Let's stay out of religious wars

As I watched rockets flying at each other, “devout” Muslims attacking the Jewish people and then vice versa, I thought to myself, “Yet another display of very religious people just being religious.”

All three religions in this war (Muslims, Jews and, to some degree, Christians) read the Old Testament. And if you read that “Good Book,” you get a lot of violence and smiting. All three religions draw different conclusions from it. But from simply reading it, you see that violence and consequences are graphic. Muhammad inherited the preexisting Jewish and Christian understanding of God. Thus, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad are equal parts compassion, anger, and wrath.

Growing up in a small town, I had a lot of religion of all different brands on and all around me. When I asked my preacher, “If the Bible is based in the Middle East, mostly Jerusalem, over 2000 years ago, why were the guys named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?” I thought was a logical question. But often there is little logic in religion; that is why it is called belief or faith. After careful consideration, I joined the church with the best basketball league.

Religion, done well, provides moral structure, community, comfort, and local charity. When reason or logic gives way to emotional and illogical tribal beliefs, wars ensue. They always have.

Just back from Italy, I am reminded of all the many past religious wars, from the Crusades of the “Soldiers of Christ,” in response to the Muslim Conquests which lasted from the 11th until the 13th century, to the Byzantine Empire, to the Romans who killed Jesus for preaching his upstart religion. The Byzantine Empire was taken out during the Ottoman Empire, an empire I can only presume was based on putting your feet up. This is a clumsy way of saying that all this religious fighting has gone on for thousands of years. It is hard to understand, and certainly foolish for us to intervene.

We are 0 for our last 3 wars of choice. But at least we know the Biden Doctrine of War now: drag the war out with no objective, then leave the dangerous enemy you just lost to $83 billion worth of our lethal weapons. And when that is done, send $6 billion to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas in Palestine.

Until we can trust our government and media to tell us the truth, we need to sit this one out. And maybe the next three. Yet we are sending our aircraft carriers USS Dwight Eisenhower and USS Gerald Ford to the region. These presidents can do a lot of damage; the last time they played golf at Doral, not a condo window was spared.

All religious wars have secular underpinnings; they are economic, cultural, and political. Politicians have long used religion to control the masses and advance their own ambitions. Hamas is a brutal extremist group which is also a political party. Their butchery in western Israel begot the most recent conflict. However, not all agree. Seeing the videos of Hamas killing Jews, the Harvard Crimson called it the feel-good movie of the year.

Most of us non-woke folks side with Israel, the country that was attacked, as we did with Ukraine, which was also attacked. But we don't want another U.S. entanglement.

And it can be lazy to call the Middle East “religious wars” when often ethnic animosities drive the hatred. Religion is also intertwined with economics, which is why your top-level televangelists have jets.

In closing, I quote the grumpy yet likable commentator for 60 Minutes for years, Andy Rooney, who said, “I'd be more willing to accept religion, even though I don't believe in it, if I thought it made people nicer, but I don't think it does.”