you with those being killed for so called sexual sin?
Give us eyes to see.
Amen.
In your prayer are many questions. I cannot imagine being born into a country ruled by the Taliban. Such cruelty exists in those minds, beyond what we can fathom.
It seems that we are helpless even to offer hope. Maybe we have to leave all those questions to God and trust that somehow He will impart mercy to all those who suffer.
We only need to look to our own society, our own neighbourhoods where there are many who still hold a distorted view of women. Why is it still important to teach little boys to respect little girls? How is morality taught in our society? Are little boys taught to be virtuous or is that role for the little girls? How do little children learn about morality? Perhaps these are questions we need to focus on and it is up to us to be clear in what we believe. Our children are the future.
If Jesus were the Educator what would He teach our children? While we pray fervently for those in Afghanistan and ask for God’s mercy, we can claim the love of Christ to those in the community where we live.