Tired Stereotypes about Religion

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Using stereotypes that reflect common “wisdom,” rock musician Tom Petty recently used his fame to slam religion, particularly Catholicism.

I wouldn’t normally use this blog to take on such an icon of American rock music. I try to be positive because Christianity’s message is nothing if not positive, even joyful. But his words, originally published in Billboard Magazine, were displayed prominently in a recent issue of USA Today and other media and will influence millions. They shouldn’t go unchallenged.

I give Petty credit for being against violence and war and for opposing pedophilia. Whether he agrees or not, that exhibits genuine Christian values. But in commenting on his new song, Playing Dumb, it doesn’t appear that knowledge of religion is his strong suite. Here’s what he had to say.

“Catholics, don’t write me. I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years… If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club."

So would I. But the church is not a club. Back to that later.

“Religion,” he goes on to say, “seems to me to be at the base of all wars… I’ve nothing against defending yourself, but I don’t think, spiritually speaking, that there’s any conception of God that should be telling you to be violent. It seems to me that no one’s got Christ more wrong than the Christians.”

The idea that religion is “at the base of all wars” is commonly held but patently false. For decades, Catholic and other churches have been doing the opposite of telling people “it’s OK to kill people.”



Tom Petty
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As long as I can remember, the Vatican has been preaching - mostly to deaf ears - about world peace. All of the recent popes have written against war. Pope John Paul II in 1991 expressed his opposition to the Gulf War and publicly appealed to President George Bush not to wage it. In 2003, he once again opposed the Iraq war and appealed to the second President Bush to refrain.

Pope Francis, in an address in St. Peter’s Square last September, said, “May the noise of weapons cease! War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity. Let the words of Pope Paul VI resound again: 'No more one against the other, no more, never ... never again, never again war!'”

How could you be more emphatic?

Globally, and in the U.S., church leaders have for years spoken out against the death penalty, too. (Do an Internet search on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, then search for “capital punishment.”) And no one has done more to publicize the injustice of the death penalty than Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun. Her book, Dead Man Walking, and the movie based on it, has changed hearts.

In fact, the worst violence in history, and in recent memory, was perpetrated by people who were atheist and/or anti-religion. At least five million people were killed in Nazi camps, to say nothing of the world war that Hitler started. Other millions were murdered by Russian dictator Josef Stalin, and still other millions slaughtered in the "Rape of Nanking" and in Cambodia. Violence by believers, or motivated by religion, pales by comparison.

Many people cite the Inquisition as an example of religion's savagery. But it was an on-again, off-again Catholic campaign against Muslims, Jews and Protestants that was perpetrated by officials of the state as much as of religious origin. Best estimates on deaths are 32,000 people between 1480 and 1808, a period of 328 years. On the murder and mayhem scale, that just doesn't cut it by modern standards – even when you consider that the population of cities and countries was substantially smaller then.

And as for Catholics and the idea that “it’s OK to kill people,” surely Petty knows about the church’s stance on abortion, which – despite euphemisms to the contrary – is killing people or potential people.

Now about the child abuse committed by clergy that Petty references. According to an exhaustive study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice – part of the City University of New York – it was committed by about 4 percent of priests and was “systematic” only in the sense that it was geographically widespread. The vast majority of Christians, including Catholics and Catholic leaders, abhor such behavior by people who take advantage of their privileged positions. And it appears the church is doing all it can to find and punish offenders, prevent further abuse and help victims, even though some critics of the church may not think so.

Finally, comparing the church to a club is like comparing a Mercedes Benz to a wheel barrow. They both have wheels, but that’s just about it. Yes, the church is an institution with defined roles for various tasks, but it is principally the “people of God,” the “Body of Christ,” “a pilgrim people.” These are not just clichés but are crucial to Christians’ self-image. Being a Christian is a relationship, to God and to others, not a club.

Unfortunately, Petty is far from alone in expressing these ideas. Even people who have spent years in religious schools are amazingly ignorant about their own faith, let alone others’. With courtesy and respect, believers should never be afraid to set the record straight. And those searching for God should seek objective facts from reliable sources.