One of the minor casualties of Hurricane Isabel in the fall of 2003 was the cancellation of the ICJS Fall Public Lecture featuring Dr. Charles Kimball, author of When Religion Becomes Evil. What dies in the fall, however, is often reborn in the spring: The Fall Public Lecture became the Spring Public Lecture; and the ICJS, in conjunction with Goucher College, finally enjoyed the honor of presenting Dr. Kimball, who spoke to a nearly full Merrick lecture hall at Goucher College on the evening of April 20, 2004. Dr. Kimball's remarks are summarized in the following report.

On September 11, 2001 volatile forces closely allied with reli-gious beliefs inspired a small group of men to perform horrible acts in the name of God. We have learned a great deal since that day about the place of religion in a world forever changed by the events of September 11. We have learned that religion can be a destructive force. We have learned that there are other sorts of weapons of mass destruction besides worrisome stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons: There are box cutters that can be carried onto airplanes. We have learned that it doesn't take very many people to wreak havoc on a massive scale.

Dr. Kimball believes that many, perhaps even most, of the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world were as horrified by the events of September 11 as were the citizens of the United States. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who are angry at and frustrated by the oppression under which they live their lives. Few Muslim countries, after all, are ruled by leaders elected by the people. Where leaders are not elected, as in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the wealth of the country tends to be concentrated in the hands of a very small number of people. The angriest of oppressed Muslims form an extremely dangerous fringe movement, and many of them may become active religious extremists.

After securing the audience's attention with his brief review of recent events, Dr. Kimball turned to his own background and explained that his interest in comparative religions began in childhood. His paternal grnadfather was a Jewish immigrant to America who enjoyed a successful career in vaudeville and who met and married a Presbyterian chorus girl from the vaudeville show. His grandfather remained Jewish, his grand-mother remained Presbyterian, and their children were raised as Christians. Born into such a family, Kimball had a warm and positive view of Judaism, but he discovered as a third-grader in Tulsa, Oklahoma that there were many people who did not have the same view of Judaism that he did. In pursuing his own religious identity and exploring other religions, Kimball has developed a deep understanding of issues of particularity and pluralism: Deep within he is convinced that God must be greater than his experience of God; God must be greater than any one person's experience of God.

In When Religion Becomes Evil, Dr. Kimball wants to step back to see what can be learned about patterns of behavior -- "warning signs" -- that alert us to people corrupting religion by using it in violent and destructive ways with global conse-quences. The first of five warning signs he highlights in the book is the making of absolute truth claims. Kimball does not deny that there is such a thing as absolute truth, but he affirms that it rests with God. He acknowledges that truth claims are foundational in every religion but suggests that we must be more humble in the way that we appropriate these claims, especially when they become linked with violence. Truth claims that lead to suicide bombings or the bombing of abortion clinics, for example, leave no margin for the possibility that other people also have a claim to truth. Kimball is especially critical of people on the religious right who set themselves up as spokespersons for Christianity and from their positions of leadership call Islam an "evil religion" and Muham-mad a "terrorist" -- comments that achieve nothing positive or productive, but only fuel extremism among Muslims.

Another of the warning signs described by Dr. Kimball is the pursuit of the "ideal" time as part of an "Armageddon theol-ogy." He cited a number of examples of this kind of end-time thinking: Jim Jones, the People's Temple, and the Jonestown massacre; David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and the mass suicide at Waco; the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult; and the more than fifty million copies of the Left Behind series already in print that people gobble up as if what they are reading were authentic biblical theology. Dr. Kimball also spoke of those evangelical Christians who are firm supporters of Israel and profess love for the Jewish people, all the while anticipating an end time when Jews will either die or be converted to belief in Jesus Christ. Their theology impels them to oppose any Middle East peace plan because only war will bring on the end, and they give little thought to the suffering and violent mistreat-ment of others that war inevitably brings because the working out of their theology is more important than human suffering. He concluded his remarks about this warning sign by pointing out that to be a follower of Jesus is to be an agent of recon-ciliation and does not involve worrying about end-time theology.

Dr. Kimball devoted the rest of his talk to a discussion of hopeful developments in interfaith relations. People of differ-ent religions now live together all over the globe. They have already learned to cooperate with one another across reli-gious, political, and ideological lines in fields like business and medicine; but, although there is a greater consciousness of the need to understand other religious traditions and to be more religiously inclusive, certain obstacles to interfaith coop-eration remain. Religious communities often show a reluctance to become involved in dialogue when all the theological issues that separate them from other religions have not been settled. What is needed most, Dr. Kimball believes, is education, and organizations like the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies can have a major impact in promoting such education. There are also practical ways in which people can learn about other religions. For example, when people of different faiths come together to build a house for Habitat for Humanity, that in itself is a tremendous education; but opportunities for under-standing are greatly enhanced when television broadcasts images of these Christians, Jews, and Muslims working to-gether for good.

Dr. Kimball suggested wryly that religion may ultimately do us in, but he is also convinced that religion is where our best hope lies. He underscored this conviction by focusing on Jesus' answer to the question about which commandment is the "greatest." That answer -- love God and love thy neighbor -- appears in some form in all the great religious traditions. The horrible acts committed in God's name would never happen if people like Osama bin Laden ran their daily checklist past the Golden Rule. Says Dr. Kimball, "You can't love God and fly air-planes into buildings."

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion that in-cluded Dr. Kimball, Dr. Christopher Leighton, Goucher Associate Professor of Religion Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, and ICJS Jewish scholar Rabbi Charles Arian. The program was moderated by Sanford Ungar, President of Goucher College.

Click here for a summary of the post-lecture discussion, audience questions, and Dr. Kimball's responses.