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When Religion Becomes Idolatry: A Reflection on the Politics of Identity in the Midst of the Syrian Crisis

By Suzie Lahoud

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12

Like Jacob, I have recently wrestled with God over the politics of my own identity. From a young age I had attained to what many around me attested to be “profound maturity” in my Christian faith.  I could quote Bible verses in the proper context with a sound interpretation for the right circumstance.  I had a solid theological answer for every question of faith, and even for those questions I had not yet thought to ask, I could conjure an immediate response based on my finely tuned spiritual reasoning.

And then war broke out in Syria, and my faith was shattered. 

Somehow all of my biblical reasoning seemed to be in turmoil. My theological platitudes seemed to fall short. I found that not only did I not have the answers, but I was lost.  Drowning in a sea of blood, and destruction, and despair. I resented those who could rest assured at night trusting that “this was the will of God.” I resented those who could pray, and weep, and find comfort.

And somehow in the midst of this pain and suffering, God was still at work.  I remember one Saturday at a food aid distribution for Syrian refugees, a mother presented me with her infant with a brain tumor so grotesque that she looked like a creature from another world. The infant’s eyes stared up at me unblinking.  Her mother lamented that her baby had long ago ceased to even cry from the pain.  And the UN, they would not pay for her surgery.  Reading over the dirty, crumpled prognosis, I didn’t have the heart to tell the mother that it was because there was no hope for this child.  They would not waste their limited resources on certain death.  And all I could do was weep with her, standing there shivering in the cold.  I called my friend over and we laid hands on the baby and prayed for her together.  I didn’t have the strength to do it alone.  That night I couldn’t sleep.  I tossed and turned and prayed for that child.  I was heartbroken and angry.

Two weeks later I learned that the UN had agreed to pay for the child’s surgery to remove the tumor.  She was going to be fine. Life from death. That’s what God can do in the midst of suffering.  But I still don’t understand how, or when, or why.

What I have learned is that I am so small, and God is bigger than I ever imagined.

There has been a lot of talk over the past decade or so around the idea of Christian worldview. In 2005, Nancy Pearcey published a widely acclaimed book entitled, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity.  It outlined the need for Christians to develop a holistic understanding of the world that incorporates our faith into every aspect of our being, rather than compartmentalizing it. While I support her thesis, I have also recently found an unexpected theological kinship with post-structuralist thinkers Levinas and Derrida.

These fathers of post-modernism warned against the dangers of totalitarian systems of thought.  Though I may not agree fully with all of their premises, I do agree with doing away with neatly packaged discourses that conveniently order the world. And here’s why: any system of thought, no matter how complex, that has a humanly obtainable answer for everything is essentially atheist, or at the very least, agnostic.  We’ve essentially taken God out of the equation by making it about the equation.  But while God is a God of order, He is not an equation. He is a Person. Or rather, a Being of triune existence. And He is by definition, Other.  He is by definition, beyond comprehension.

When we attempt to make sense of the world by ordering the mind of God, we are inevitably fashioning Him in our own image, because the human mind is never free of prejudice.  And this is idolatry.

And this has led to so much evil in the world.  It has perpetuated systems of oppression.  And racism.  And hate.  It has led to genocide.  And apartheid.  And rape.  Tell me that the church’s hands are clean from the blood of even the past century, and I will tell you that you are complicit in upholding the kind of bloodguilt the church lives with every single day. And this is one of the most dangerous sins of all: apathy.

I have often pondered over Gandhi’s confession, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.” Yet its historical significance did not fully dawn on me until recently.  I was reading Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, when the following description of the then tragically misled solidarity of the Church of England pierced me to the heart:

It is a class religion, the cult of a special society and group, not even of the whole nation, but of the ruling minority in a nation…The thing that holds them together is the powerful attraction of their own social tradition, and the stubborn tenacity with which they cling to certain social standards and customs, more or less for their own sake… Its strength is not in anything supernatural, but in the strong social and racial instincts which bind the members of this caste together; and the English cling to their Church the way they cling to their King and to their schools: because of a big, vague, sweet complex of subjective dispositions… (Merton, p. 72).

While this is the type of blunt critique that perhaps only a Trappist monk could safely deliver, it still gives one pause that this religious solidarity was the very force that drove colonialism. It was the worldview that sought to “tame the Orient” and “convert the heathen.”  It produced the privileged social class that E.M. Forster and Tagore decried, and against which Gandhi so famously protested. And its characteristic ethos is painfully familiar.

In his seminal work, The Prophetic Imagination, theologian Walter Brueggemann further reflects on the subtle political motivations that shape our perceptions of the divine. He aptly observes that, “…for those who regulate and benefit from the order of the day a truly free God is not necessary, desirable, or perhaps even possible” (Brueggemann, p.23). If we have managed to successfully chain God to our own bandwagon, or at the very least, to put Him into a box, then He is surely not God.  He must be an idol.

In light of this, I cannot help but ask: When we are confronted by the tragedies of this region, and the suffering of the world, do we fall back on easy answers born of our cultural/political norms and our socialization?  Do we attempt to put a band-aid on the gushing wound of the world’s brokenness so that we can rest assured at night that this is “the will of God” and that we have “done our part”? Do we slam our doors in the faces of the refugee and the destitute, or turn a blind eye, justifying our actions with religious truisms that serve to maintain the status quo? Do we sacrifice the Other on the altar of Self claiming that God is on our side?

Yes, my identity is in Christ.  But who is Christ?  And who am I?  And who is my neighbor?  These are the questions that I will spend the rest of my life grappling with.  And the moment I think I’ve found all the answers, I have slipped into an easy idolatry fashioned in no other image than my own. The first Other we do violence against is always God.

suzieSuzie Lahoud serves with a Lebanese, faith-based NGO that has been providing relief assistance in response to the Syrian Crisis since 2011.  She is also currently enrolled in IMES’s Master of Religion in Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MRel in MENA Studies) program at ABTS.

10 Comments

  1. As a long time friend of the people of Lebanon and the Middle East I would like to meet Suzie Lahoud. It gives me joy to know that ABTS is training young leaders like Ms. Lahoud who will not only lead the body of Christ in the Middle East in the future – she is doing so today by her writing and her practical work and exposure to “the least of these” a seen in her compassion for the refugee child that looked hopeless. I think I know how she feels. Lord have mercy!

    • Suzie Lahoud says:

      Hi Leonard- thank you for your kind words of encouragement! ABTS is indeed, doing an incredible job of spurring us on in building up the Kingdom in this part of the world. Please continue to keep this ministry and the region in your prayers, and it would be wonderful if you could visit sometime soon!

  2. I agree with you, Len! I wish I were still teaching at ABTS so I could get to know this young lady. I’m sure I could learn from her. As you know we lived through 12 out of the 15 years of the civil war and faced all the soul-searching which went with that. It drew us closer to our Lord and confirmed that He is GOD who knows all and guides the events of our lives to bring about His purposes. He even allows suffering for His reasons (like Job in the O.T.). All of this requires more faith than sight (Hebrews 11). And may He deliver us from idolatry of any kind.

    David King

    • Suzie Lahoud says:

      Hi David- you must have many stories to tell! And yes, I continue to be challenged by that recurring biblical theme that “the righteous shall live by faith.” It’s oftentimes so antithetical to what we want to hear, yet it is essential to pursuing a genuine relationship with the Holy One. I’m sure I have much to learn from your experiences of living this out! I hope you might visit us again sometime soon!

  3. Adrian says:

    Very humbling to read and share from a safe haven that is the UK. We were challenged again in our 6:30 prayer meeting this morning at all times and in all places to ask for light in dark places.

    Eph 1 v 7-12 brought to folks – Our Lord is the great planner!

    Every Blessing – Adrian – Norwich – UK

  4. […] Source: When Religion Becomes Idolatry: A Reflection on the Politics of Identity in the Midst of the Syrian … […]

  5. Joy says:

    Thank you so much for your heart felt article. Your honesty is both convicting and inspiring! May God bless you!

  6. James McFaul says:

    I write this comment 2 years after Suzie Lahoud’s article. I am grateful to know that, for all of its testing, her faith remains strong.

    I write from the comfort and safety of post-modern America. I have no right to offer any suggestions to those who have seen first-hand the horrors of the past six years of the Syrian civil war. But I will dare to comment anyway, because I wrestle with the same questions of wanting to make sense of the madness of this world. Of desiring a “world view” that can explain everything, especially the evil and pain and suffering of this fallen world.

    I have not lived the answer yet, but with the help of Dietrich Bonhoeffer I believe I can see the path forward. I have been reading “The Cost of Discipleship,” first published in 1937, when Bonhoeffer was only 31 years old. I imagine you have read it, Suzie, but if not I highly recommend it.

    Faith in God does not provide any satisfactory answers to the questions raised by evil and suffering. As attached as I am to the Old Testament, I am realizing that the answers are not to be found there. Yes, the Book of Job offers profound insights into the experience of suffering, and much more, but it provides no answers.

    It seems almost too basic to say it, but in the face of evil and horror and suffering our only consolation is in the cross. Only Jesus “answers” our questions. Not because we get clear explanations about how it’s all according to some greater plan of God the Father– we don’t. Instead, Jesus simply makes the questions moot.

    I have been blessed to not have experienced any real horrors thus far in my life. My sufferings are simpler, such as the hurt, indignation and alarm I feel because my teenage children reject the Christian faith, and by extension, me. Then I look at Jesus and recall how we, and I at one time, rejected him, and I can almost hear him ask “Did you really expect to be treated better than me?” When I feel hurt by someone I love, and anger starts to rise in me, I consider Jesus’ words as he hung on the cross, nails driven through his hands and feet, the people mocking him in his suffering: “Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23:24)

    My heart breaks with every report of children watching their parents murdered in front of them, of bodies washing up on beaches, of all the horrors of this fallen world. But it is impossible for me to feel anger at God. Not when I consider that He himself entered into this mess, suffered immensely and died for us. And then, in His resurrection, overcame.

    “God is sovereign.” Those 3 words have been my consolation through many trials.

    Jesus calls us to discipleship, to follow him and share in his suffering. When I contemplate what he experienced for us, all I can say is “Your Honor, I withdraw all my questions.”

    As I said above, I have not lived this answer yet. I have not “given up everything” to follow Jesus. But I am seeing that therein lies my only real hope, and safety. All other paths lead, sooner or later, to idolatry.

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