Faith, State & Clergy – Where has the media failed
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 26th Sept. 2016
The continuance of terror mindset needs more dissecting as the World doesn’t seem anywhere near control on the same. It is ironic that the followers of the faith from where most militants seem to be rising from, proclaim their own victimhood and/or denial. This is while the temperatures seem to be soaring on almost ‘all’ other sides with political discourse in the European Union and the USA being shining examples. It is also true that the level of backlash in these countries currently seems to be rather under control, although some sincere attempts to unleash the same may be ongoing. The reduced dependence of the USA on energy resources held by the ‘faithful’ countries, hasn’t helped much either. What has perhaps gone in favour is that for most other nations, the energy resources remain either as or even greater importance and fall in prices has actually led to rising of the dependence.
It is curious that most countries claiming susceptibility to terror and therefore support for security measures are ones having Faith as a tenet of political power structure. The political formulations depict a mix of Faith, the State or Political machinery and the Clergy combined together in different proportions into forming of the ruling combine. While in some states the State or Political players could have an upper hand and in some others the Clergy might depict greater dominance. As far as the ‘Faith’ is concerned, it gets interpreted to suit the ruling class with some limitations since the books or printed word can be twisted up to some limitations. There are also cases where the State actors have guised themselves as Clergy to have a greater say into affairs of the people. As is there are countries where the Clergy has guised itself into politically potent force/s and dominated affairs that might have been best left to the State or Politico-strategic community.
What is perhaps more curious that there is little competition amongst different clergy sections and very little differences in opinions and/or interpretations for influence on society. The issues of society with clergy or a section of it hereunder, is seldom seen in the same light as in case of other Faiths, but is more often interpreted as issues between the person/cross-section of people and the Faith itself. Wherever the issues are accepted as ones between the person and clergy, these are still referred to some other clergy for arbitration rather than some independent State body/Judiciary etc. The transparency in the process is little and is seldom challenged in either local or international media and/or there is very information thrown about same and that keeps the State-Faith and Clergy nexus intact. What is also seen is that the politically dominant clergy is usually able to exert itself over the liberal ones or those having a different opinion. This sets in motion inter-faith disputes which may be turning into international political disputes and increasingly into demand for ‘independent’ states or an overthrow of ruling regimes, little understood by other cross-sections of international communities and followers of different Faith/s. The global media, has put little time to deliberate upon such issues and tended to make ignorance a bliss, often into a political one-upmanship opportunity for their own reasons, domestic, regional and international political compulsions being some of them.
What is also curious is that the media or even the academia within the countries as well as in open and advance cultures of the West or even the secular democracies like India claiming victimhood, has generally refrained from making a study of these political formations and their impact. This is so even as political power game remains heightened with different players emerging from shadows to fill vacuums as and when they are seen and the minerals resources keep attracting such players. The ‘shrill’ media of the West might have gone to question the Faith, its motifs and rituals while analyzing the political impact, thus proclaiming its independence. This is while the more mainstream media sticking to traditional ways of analyzing the Government structures/composition or the State, its policies and their impact/s. The Faith and the clergy might be discussed separately as the case is with the Western or so called liberal societies where these might exist in rather segregated silos. In fact there seems to be little research as to why such governments by rather ruthless dictators in some of these countries have been so stable compared to say Africa where such a mix is not seen and the dictators have been rather short-lived. This is even though the states might boast of comparable resources.
The liberal Western media has also depicted very limited understanding for the Clergy and the ‘ills’ within and has kept criticizing the faith. What I want to state here is that the ‘ills’ of Christian or clergy from other faiths is rather well known like Child abuse, LGBT abuse, Women/Nun abuse etc. and even some larger scale ‘crimes’ also keep coming out. There has also been case/s of Wealth hoards or runaway priests & preachers, drug abuse amongst many other things coming to light about clergy in different faiths except in countries where we have a mix of Faith, Politics and Clergy (or at least such incidents reported are minor/miniscule in number). However, the Islamists clergy generally manages to hide from such ‘eyes’ and is rather successful in defending all its ‘ills’ under the guise of faith. Of course, that the Faith holds a sway over Law and Jurisprudence hasn’t helped, but instead of catching a greater focus on such hypocrisy, the liberal Western media has rather struck to criticizing the Faith, its motifs and rituals rather. This hypocrisy remains so even when shrill political campaigns are on going to catch votebanks in rather liberal democracies.
What is perhaps even more curious than the lack of interest of the Western media into such studies is that the countries suffering from the ill-effects, as well as those rushing to fill any power vacuums, seem also to have ignored the need of any such studies. Although there might be bad past experiences and restive own provinces. That the Faith would transcend political boundaries and along with it the impact of the ‘international’ clergy is known and understood or often mis-understood. The political nature of many a clergy who have tasted political limelight, with its penchant to form and create ‘state/s’ ‘at the drop of a hat’ is also being witnessed. However this seems less of a cause of concern and more of a political opportunity without much understanding and ability to engage the power structure in a comprehensive manner and wield influence as of now for most players. Let the ‘game’ evolve…
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 26th Sept. 2016
The continuance of terror mindset needs more dissecting as the World doesn’t seem anywhere near control on the same. It is ironic that the followers of the faith from where most militants seem to be rising from, proclaim their own victimhood and/or denial. This is while the temperatures seem to be soaring on almost ‘all’ other sides with political discourse in the European Union and the USA being shining examples. It is also true that the level of backlash in these countries currently seems to be rather under control, although some sincere attempts to unleash the same may be ongoing. The reduced dependence of the USA on energy resources held by the ‘faithful’ countries, hasn’t helped much either. What has perhaps gone in favour is that for most other nations, the energy resources remain either as or even greater importance and fall in prices has actually led to rising of the dependence.
It is curious that most countries claiming susceptibility to terror and therefore support for security measures are ones having Faith as a tenet of political power structure. The political formulations depict a mix of Faith, the State or Political machinery and the Clergy combined together in different proportions into forming of the ruling combine. While in some states the State or Political players could have an upper hand and in some others the Clergy might depict greater dominance. As far as the ‘Faith’ is concerned, it gets interpreted to suit the ruling class with some limitations since the books or printed word can be twisted up to some limitations. There are also cases where the State actors have guised themselves as Clergy to have a greater say into affairs of the people. As is there are countries where the Clergy has guised itself into politically potent force/s and dominated affairs that might have been best left to the State or Politico-strategic community.
What is perhaps more curious that there is little competition amongst different clergy sections and very little differences in opinions and/or interpretations for influence on society. The issues of society with clergy or a section of it hereunder, is seldom seen in the same light as in case of other Faiths, but is more often interpreted as issues between the person/cross-section of people and the Faith itself. Wherever the issues are accepted as ones between the person and clergy, these are still referred to some other clergy for arbitration rather than some independent State body/Judiciary etc. The transparency in the process is little and is seldom challenged in either local or international media and/or there is very information thrown about same and that keeps the State-Faith and Clergy nexus intact. What is also seen is that the politically dominant clergy is usually able to exert itself over the liberal ones or those having a different opinion. This sets in motion inter-faith disputes which may be turning into international political disputes and increasingly into demand for ‘independent’ states or an overthrow of ruling regimes, little understood by other cross-sections of international communities and followers of different Faith/s. The global media, has put little time to deliberate upon such issues and tended to make ignorance a bliss, often into a political one-upmanship opportunity for their own reasons, domestic, regional and international political compulsions being some of them.
What is also curious is that the media or even the academia within the countries as well as in open and advance cultures of the West or even the secular democracies like India claiming victimhood, has generally refrained from making a study of these political formations and their impact. This is so even as political power game remains heightened with different players emerging from shadows to fill vacuums as and when they are seen and the minerals resources keep attracting such players. The ‘shrill’ media of the West might have gone to question the Faith, its motifs and rituals while analyzing the political impact, thus proclaiming its independence. This is while the more mainstream media sticking to traditional ways of analyzing the Government structures/composition or the State, its policies and their impact/s. The Faith and the clergy might be discussed separately as the case is with the Western or so called liberal societies where these might exist in rather segregated silos. In fact there seems to be little research as to why such governments by rather ruthless dictators in some of these countries have been so stable compared to say Africa where such a mix is not seen and the dictators have been rather short-lived. This is even though the states might boast of comparable resources.
The liberal Western media has also depicted very limited understanding for the Clergy and the ‘ills’ within and has kept criticizing the faith. What I want to state here is that the ‘ills’ of Christian or clergy from other faiths is rather well known like Child abuse, LGBT abuse, Women/Nun abuse etc. and even some larger scale ‘crimes’ also keep coming out. There has also been case/s of Wealth hoards or runaway priests & preachers, drug abuse amongst many other things coming to light about clergy in different faiths except in countries where we have a mix of Faith, Politics and Clergy (or at least such incidents reported are minor/miniscule in number). However, the Islamists clergy generally manages to hide from such ‘eyes’ and is rather successful in defending all its ‘ills’ under the guise of faith. Of course, that the Faith holds a sway over Law and Jurisprudence hasn’t helped, but instead of catching a greater focus on such hypocrisy, the liberal Western media has rather struck to criticizing the Faith, its motifs and rituals rather. This hypocrisy remains so even when shrill political campaigns are on going to catch votebanks in rather liberal democracies.
What is perhaps even more curious than the lack of interest of the Western media into such studies is that the countries suffering from the ill-effects, as well as those rushing to fill any power vacuums, seem also to have ignored the need of any such studies. Although there might be bad past experiences and restive own provinces. That the Faith would transcend political boundaries and along with it the impact of the ‘international’ clergy is known and understood or often mis-understood. The political nature of many a clergy who have tasted political limelight, with its penchant to form and create ‘state/s’ ‘at the drop of a hat’ is also being witnessed. However this seems less of a cause of concern and more of a political opportunity without much understanding and ability to engage the power structure in a comprehensive manner and wield influence as of now for most players. Let the ‘game’ evolve…