Anwar Barkat - "Religion without Religiosity" (July 2, 1972)

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Officiant	He cleanses us	0:06
	when we open our hearts for cleansing.	0:08
	He forgives us when we make that forgiveness possible	0:10
	by our repentance.	0:15
	So may we now offer unto God	0:17
	our prayers of confession and for forgiveness.	0:19
	Our heavenly Father,	0:27
	we are guilty people.	0:30
	We have complained that we are too busy,	0:33
	but we have been impatient	0:37
	when others have not given us perfect service.	0:38
	We have emphasized exterior beauty	0:44
	when you called for interior beauty.	0:48
	We have acted as though we could repeal your ethical laws	0:52
	by our own vote.	0:56
	We have tried to act as though we are God,	1:00
	even when we have been conscious that you are God,	1:06
	and have acknowledged this,	1:11
	we have tended to reserve to ourselves little precincts,	1:13
	little pockets of time.	1:17
	We have failed to love the sinner	1:22
	in our goal to eradicate the sin.	1:25
	We have failed to hate sin	1:29
	in our emphasis upon loving the sinner.	1:31
	Many times we have been guilty of thinking	1:36
	that knowledge and wisdom consist of holding degrees,	1:39
	having grade marks on a card,	1:43
	rather than appropriating the insight	1:47
	which came to us through Jesus.	1:50
	We have behaved like the lepers who were cleansed,	1:54
	but failed to return and give thanks.	1:58
	We have behaved like the Pharisees,	2:02
	who built the tombs of the prophets,	2:04
	who were safely dead, while all the time planning	2:07
	to crucify the Lord of life.	2:11
	We have sometimes been quick to accept and profit	2:16
	by the fruits of Christian institutions in the past.	2:19
	Meanwhile, making a very weak and timid and half-hearted	2:24
	and uncertain witness, today.	2:27
	We have attempted to find plausible excuses	2:34
	for not doing what we know to be right.	2:37
	We pray you to forgive us these sins and many others	2:42
	of which they are representative,	2:46
	and give us grace not to continue in them,	2:50
	but to make a substantial improvement.	2:54
	Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, we make our prayer.	2:58
	Amen.	3:03
	I am sure that today would be a good time for us	3:10
	to look at that scripture,	3:13
	which recognizes the great distance	3:18
	that separates the east from the west.	3:20
	Because our preacher today comes from the east	3:24
	and has traveled many thousands of miles to be here.	3:26
	Scripture says, as far as the east is from the west,	3:31
	so far has he removed our transgressions from us.	3:35
	I am sure that our speaker today can realize	3:41
	the significance of that analogy.	3:46
	God has, indeed, put far away from us, our sins.	3:49
	When we ask Him to do it.	3:55
	This provokes, in the heart of any sincere person,	3:58
	genuine gratitude for the goodness of God,	4:01
	for His grace, His kindness, His forbearance,	4:06
	and His many other blessings.	4:10
	May we now, together, express our gratitude to God	4:13
	by praying responsively from the Psalter, number 599,	4:19
	the prayer which comes from the scripture, Psalm 138,	4:25
	is entitled in our Psalter, "The Glory of the Lord."	4:31
	Let us make this our prayer of thanksgiving.	4:37
	I give thee thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart.	4:42
	(congregation responds)	4:47
	I bow down toward thy holy temple,	4:50
	and give thanks to thy name	4:53
	for thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness.	4:55
All	For thou hast exalted	4:59
	above everything, thine name and thy word.	5:00
Officiant	On the day I called,	5:04
	thou didst answer me.	5:06
All	My strength of soul thou didst increase.	5:09
Officiant	All the kings of the earth	5:13
	shall praise thee, oh Lord.	5:14
All	For they have heard the words of thy mouth.	5:17
Officiant	And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord.	5:21
All	For great is the glory of the Lord.	5:24
Officiant	For though the Lord is high,	5:28
	he regards the lowly.	5:29
All	But the haughty, he knows from afar.	5:31
Officiant	Though I walk in the midst of trouble,	5:36
	thou dost preserve my life.	5:38
All	Thou dost stretch out thy hand	5:41
	against the wrath of my enemies,	5:43
	and thy right hand delivers me.	5:45
Officiant	The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.	5:48
All	Thy steadfast love, oh Lord, endures forever.	5:52
Officiant	Amen.	5:57
	(grand organ music)	5:59
	♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪	6:42
	♪ Sing a new song ♪	6:45
	♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪	6:50
	♪ Holy, holy ♪	6:54
	♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪	7:01
	♪ Oh sing ♪	7:05
	♪ Unto the Lord ♪	7:09
	♪ Oh sing unto the Lord ♪	7:13
	♪ Blessed His holy name ♪	7:16
	♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪	7:22
	♪ Bless His holy name ♪	7:25
	♪ Declare His glory ♪	7:30
	♪ Declare His glory ♪	7:32
	♪ In every nation ♪	7:34
	♪ Show forth His salvation ♪	7:38
	♪ His salvation ♪	7:43
	♪ Declare His glory ♪	7:50
	♪ Declare His glory ♪	7:52
	♪ Declare His glory ♪	7:54
	♪ To the nation ♪	7:57
	♪ And to all people ♪	8:00
	♪ Declare to all people ♪	8:05
	(choir harmonizing)	8:10
	♪ Glory ♪	8:13
	♪ Glory to God ♪	8:24
	♪ Glory ♪	8:29
	(choir singing softly)	8:53
Officiant	In the book of Amos, chapter five,	9:32
	beginning at verse 18, we find these words:	9:35
	"woe to you who desire the day of the Lord.	9:41
	Why would you have the day of the Lord?	9:46
	It is darkness, not light.	9:49
	As if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him,	9:53
	or went into the house and leaned	9:58
	with his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him.	10:00
	Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?	10:05
	And gloom with no brightness in it?	10:10
	I hate, I despise your feasts,	10:14
	and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.	10:16
	Even though you offer me your burnt offerings	10:20
	and cereal offerings, I will not accept them.	10:23
	And the peace offerings of your fatted beasts,	10:28
	I will not look upon.	10:31
	Take away from me the noise of your songs	10:34
	to the melody of your harps.	10:37
	I will not listen.	10:39
	But let justice roll down like waters,	10:42
	and righteousness, like an ever lasting stream."	10:47
	Amen.	10:53
	(grand organ music)	10:56
	(choir singing softly)	11:06
	The Lord be with you.	11:42
	(congregation responds)	11:44
	Let us pray.	11:46
	God of our fathers and of our forefathers,	11:54
	we have come to you in worship	11:58
	to ask for the fulfillment of our needs,	12:00
	the needs of ourselves, and the needs of our fellows.	12:04
	Be to us, what our fathers have said that you were to them.	12:09
	We too, and our generation,	12:15
	are tossed about by storms and uncertainties of life,	12:17
	and we need a basic security.	12:22
	We long for justice, for righteousness,	12:25
	to roll down as an everlasting stream.	12:29
	For brotherhood, for peace.	12:33
	We need the strength to endure.	12:36
	Our forefathers have said that you were, to them,	12:41
	a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night,	12:44
	that you did lead them.	12:47
	That your word was a lamp under their feet	12:49
	and a light under their path.	12:51
	Be that to us, we too are pilgrims and pioneers,	12:55
	not able to predict the end of our journey,	13:02
	not knowing what we shall encounter along the way.	13:04
	Oh God of the pilgrims and the pioneers,	13:09
	lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake,	13:13
	lead us in the paths of progress,	13:18
	of sane order, of dynamic peace.	13:20
	Our fathers have called you King.	13:27
	And that is a strange word in our ears,	13:31
	but we pray that you will translate the meaning of that	13:36
	for us, for we too need a king.	13:41
	Your kind of king.	13:46
	And we pray that in the loud clamor of voices	13:49
	in the political conventions and in the back rooms	13:52
	where decisions are made,	13:57
	that your kingship may be made known, and made real.	14:00
	And then when we go into the voting booth,	14:08
	may we know that we are subjects in your kingdom.	14:13
	That you are the king, and that we are voting for your way	14:17
	and your righteousness and your justice and your peace.	14:23
	Oh God, our fathers have said that you were their friend,	14:31
	their unseen companion in life's journey,	14:36
	in whom they could confide.	14:38
	Be that to us, for we, too, need friendship.	14:42
	Oh God, while we bless your name for earthly friends	14:47
	who, by their care, add beauty to our lives,	14:50
	we still find a need to know a friendship	14:55
	beyond the earthly,	14:58
	to feel the everlasting arms beneath us,	15:00
	and even to speak unto you as a man speaks with a friend.	15:04
	Today, as we think of our sick, of our confused,	15:10
	the poor, the lonely, the dispossessed, the orphans,	15:15
	all the needy people of the world.	15:22
	We remember the testimony of our fathers,	15:25
	that you were, to them, a great physician, a savior,	15:27
	a friend, a heavenly Father, be that to us.	15:34
	We make our prayer in the name of your Son, Jesus,	15:44
	who has taught us when we pray together to say,	15:46
	our Father who art in heaven,	15:51
	hallowed be thy name,	15:53
	thy kingdom come,	15:56
	thy will be done,	15:57
	on earth as it is in heaven.	15:59
	Give us this day,	16:02
	our daily bread,	16:03
	and forgive us our trespasses,	16:05
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	16:07
	and lead us not into temptation,	16:11
	but deliver us from evil.	16:13
	For thine is the kingdom	16:15
	and the power and the glory, forever.	16:17
	Amen.	16:21
Preacher	Last night,	16:47
	Dr. Wilkinson was discussing with me	16:49
	the changes that have taken place in Duke University	16:54
	and also in this beautiful chapel and its congregation.	16:59
	And when I heard all that,	17:06
	I was reminded of a story from my own country.	17:07
	The story is told of two friends,	17:18
	both of whom were priests, and one friend was going away.	17:20
	So he asked the other one	17:27
	if he would come and, for the next three weeks,	17:28
	take services at his church.	17:33
	This friend agreed to do that,	17:40
	but did not have enough courage	17:43
	to speak to that congregation.	17:46
	So he came to that congregation on the first Friday,	17:50
	because that is when most of the Muslims worship.	17:55
	And he said, "do you all know what I'm going to say?"	18:00
	And of course the congregation said, "no,	18:06
	we do not know what you are going to say."	18:10
	So he said, "what's the use of telling you then?"	18:12
	And he closed the service and went home.	18:16
	Of course, they knew that he was supposed to come	18:21
	for two other services, so they will trap him.	18:23
	So, the second time, he came and he asked the same question,	18:28
	do you know what I'm going to say?	18:33
	And the congregation said, "yes,	18:36
	we know what you are going to say."	18:39
	So he said, "what's the use of my repeating it?"	18:41
	So the congregation said,	18:46
	"now, this man is not going to get us that easily."	18:47
	So when he came the third time,	18:53
	they had made up their mind to do certain things,	18:56
	which will force this man to say something from the pulpit.	18:58
	So he came and asked the same question.	19:04
	"Do you know what I'm going to say?"	19:06
	And half of the congregation said, "yes,	19:09
	we know what you are going to say."	19:11
	And half of the congregation said, "no,	19:13
	we do not know what you're going to say."	19:14
	So we thought for a moment, and he said,	19:18
	"those who know what I'm going to say	19:19
	should tell those who do not know what I'm going to say."	19:22
	(congregation laughs)	19:25
	And thereby he went home	19:25
	and did not have to expose himself to that congregation.	19:27
	Of course, I cannot embarrass my friend	19:31
	in doing the same thing to this congregation,	19:35
	because I am very grateful for this opportunity	19:38
	to come and worship in this beautiful chapel,	19:42
	where I used to worship as a graduate student,	19:46
	because the friendships and the love and respect	19:51
	that I developed for my colleagues here,	19:55
	and also some of my teachers, have reduced that distance	19:58
	which separates the east from the west.	20:03
	And I'm sure this has happened for a lot of other graduates	20:07
	of Duke University who are spread around the world.	20:10
	Duke contributed considerably to our development,	20:15
	and therefore it has not been easy for us	20:19
	to forget that contribution.	20:21
	As a matter of fact,	20:24
	whenever I get an opportunity to come to the United States,	20:25
	the first thing I can think about	20:29
	is, when will I go to Duke?	20:31
	Just last week when I was making plans to come here,	20:35
	incidentally, I am at the Duke of the east.	20:38
	They call it Harvard University, for the summer.	20:43
	So I was telling them how much love and respect	20:46
	we have for our own institution.	20:49
	And it is a great opportunity to come	20:53
	and worship this morning.	20:56
	And I'm very grateful to Dr. Wilkinson	20:57
	for having invited me to come here.	21:01
	As you probably know that the last year,	21:05
	and especially the last few months,	21:09
	have been, especially, very trying for Pakistan.	21:12
	Pakistan has passed through the experience	21:17
	of a civil strife, in which thousands of people	21:20
	lost their lives.	21:25
	She has suffered through a war	21:28
	in which the country is split into two,	21:30
	creating a independent state of Bangladesh.	21:36
	Its economy is shattered due to the war	21:41
	and the events of the last year.	21:45
	But the reason why I'm mentioning these things	21:49
	is to point out that here was a society,	21:53
	a political community,	21:58
	a nation.	22:01
	Which was brought forth	22:03
	due to very strong ties of religion,	22:05
	with tremendous idealism with regard to the role of religion	22:11
	in human society.	22:15
	The country came into being on a self-conscious	22:19
	ideological basis, having as its foundations,	22:22
	the teachings of the holy Koran	22:28
	and the great tradition of the Muslim religion.	22:30
	It was the largest Muslim nation,	22:34
	whose energies were to be devoted and directed	22:37
	towards the actualization of Islam in everyday life.	22:42
	The country was created with a mission,	22:46
	and the mission was to make religious ideology	22:49
	into a reality for the actual affairs	22:55
	of the running of the state.	22:58
	Religion was supposed to become the basis of the statehood,	23:01
	its social and economic life, and also its jurisprudence.	23:07
	Every sincere Muslim, for the last 23 to 25 years,	23:15
	had been struggling with the question	23:22
	as to how the basic principles of religion	23:25
	are to become the basis of statehood.	23:30
	How is it to provide for the creation	23:34
	of a just and humane society?	23:37
	How is religion to become, actually,	23:41
	a force for creating peace, justice,	23:43
	and community in that nation?	23:47
	All of you know that Islam, like Christianity,	23:52
	also believes that religion has great deal of relevance	23:56
	for man's social existence.	24:00
	That man's actual life as he lives in community	24:04
	can be organized according to those principles.	24:07
	Man stands before God and His majesty,	24:12
	in all the fullness of His life in its entirety,	24:15
	in His full integrity and wholeness.	24:20
	And no area of life, according to Islam,	24:23
	can be taken away before the presence of God.	24:26
	So Islam, in its true essence, provided for social	24:33
	and political organization of society.	24:37
	And this was the basis of the creation of Pakistan.	24:41
	But today, this idealism stands shattered.	24:48
	There is tremendous amount of disillusionment	24:53
	in our country, which has raised the fundamental question	24:57
	as to what is the role of religion in human affairs?	25:03
	Several things have happened in that society,	25:09
	which have created this disillusionment.	25:11
	Religion created a state, but could not hold it together.	25:16
	Religion, which was supposed to be a source of unity,	25:24
	actually became a source of disunity.	25:28
	Instead of creating a responsible society,	25:33
	it helped to create a society	25:38
	which evaded moral responsibility.	25:40
	Instead of becoming a source of social justice	25:45
	and economic equality and development of man,	25:47
	it became a justification for inequality in society.	25:53
	That inequalities and injustices finally divided the nation,	25:58
	created polarities and violence in the nation.	26:04
	And the religion kept paying lip service	26:09
	to the oneness of faith, oneness of religion,	26:12
	and oneness of belief.	26:15
	It mainly provided a justification for status quo	26:20
	and preservation of privilege.	26:26
	And this state of affairs created a tremendous division	26:30
	within the nation of Pakistan.	26:35
	It created a society of privilege.	26:38
	There were those who had privileges	26:42
	and those who did not have.	26:44
	There were those who had power	26:45
	and those who became subject to power.	26:47
	There were those who enjoyed the economic prosperity	26:49
	as it was moving forward, and those who were exploited	26:53
	in the name of unity and Islam.	26:57
	I made these preliminary remarks	27:01
	with regard to my own society,	27:03
	not to indicate the failure of a great religious tradition	27:06
	like the Muslim faith,	27:11
	but rather to show that mere lip service,	27:13
	our formal acceptance of religious beliefs,	27:18
	are not enough to provide for basic and fundamental problems	27:22
	of human life.	27:26
	This is true of Islam, it's true of Christianity,	27:29
	it's true of all religion.	27:32
	Religion only becomes real	27:34
	when it becomes operative religion in its contents.	27:37
	The real role of religion is to be on the side of the poor,	27:43
	the exploited and the excluded.	27:48
	And it can only do that when it becomes the basis	27:52
	for a social and economic justice.	27:55
	It was precisely this message	28:00
	that prophet Amos wanted to convey to his audience.	28:04
	To those who emphasize the formalistic aspects of religion	28:10
	and ignored its fundamental contents.	28:16
	Amos found Israel as a prosperous nation.	28:21
	The kingdom of Israel was never so prosperous	28:27
	than in the times of Jeroboam the second.	28:30
	Its commerce and its agriculture had expanded enormously.	28:34
	There was a new social and economic and political elite	28:44
	who exhibited new confidence and new pride.	28:49
	Social and economic changes in that kingdom	28:55
	were far reaching.	28:57
	New rich class had emerged.	28:58
	Great wealth was being made,	29:01
	which was often used in exhibitionist	29:04
	and conspicuous consumption.	29:06
	The main aim of this new class was to make money,	29:10
	even if the methods were often ruthless.	29:14
	The net result of this new prosperity	29:18
	was that a tremendous gulf was being created	29:20
	within the society.	29:23
	The rich were becoming very rich,	29:25
	and the poor were becoming very poor.	29:28
	The cry for justice and economic opportunity of the poor	29:31
	was often drowned by the merrymaking	29:35
	and the entertainment of the rich.	29:37
	The discontent of the poor and the exploited	29:41
	was often ignored.	29:44
	This explosive situation was there,	29:47
	but the confidence of the nation was still high.	29:52
	It did nothing to shake the confidence of the rich	30:00
	and the religious elite.	30:03
	But along with this commercial prosperity	30:07
	and the rise of new riches,	30:13
	went the prosperity in religion.	30:19
	Religion prospers along with commerce and agriculture.	30:23
	Religion flourished greatly in the land.	30:28
	It built new and magnificent shrines and temples.	30:33
	To practice religion.	30:39
	To make sacrifices and offer them regularly.	30:41
	The rich paid for the glamor in religion,	30:45
	regularly and proudly.	30:47
	There was a happy relationship	30:50
	between religion and commerce,	30:51
	between the king and the chief priest,	30:54
	between the citadels of social and economic power,	30:57
	and the guardians of religious practices.	31:01
	They mutually supported each other.	31:05
	The tragedy of this situation was	31:08
	that a society was being built	31:11
	on incredible oppression and injustice.	31:14
	And it was the same society that was the biggest supporter	31:18
	of religious establishment, and vice versa.	31:21
	One has to know the catalogs of social sins	31:25
	that the prophet condemned,	31:29
	in order to understand the hideousness of this alliance	31:33
	between religion and society.	31:38
	Amos charged, "they sell righteousness for silver,	31:42
	and the needy for a pair of shoes.	31:46
	They trample the head of the poor in dust,	31:51
	and turn aside the way of the afflicted.	31:54
	They build palaces on the ashes of the huts of the poor,	31:59
	they swallow up the needy and the poor.	32:05
	They take pride to deny the right and justice to the poor."	32:08
	These were just few of the incredible injustices	32:14
	and signs of exploitation, which was carried on in the land.	32:18
	Religion, instead of condemning it,	32:24
	had become a supporter and a justifier	32:27
	of this state of things.	32:31
	Religion began to satisfy people	32:34
	through more ritualism and formalism	32:37
	so that they would suffer through injustices	32:40
	without raising a cry.	32:43
	People were advised to wait for the day of the Lord,	32:46
	which was pictured as a day of rejoicing	32:49
	and triumph for everybody.	32:52
	Instead of asking the people	32:55
	to challenge the society built on exploitation of the poor	32:57
	and the exploitative advised them to wait for justice,	33:01
	in the day of the Lord.	33:05
	It was in this situation that God created a prophet.	33:09
	God sent a prophet.	33:13
	Amos appeared as a non-professional,	33:15
	without any credentials,	33:19
	but with a tremendous sense of urgency	33:22
	that destruction, desolation, violence, and bloodshed	33:24
	was at hand,	33:30
	if this state of injustice was not removed.	33:31
	He challenged the alliance	33:39
	between religion and commercial exploitation.	33:40
	He challenged the religious hierarchy	33:45
	to do something about this state of affairs.	33:52
	He was no professional.	33:57
	He was an ordinary layman.	33:58
	Ordinary man, ordinary man,	34:01
	simply, with a sense of understanding	34:03
	of God's action in history.	34:05
	He did not come from a prophetic class.	34:08
	He was no priest.	34:11
	When he is asked to give reason,	34:14
	he simply says, "I was no prophet,	34:16
	neither was I a prophet's son.	34:19
	I was an herdsman and a gatherer	34:23
	of the sycamore tree fruits."	34:25
	These are his credentials.	34:28
	He is strictly an outsider	34:31
	attacking the formalism of religion and social life.	34:34
	He's a prototype of modern outside agitators	34:39
	who go from places to places to condemn established order	34:42
	for its cruelty, injustice and callousness.	34:47
	Amos is close to a modern religious radical,	34:51
	speaking against the formalism, rigidity, and shallowness	34:55
	of the established religion.	34:59
	Therefore, Amos is terribly contemporary prophet	35:02
	for our age.	35:05
	He shakes the confidence of the religious	35:08
	and the political hierarchy	35:09
	by speaking the word of God, forthright.	35:12
	He must hold the religious hierarchy,	35:16
	that the day of the Lord	35:19
	is not going to be the day of rejoicing and merrymaking,	35:20
	but day of judgment and sorrow.	35:25
	Judgment upon those who have exploited the poor	35:30
	and the needy.	35:33
	Because the day of the Lord, he said,	35:35
	would be a day of justice and righteousness.	35:37
	It is on this basis that he condemned	35:41
	the formalism of religion, and its heartless cruelty,	35:42
	which took great pleasure in outward observances	35:48
	of religious practices,	35:53
	while ignoring judgemental aspects of religion,	35:55
	which condemn exploitation and injustice.	35:59
	He insisted that in the face of widespread injustice	36:04
	and oppression, and exploitation of the poor,	36:09
	there can be no practice of real religion.	36:13
	No man, no group, no society can meet with and worship God	36:17
	when his hands are soiled with the blood of the innocent,	36:24
	and its bank rolls go up	36:27
	because of the commercial exploitation of the poor.	36:29
	Amos also condemned the false confidence	36:34
	of the prosperous religion.	36:36
	People considered their prosperity	36:41
	as a special favor from God.	36:44
	But Amos saw in this prosperity,	36:48
	oppression and exploitation.	36:50
	He said that prosperity	36:54
	is not because of the practice of religion,	36:57
	but exploitation of the poor.	37:00
	Therefore, no formal worship and religious ritualism	37:04
	can save Israel from the judgment of God.	37:09
	He declares in the word of God,	37:15
	I hate, I despise your feasts.	37:17
	I take no delight.	37:21
	I loathe the smell of your solemn assemblies.	37:22
	Worship of God, prophet knew, was a genuine encounter,	37:28
	is a genuine encounter with God,	37:33
	and such an encounter can only take place	37:36
	through genuine repentance.	37:39
	What is acceptable to God is not a new form of worship,	37:42
	or even a new ritualism, but a new relationship.	37:48
	New relationship between God and man, and man and man.	37:55
	What God requires are just deeds,	38:00
	commensurate with the practice of religion.	38:04
	What he requires is a new order	38:09
	based on social and economic justice.	38:12
	What he requires is end of exploitation	38:16
	of the poor and the needy,	38:18
	because that is the essence of true religion.	38:21
	I think the book of Amos and the message of the prophet	38:26
	is a parable for our day.	38:32
	We, too, live in a world, a society,	38:36
	a political arrangement, very much similar	38:40
	to what the prophet condemned.	38:43
	Our world and its social order	38:47
	is based on fundamental inequalities.	38:50
	Two third of the world lives in dehumanizing poverty,	38:54
	while one third of the world lives in luxury	39:00
	and planned waste.	39:02
	These glaring inequalities and polarities	39:05
	are also evident on the national,	39:09
	as well as international scale.	39:13
	There are vast number of peoples in the world, even today,	39:17
	who live their lives under the conditions	39:21
	of worst exploitation.	39:25
	They live under the forces of imperialism,	39:28
	racism, and exploitation,	39:31
	which tend to deny their basic humanity.	39:35
	There are still forces of organized manipulation	39:40
	and exploitation, which rob societies and communities	39:43
	of all self-confidence and self-respect.	39:47
	Such a situation creates political imbalance,	39:52
	social dislocation, and maldistribution of resources,	39:57
	and opens up the life of the poor and the exploited	40:02
	to manipulation and domination,	40:05
	especially by the rich and the powerful.	40:09
	It simply concentrates social, economic, and political power	40:13
	in the hands of a tiny minority,	40:17
	which undertakes to use it for its own private ends.	40:20
	Net result of this is that people are prevented	40:24
	from being their own masters,	40:28
	prevented from making their own decisions,	40:31
	prevented to take responsibility for their own actions.	40:34
	Instead they've become subjects of worst exploitation,	40:38
	which destroys domestic and international peace.	40:43
	Can the church, Christian church,	40:49
	play a prophetic role in such a situation?	40:52
	Before we become too certain of the church's role	40:56
	in our time, we must not forget	41:00
	that vast majority of mankind	41:04
	has not experienced the Christian faith	41:07
	and the Christian church	41:09
	as a liberating and humanizing force,	41:12
	but as an ally of the forces of reaction, of imperialism,	41:18
	of exploitation, and of racism.	41:23
	Even now, these forces are operative	41:27
	in the life of the churches and around the world.	41:29
	Therefore, the first precondition	41:35
	for the church to be relevant to the needs of the poor,	41:38
	the exploited, and the excluded,	41:41
	is to clean her own life,	41:47
	and be liberated from these forces.	41:49
	What is required is a radical repentance	41:53
	on the part of the church,	41:56
	it must break the alliance with the forces of racism,	41:59
	exploitation, and domination.	42:02
	It must again become the faith,	42:04
	not simply of the respectable,	42:07
	the fashionable, and the exploiting classes,	42:09
	but must truly become the faith of the rejected,	42:14
	the exploited, and the persecuted.	42:18
	Then, only, will the church recover her credibility	42:22
	as the representative of He who died on the cross	42:26
	as a poor, rejected, and tried criminal,	42:31
	who stood on the side of the weak,	42:36
	who brought the excluded back to respectability,	42:39
	who ultimately gave His life	42:44
	to preserve the fundamental humanity of man.	42:46
	It is to such a prophetic task, that church is called.	42:51
	It cannot be content with the beauty of our own worship,	42:57
	the depth of our theology,	43:02
	the magnificence of our church structures.	43:04
	But church must, again, recover her credibility	43:08
	with the poor and the exploited.	43:11
	That will only happen through her deeds,	43:14
	and her commitment in the service	43:18
	of the poor and the exploited.	43:20
	Then, only, will the church be able to perform	43:23
	the prophetic task of bringing God's judgment	43:26
	upon those who dehumanize man in our world.	43:30
	Let us pray.	43:35
	Oh God, our Father,	43:42
	help us to face the realities of our life,	43:45
	and of our own degradation.	43:50
	Give us courage to face thy judgment on us	43:53
	and upon those who have made alliance with exploitation.	43:56
	Save all of us,	44:03
	that thy mercy and judgment and righteousness	44:05
	be upon all of us.	44:08
	May we be judged by thy mercy, and by thy righteousness.	44:10
	In thy holy name, we pray.	44:14
	Amen.	44:16
	(grand organ music)	44:20
	(choir singing)	45:01
	(gentle organ music)	48:07
	(choir singing acapella)	49:45
	(grand organ music)	53:52
	(choir singing)	54:33
	♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪	54:43
Officiant	Almighty God, we are here at this altar,	55:31
	the symbol of your presence in our midst,	55:35
	to make this dedication of self and money.	55:38
	Praying that the offering of ourselves and of our goods	55:42
	may contribute not to the building up	55:48
	of meaningless religious assemblies,	55:50
	but of meaningful religious righteousness	55:53
	throughout the earth.	55:57
	Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	55:59
	Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.	56:07
	♪ Amen, Amen ♪	56:17
	♪ Amen, Amen ♪	56:24
	♪ Amen ♪	56:37
	♪ Amen ♪	56:45
	♪ Amen ♪	56:58
	(bell ringing)	57:09
	(grand organ music)	57:28

Item Info

Title:

Anwar Barkat - "Religion without Religiosity" (July 2, 1972)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4348mh8f

Date:

July 2, 1972

Speaker:

Barkat, Anwar

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0624
ref6451_gsc
uachapelsermaud
duke:628497
dcrau002609
ark:/87924/r4348mh8f
bb4c13ec-e484-4f01-b601-caea52bf813e

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Anwar Barkat - "Religion without Religiosity" (July 2, 1972)

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