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Jewish Public Forum Seminar: “What Is Religion For?”
November 19, 2001 

Pre-Seminar Response to the Question:

“What Is Religion For?”

By Cecilie Strommen 

First of all: we’re not safe anywhere.  We knew that a lot of things could happen when we lived in Israel, but it was often presented more dramatically in the news than what we experienced in daily life.  September 11th came as a big shock to us.  It was an extra stress for my family that I was not in New York at the time, and that we couldn’t go through the experience together.  I could only follow what was happening from a distance, listening to my husband’s description of “Apocalypse Now” and watching TV like the rest of the world.  I noticed and appreciated the quick religious response, people gathering in churches and open places, using the religious leaders as their leaders, singing religious songs and so on.  At the conference I was attending, we gathered Jews and Lutherans and said Kaddish and afterwards had readings from the Psalms and more prayers.   It was not the differences that counted, but that we were united in a situation and wanted to act religiously together.

When we have catastrophes in Norway, people also end up in the church, because we have an apparatus that works, people available and, not least, because we have rituals.  In the church room there is room for kindling lights, for said and unsaid prayers.  It seems that when people mourn they need to do something. 

As Norwegians here after September 11th, we definitely now feel more like New Yorkers. The town is not as hostile as it used to; it has been hurt, and so have we. My daughter, aged 11, said: “We lost so many Mother.”  We’re probably all still in grief. And we’re impressed by the way the American society has handled the situation, the unique religious response, which I believe wouldn’t have been so united in Norway.  It’s simply not natural for us to say: “In God we trust!” And maybe we don’t?  It was very interesting to read in the New York Times about singles who didn’t find it so attractive anymore to be single, and to see that the sale prices on second homes are increasing. It’s a moment that is defining values.    

What role does religion have in this?  I believe that in a crisis, it’s natural to turn to something bigger than yourself, it comes naturally to seek God.  Therefore it’s more challenging to ask: How is religion valid in all kinds of situations? How does religion work when we are strong? Or how do we, as religious people, live in a modern society ? 

I don’t consider fundamentalism in itself as dangerous.  Fanaticism is dangerous!  The definition of a fanatic is someone who will not make compromises. Fanaticism can appear in many different forms: scientific fanaticism can appear as genetic engineering with no respect for life; media fanaticism when journalists hunt a person down, to destroy him or her publicly. And there is so-called religious fanaticism in which religion is abused as an excuse. It’s religious fanaticism and not religious fundamentalism. 

I believe that the only way to encounter this problem is through tolerance. Historically, Jews lived better under Muslims than Christians; my “Christian” Europe was the place of the Holocaust!  Today Muslims live very well in Christian and Western societies.  We have to realize that we don’t have to fear each other, that it’s possible to live together.  Guards are needed in the society, however, such as the rule of law based on human rights. If human rights are not protected, there’s no guarantee things will work. Religion in itself is no guarantee!  To go on with my challenge: how do we live as religious and tolerant people!? How can we from the three monotheistic religions help each other?


    

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