Religion, when Practiced in Name Only as Osama bin Laden did, Is an Evil that also Consumes Western Religious Culture — Rabbi Boteach’s Moral Teaching

© 2011 Peter Free

 

18 May 2011

 

 

In apparently unrelated things, we find arrows pointing to spiritual duty

 

Rabbi Boteach asked a few questions recently:

 

The bizarre burial of Osama bin Laden at sea -- an action necessitated by our government's need to accommodate Islamic law requiring that a Muslim be buried within 24 hours of death -- raises urgent questions about the definition of faith in America.

 

Can a mass murderer be said to be religious?

 

Can there be religious ritual without religious values?

 

And should Western governments participate in this definition of religion as something that is preached as opposed to practiced?

 

At his death the Islam Society of North America released a statement noting, "The ideology of bin Laden is incompatible with Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims."

 

A spokesperson for the Muslim Public Affairs Council echoed the sentiment. "He basically hijacked Islam and became a disgrace to Muslims."

 

Why then if bin Laden did not live as a Muslim did it our government rush to bury him as one?

 

© 2011 Shmuley Boteach, Bin Laden’s Burial and Other Religious Frauds, Huffington Post (15 May 2011) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Don’t stop thinking just yet­­­­

 

The simple minded among will have stopped pondering bin Laden’s execution, had they thought at all, with justifying it.

 

But —

 

 

Rabbi Boteach continues to a larger point — Does religion imply practice?

 

He says:

 

But notwithstanding the larger point of the difference between inconsistency and hypocrisy, the growing chasm between faith-based teachings, on the one hand, and the actions of the faithful on the other, is the greatest cancer afflicting modern religion . . . .

 

© 2011 Shmuley Boteach, Bin Laden’s Burial and Other Religious Frauds, Huffington Post (15 May 2011)

 

In other words, if we do not act the teachings, what good is saying that we are religious?

 

This is why Boteach highlights the chasm between “preaching” religion and “practicing” it.

 

Aside

 

The difference between talking and doing, incidentally, is why committed Buddhists do no preaching and engage in life-long, second-to-second practicing.

 

That may explain why the various Buddhist branches, taken together, have so comparatively few adherents.

 

It is hard, often emotionally disturbing work to unremittingly practice what one says one believes.

 

 

Boteach’s moral statement

 

The connection between (a) Osama bin Laden’s life and execution and (b) us is that:

 

America is rapidly becoming a debtor nation of insatiable consumers whose unhealthy dependency on material objects for happiness three years ago collapsed down a $10 trillion economy.

 

We are purveyors of an increasingly decadent culture whose exploitation of a fame-obsessed obsessed citizenry on television now passes for 'reality' and whose institutions of higher learning are often better known for drinking than for learning.

 

We are in desperate need of the inspiration and moral realignment that only religion can impart.

 

But it will not happen so long as we falsely define religion as a collection of empty ritual unaccompanied by moral behavior and values.

 

© 2011 Shmuley Boteach, Bin Laden’s Burial and Other Religious Frauds, Huffington Post (15 May 2011) (paragraph split)

 

 

The moral?

 

Practice.