AN EYEWITNESS recounts the horrifying details of an incident in which a carriage, drawn by a number of horses, sped into a crowd of people, killing a pregnant woman on the spot. He tells of how the driver who, on seeing the woman lying dead, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "It was the will of Allah," and with that, he drove away. This tragic portrayal serves as a telling example of the way religious beliefs have often served to justify much of life's misfortunes, resulting in untold suffering throughout much of human history.
One has only to recall the social and economic injustices of the traditional caste system of India, legitimised by Hindu religious law. Developed by Aryan priests over 3,000 years ago, this system of social stratification establishes rigid boundaries that restrict social mobility and personal contact between people of different classes. Even one's choice of occupation is affected under this system, with the jobs regarded as most degrading going to those persons formerly known as "untouchables". These are persons who are excluded altogether from the social structure of Indian society, and are often forced to live in squalid settlements away from the main community. They are frequently denied access to certain places of worship, and are prevented even from drawing water from wells used by members of other classes. In some of the schools where they are allowed to attend, they are made to sit at the back of the classrooms for fear that they may defile others simply by touching them. It is estimated that today, between 160-250 million persons suffer alienation and abuse under this most cruel system of oppression.
Then there is the system of apartheid peculiar to South Africa, in which racial segregation and the supremacy of the white minority were sanctioned, not only by law, but by religion as well. The European church, in its mission to Christianise the indigenous people of the land, did so on the basis of the Exodus recorded in scripture. The conquest of the land and the subjugation of its people were thus seen by the settlers as God's will. And so, backed by religion, the white South African government sought to increase its political and economic control through a series of repressive enactments from as far back as 1910. Resistance was met with severe penalties, including deportation, imprisonment and execution. Thousands of detainees have died in prison from torture while they awaited trial. In the end, black South Africans (75 per cent of the population) were crammed into 13 per cent of their own country, while the white minority possessed over 80 per cent of the land. And, although the South African economy is heavily dependent on the non-white labour force, such workers earned less than 20 per cent of the national income! It therefore comes as no surprise that the infant mortality rate among black South Africans was 15 times higher than that among whites, and that the teacher/pupil ratio was twice as high in schools attended by black students compared to those attended by their white counterparts.
From those two examples of religion's role in deepening the human predicament, the inextricable link between religion, politics and economics now comes into full view. Thus, whenever God is seen as the guardian of the status quo, protecting the vested interests of those who wield power, then oppression and inequity are never far behind. But if God is recognised by the dominant order as the one who possesses the freedom to act with righteousness, then compassion and equality become imminent possibilities. Therefore, any belief in a God who legitimises unjust human suffering is not true religion, but a distortion of it. The measure of any true religion is always to be seen in expressions of justice, compassion and righteousness (Micah 6:8; 1:27).
And so religion, properly understood and practised, leads ultimately to the dismantling of social structures that are oppressive and dehumanising. This is to be seen in the reforms introduced in the caste system of India, and in the eventual breakdown of apartheid once practised in South Africa. It was Mahatma Gandhi who, in his campaign for the rights of "untouchables", based his appeal on the Hindu principle of Sarvodaya - the welfare of all. This brought a new understanding to the very laws that had previously served to discriminate against this most vulnerable group of Indian Society, and resulted in the abolition of untouchability in 1948. And in South Africa, the traditional interpretation of the biblical Exodus that supported apartheid for over four decades was now challenged by a new interpretation in which God is revealed as one who intervenes in the struggles of the oppressed to bring liberation. Eventually, South Africa saw apartheid crumble in 1990.
To be sure, the stigma of untouchability, white supremacy and other forms of systemic evil remain to this day. Nevertheless the irreversible process of dismantling the systems that inflict human suffering has already begun, and true religion has played her part.
Norman Francis is the associate minister at Webster Memorial United.
