Religions don’t speak, people do

Over at Foreign Policy Watch, Jeb Koogler makes what should be an obvious point, but sadly never has been:

But religion does not speak and therefore cannot be essentialized. To talk of Islam as though it has a correct interpretation, i.e. “Islam says…”, is to begin from a poor understanding of religious hermeneutics. It is human beings who subjectively, and in a continuously changing way, interpret religious texts and provide accounts as to “correct” religious dogma and practice.

We often witness this attempt to essentialize Islam in contexts like this one: “What does Islam say about killing apostates?” This is a nonsensical question. “Islam” says nothing about the issue. Rather, the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence say something, groups of Indonesia and Saudi and Pakistani Muslims say various things, classical Sufis say other things, and so forth. We cannot speak about a definable essence — or correct meaning — of a religion with 1.2 billion adherents. We can only speak about the diversity of its interpretation and practice.

This is true of any faith. Take what may be a more familiar example: “What does Christianity say about killing apostates?” Well, Christianity doesn’t say anything about anything. There’s scripture, interpreted by both clerics and lay people. Hell, “Christianity” isn’t even clear on who is allowed to interpret it. Sure, I’d suspect that most Christians believe that you shouldn’t kill apostates, but I’m not convinced that’s some universal belief, forget about being “said by Christianity.”

The church I grew up in was, by and large, part of the fundamentalist tradition. It was even a part of the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America, the association that, I guess, served as the “denomination” (think “Anarchists’ Club”). But, sometime in the 1990s, there was a split—a schism between people who believed that Jesus was always the Son of God, and those who believed that Jesus became the Son of God when he was born. Seriously.

So, how can people think that there’s a possibility that “Islam” teaches anything, any more than “Christianity” or “Judaism” teaches anything?

Related posts:

1. Why don’t poor people want to help poorer people?
2. Why speak French?
3. Hey, white people: Are you scared enough of black people?