Grandmother, Another Name for Love: Celebrating the Special Bond Between a Grandmother and a Grandchild Book

Although it took me forever to read this book and I was really ready to be done, I believe it was very well done. As the author states in the Introduction to the book, most works dealing with religious violence either work from the premise that there would be no violence without religion and religion is bad (M-kay??) or that religion is the wonderful warm fuzzies we feel because God loves us and it could never be a bad thing. Jack David Eller does the unthinkable and doesn't look at religion from a black and white perspective but *gasp* examines collectively religion and how that has and hasn't contributed toward violence throughout the centuries. He uses facts and specific instances so that we may put the entire issue into perspective from a historical context, and he pulls from the philosophies of each religion in order to support his arguments. He does not just dwell on Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but he also examines many other religions, including tribal religions of Africa and Mesoamerica, Hinduim, Buddhism and Aboriginal religions, among others.

Eller looks at many different facets of violence, from religious and ethnic persecution, violence of the self and martyrdom, war, and sacrifice, and others. This is a very thorough accounting, but it is obviously difficult to read. Much of what this book deals with, I was already familiar with, but some of it I was not. I was particularly stricken by the beginning chapter entitled, "Understanding Violence." This chapter dwells much on the group mentality, the proverbial "us" versus "them." Violence is often more inspired by the collective angst of one group who feels persecuted and is driven by hatred toward fellow humans, people with whom they may have more in common than they think. Today, I see this happening with the Tea Party in America. They are full of hate and angst and feel the need to take it out on the rest of us. They are, of course, not the only ones, but they are the most vocal in our Country at the moment. Certainly, there are many members on the opposite side of the fence who will resort to violence out of hatred for those for whom they have a distaste. The difference is that there is, often, a religious undertone that American Conservatives use for justification of their actions and their hatred. Religion in America is used by Conservatives as a reason to hate. God says hate the fags and Jews and heathens of the world, so they do. So, yes, this book really puts all religions under the microscope and blatantly gives us a portrait about what they do that is negative, but I'll end with a quote from the book to explain why it's not all bad.

"Let us remind ourselves one final time that every single type of religious crime has its nonreligious counterpart... We are not arguing that religion causes violent crime; we are arguing that religion does not altogether prevent it and that, instead, religion often provides not only a basis but also a reason and justification for such violence. This will surprise and disturb some people: aren't religious people supposed to be "better" people, more "moral" people? Not only is there no evidence for any such claim, not only is there evidence quite to the contrary, but, as we have seen, religion often supplies not just legitimation but also the best possible legitimation for violence, including what we would call violent crime. - Eller p. 292