在世貿廢墟上:信仰和懷疑 1

今晚看了PBS的FRONTLINE紀念911的節目: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (在世貿廢墟上:信仰和懷疑).



作者采訪了很多人: 各大宗教的神職人員, 911遇難者家屬,學者,納粹猶太大屠殺遇難者親人等. 討論這次震驚世界的事件引起的思索. 建議大家有機會觀看,或者通過上麵的連接閱讀訪問記錄.

節選一些翻譯一哈子,方便不愛看E文的朋友(能力有限, 大家將就一哈子).

下麵這段背景: 911事件12天後, 紐約(NEWYORK) Yankee 體育場舉行的大型祈禱集會, 參加者有各種信仰, 也包括無信仰者; 參加者中遇難者家屬眾多. On 2001-SEP-23, less than two weeks after the terrorist attack on New York City, Oprah Winfrey hosted "Prayer for America." It was a meeting of New Yorkers of all faiths -- and none -- in Yankee Stadium. The prayer service was simulcast on large television screens at stadiums in Staten Island and Brooklyn, NY. It was televised on four national networks. It was at a time when attendees at the service, the rest of the nation, and people worldwide were still trying to come to terms with the tragedy. The prayer service naturally had a strong religious tone. Rev. Dr. David Benke of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod called Yankee Stadium a "field of dreams which has now become a House of Prayer."

體育場中心講台上是各宗教的代表,Reverend Dr. David Benke 是路德派的代表(Lutheran Church). 他參加這次多宗教的集會,引起了他自己教派內對他的批評, 指責他不應該和別的宗教共同出現, 下麵是他在片中訪談記錄:

Rev. David Benke
Lutheran minister


The Yankee Stadium day was a pivotal day in my entire life. It was a day when everything that I had stood for as a human being, as well as a person of faith, was going to be on the line. ... When I shared the podium with representatives of all the major faiths and prayed, that prayer became the center of a major controversy.

Yankee Stadium體育場的那一天是我整個人生的轉折的一天. 那是我做為一個人,一個有信仰的人所擁有的一切將遭遇危機的一天…當我和所有主要宗教代表們共享講台祈禱時, 那個祈禱成為了一場重要爭論的中心.

The very next day, I began to get messages filled with hate. They were messages not from people outside of my tradition, but from within my tradition. And they were messages that nailed me to the floor, frankly, emotionally. They just said, "You were wrong to be there. You never should have gone to Yankee Stadium. You are a heretic. You have dishonored your faith."

就在第二天, 我開始收到充滿仇恨的信息. 這些信息不是來自我的教派外的人, 而是我的教派中人. 這是些將我釘在地板上的信息, 坦率而激動的信息. 他們說:”你出現在那裏是錯誤的. 你根本就不該去那體育場. 你是異端. 你令你的信仰蒙羞.”

One man said genuine terrorism was me. He said, planes crash and people die, nothing big about that. Genuine terrorism was me giving that prayer. I just want to say that I have not gotten over that and I can't get through that. Because I lived through the real terrorists driving the planes into the real buildings. And I've talked to people whose loved ones were murdered. And for me to be put in that same category is just not tolerable to me. I can't take it. I can't bear up under it. It doesn't make any sense to me.

一個人說真正的恐怖分子是我. 他說飛機墜毀, 人們死亡, 沒什麽特別的. 真正的恐怖主義是我去給出我的祈禱. 我隻想說我還沒有想通也不能釋懷. 因為我經曆了真正的恐怖分子駕機撞樓. 我和被謀殺的死難者的親人談過話. 對我來說被劃為同一類人是無法容忍的. 對我來說這根本就不合理.

Within two months, a number of those people put together a petition and filed charges of heresy, saying that I am not part of the Christian Church because of what I did on that day and should not be part of my denomination anymore, should not be allowed to preach, should have my collar removed.

兩個月後, 一些人一起請願並控訴我異端, 說由於我那天的行為我不應該再是基督教, 不應該再是我的教派成員, 應被禁止講道, 應被革去神職.

People who brought the charges against me are clergymen from my denomination. And their belief is that the doctrine of the church does not allow a Christian to stand at the same podium with someone of another faith or everybody is going to get the same idea that all religions are equal, and we have made absolute claims, exclusive claims about our faith.

控訴我的人們是我教派中的神職人員. 他們相信本教派的教義不允許一個基督徒和異教徒一起站在講台上, 否則, 人們會認為所有宗教是平等的, 而我們曾宣稱我們的信仰是絕對而唯一的.

If religion leads people to make these kinds of accusations at exactly the worse moment in American history, then what's underneath religion? Is religion really part of a lust for power and control in people's lives? Is it a desire for absolute security so strong that people cannot see the need to reach out and help? If that's true, then I've got a lot of wrestling to do with my own religion.

如果宗教讓人們做出這樣的譴責, 恰恰在美國曆史最糟糕的時刻, 那麽, 宗教表麵下是什麽呢? 難道宗教真是對權利, 對人生活的控製的渴望的一部分? 難道宗教是一種對絕對安全的渴望如此強烈以致人們不能看到需要伸手去援助? 如果這是真的, 那麽我對我自己的宗教有很多反思要做.