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	February 2003				This is Kenny's last Catch. Charles Kenny retired in January 2003 and with his wife will move back to Yarra Valley in Victoria. The Tasmanian Anglican has appreciated his regular contributions and insights and we all wish the Kennys well in the next stage of their life's ministry.
		Kenny's Catch by Charles Kenny
			Why do people do bad things in the Name of Religion? I recently re-read a book with that title by Richard. E.Wentz. The doing of bad things in the Name of Religion has been demonstrated for us in the recent spate of terrorist acts by fundamentalist groups around the world. We must admit that Christians as well as others have committed atrocities in the name of religion down the ages. Transcendence Wentz argues in his book that it is not religion in itself but fundamentalism (defined as the viewpoints of those who claim to know all the answers and cannot live or allow others to live with any uncertainties.) True religion is not about knowing all the answers but rather about a sense of transcendence; it is about that which makes us truly human. The abolition of religion has been tried but into this vacuum have come other 'isms' such as Fascism and Communism. In the face of events such as September 11 and Bali October 12 we in the Christian tradition must not give way to intolerance and failure to admit our own imperfections. St Paul admitted his imperfections to friends in Rome (Romans 7.21-25). Paul also said to his friends in Corinth that we see as yet in a mirror dimly. The time is still to be when we shall know as we are known. (I Corinthians 13.12) Something Our Lord Jesus Christ, the founder of our faith and the one vindicated by God the Father through the Resurrection, was also the One who opposed bad things done in the Name of Religion in his earthly days. In Robert Frost's poem Something there is he writes: Something there is that doesn't love a wall. That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast… ... Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence, Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down. Is that something not that which Christians call the Holy Spirit? All of us, Christians or otherwise, must refuse to build walls which shut certain people out from the rest of us.