On some level, one might think that religious leaders have nothing to offer here. After all, do people in 21st Century America of the Jewish, Christian, Mormon, Hindu, and Buddhist faith murder on a large scale in the name of their religion? Obviously not. The identity struggle within Islam is a complex one, which we will discuss below. But first, let’s remind ourselves of who mass killers are, and what potential exists within houses of worship.
Mass killers are alienated and isolated, invested in their alienation. They crawl into the cracks in being invested in their plan to destroy, rejecting the help of traditional resources, be they schools or clinics or hospitals. The more unapproachable to humans one is, the easier it is to reach for inhumanity.
Houses of worship are community based; they serve and reach neighbors, merchants, friends, employers, teachers, parents, police, and others who extend to the farthest reaches of the neighborhoods and down to the level of the individual. Religious leaders advancing values of their religion are promoting various forms of benevolence, charity, and love among those who are anything but alienated from mankind.
Because of the immense potential for humanity radiating from the motivated flock, it is a must for religious leaders to inspire and direct their adherents to love those on the periphery, those in the cracks, those unaffiliated. It is not natural for some to reach beyond the congregation. And it is not natural for some of faith to reach to the unaffiliated without a proselytizing agenda. But marshaling such potential of religious institutions is a must; because those who seek religious affiliation have an unusual capacity for love and are a force for good that cannot be replicated by teachers, psychiatrists, or sometimes even parents. A religious imperative to love those on the periphery impacts the bubble of alienation that the developing mass killer must maintain. Confronted with humanity and kindness with no quid pro quo challenges the misguided hypotheses, and punctures the wall of isolation.
To the nihilistic fantasizer about transcendent notoriety, the messenger of God is a reminder that fate could be potentially kind on earth and unkind in the afterlife. Mass killers are people of no faith, whose faith has been drowned in cynical disappointments when their hopelessness merges with the material payoff of fame with which the news media rewards mass casualty murder. Piety in its sincerest form disarms, as does undeniable love. Again, mass killers have sought love and are enraged in their incompetence in achieving it.
The enormous potential of houses of worship is directed by religious leaders. These organized bodies can be focused to greater community good by religious leaders with pious vision. And for those religious leaders invested in eliminating mass killing, it is essential to envision one’s role, as a messenger of God, to direct the immense constructive potential among people of faith to promote safety.
Sadly, the power of religious inspiration is directly responsible for inspiring suicide bombing by Muslims against Muslims and non-Muslims all over the world. Many Muslims clerics are appropriately horrified by such barbarism and its role in shaping perceptions of Islam as a devolved darkness permanently mired in the seventh century. These peaceful clerics, who are often overshadowed by politically powerful clerics who now dominate whole countries, cater to congregations of people who seek religious leadership for the same decent and kind reasons as any other religion. Such humble imams are uniquely qualified to extend to others at their periphery who are ensnared by sociopathic imams peddling political and genocidal hatreds wrapped in 72 virgins and other proscribed rewards. The imperative of the peaceful Muslim cleric, to extend to the periphery of the flock, is all the more important to preventing some mass killing. For some ideological mass killers in development may only be responsive to the learned Muslim who can engage them ideologically at eye level and redirect them from a catastrophic choice. The cleric who uses his pulpit can focus an entire congregation seeking the divine to defuse tomorrow’s mass killer.
Relevance of the house of worship is defined by its capacity to reflect the expression of God to the material world. Otherwise, whatever religion that house of worship purports to be is at best an entrepreneurial venture that exists only for its own insular growth, and at worst a nihilistic sham of apocalyptic perversity. I believe in the potential of all religions to end mass killing, and if they act in the name of a deity, they will.
Next in Part 6: What the Mental Health Professions and Professionals Must do to Eliminate Mass Murder
