Triggered to Thinking

Assumptions about a person’s religious background can be prompted by societal trends and religious data. However, these assumptions still warrant further investigation. Some of these assumptions are based on broader societal trends, at least in the United States. A Pew Research Center report found that 43 percent of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic. Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos despite the growth of the religiously unaffiliated population (Pew Research Center, 2023).

Challenging these assumptions is the existence of Hispanic and Latino or Latina Muslims in the United States. Hijamil A. Martinez Vázquez presents his research in Latino/a y Musulmán: The Construction of Latino/a Identity among Latino/a Muslims in the United States. He argues that these converts are “located in a liminal space, their conversion stories represent counter discourses and the process toward the reconstruction of identities as decolonial activity” (Martinez Vázquez, 2010, p. 8). As some of these converts created new identities, the process did not come without challenges. One informant stated, “My mom, she used to say that it is the religion of the devil” (Martinez Vázquez, 2010, p. 23).Martinez Vázquez explores this phenomenon through the lens of postcolonial theory. He argues that converts to Islam from these communities often reconstruct their identities because they have become outsiders within their own cultural communities (Martinez Vázquez, 2015, p. 265). Likewise, King and Pérez (2015) note that “Yet Latina Muslims must also contend with an internal fear of exclusion from family, friends, and fellow Muslims” (p. 309).

Similar assumptions can also be found regarding Palestinians and the religious makeup of Palestine. Some could make the assumption that to be Palestinian means to be Muslim. Studies have estimated that Christians today make up roughly 2 percent of the population in the West Bank. There is no single explanation for this decline. Research has identified a variety of contributing factors including settler violence, the pressures of occupation, economic opportunities abroad, and the growing Islamization of some parts of society. Alice Kisiya has gained media attention as a Palestinian Christian who has fought to regain her family’s farm after years of conflict involving Israeli settlers. Mitri Raheb’s work as a Palestinian Christian is thus an interesting avenue to explore the situation from the perspective of a believing Christian who is also Palestinian. Some American Christians have developed apocalyptic theologies that place modern Israel at the center of biblical prophecy. I recall reading Mark Hitchcock’s The Second Coming of Babylon, which viewed a rebuilt Babylon as an important feature of end times prophecy. I have also listened to James Kaddis speak at churches, where he has presented a view of the end times that centers on modern day Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. His YouTube program Countdown 2 Eternity examines current geopolitical events through the lens of biblical prophecy.

Raheb sharply critiques these perspectives. He writes, “Then we have the Christian Right in the United States. I do not find much in them that is Christian or right. They are anxious for Armageddon, no more, no less. They do not care for Israel but for the final big bang” (Raheb, 2004, p. 90).At the same time, Raheb also offers criticism of his own community. He writes, “We have to confess that many of the tactics used by some of our people were devastating for us: the militarization of the Intifada, the use of guns in our otherwise nonviolent struggle and the use of suicide bombing against civilians” (Raheb, 2004, p. 87). Suicide bombings became associated with the Second Intifada. The First Intifada, while not entirely peaceful, also contained significant elements of nonviolent resistance, including boycotts and the refusal to pay certain taxes (Waxman, 2019, p. 120).

Yohanna Katanacho, in a similar fashion to Raheb, developed a commentary on the Gospel of John through the perspective of a Palestinian Christian. He writes, “Celebrate his or her identity, sanctify it, and offer it to God. Let us love our complex identity, our Palestinian people, and our Israeli compatriots. Let us share our lives with them, serve them, and love them as Christ loved us. Thus, we place our Palestinian identity and our Israeli citizenship on God’s altar, asking him to sanctify and use them as a blessing to all the people around us” (Katanacho, 2023, p. 76).He presents examples of the tension between being culturally Palestinian, religiously Christian, and a citizen of Israel. The example of Peter denying Christ is compared to situations where Palestinian citizens of Israel may deny aspects of their own identity. He writes:

“When the political situation is tense, many Palestinians in Israel don’t speak Arabic in stores or public places where Israeli Jews are the majority. They tend to hide their identity lest extremists attack them. Some Palestinians seek to emphasize their Israeli identity and downplay being Palestinian, walking the path of Israelization. They choose to live today even if it means the death of their identity tomorrow. Others deny their Israeli identity, fearing that they might be perceived as traitors by their own people, so they shun anything that connects them to the state of Israel.” (Katanacho, 2023, p. 75)

This tension is related to the experiences of Muslim converts from Latino or Latina and Hispanic communities. While some converts seek to retain their cultural identity, their new religious identity could be in conflict with cultural expectations. Martinez Vázquez notes that U.S. Latino or Latina identities have been defined through the preservation of a lineage grounded in the Spanish heritage of a Christian, and specifically Catholic, past, creating what Hervieu Léger calls an “authorized memory” that links the present with a particular past (Martinez Vázquez, 2010, p. 79). For some converts, this inherited religious memory may become one of the issues they reconsider after embracing Islam. One convert, Khadijah Rivera, observed:

“Point in fact: ask three Christians of different denominations to explain the Trinity or better yet, ask them if Jesus is the son of GOD. Ask them what version of the Bible they read, and you will also find astonishing variations.” (Morales, 2018, pp. 78 to 79)

Another aspect of a person’s religious identity worth exploring is the diversity of Christian views on hell. Ben Witherington III is a Christian New Testament scholar and is considered to be a conservative Christian writer. In an essay on the topic of hell, he writes, “Whether they will experience eternal torment is more debatable. My advice, however, is that we abstain from pronouncing a final judgment on any human soul; that is Jesus’ job at the final judgment. We simply don’t know the outcome of many who are not followers of Christ now” (Witherington, 2014, p. 296). Dirk Waren, the director of Fountain of Life Teaching Ministry, argued in favor of the annihilation view of hell. He writes, “There is good news, however: As more and more Christians reject erroneous tradition and embrace biblical authority, everlasting destruction will naturally become the ‘orthodox’ position. Religious tradition and denominational allegiance are indeed powerful forces, but the Christian community has slowly and increasingly opened up to the biblical view of literal destruction since the Reformation” (Waren, 2022, Location 4582).

The “annihilation” view of hell stands in contrast with the “universal reconciliation” view of hell as promoted by Christian universalists like David Bentley Hart. Hart argued for the historical and philosophical validity of Christian universal salvation in the book That All Shall Be Saved. Hart provides the example of the East Syrian tradition of universal reconciliation. He writes, “East Syrian tradition remained especially hospitable to the notion of a temporary hell and of God’s eventual universal victory over evil. In the thirteenth century, for instance, the East Syrian bishop Solomon of Basra (fl. 1220s and after), in his marvelous Book of the Bee, remarked in a quite matter-of-fact manner that in the New Testament le-alam or aiōnios does not mean ‘eternal,’ and that of course hell is not an interminable condition. And the fourteenth-century East Syrian Patriarch Timotheus II (presided 1318–c. 1332) clearly saw it as uncontroversial to assert that hell’s aiōnios pains will eventually come to an end for everyone” (Hart, 2019, p. 124).

While I have noted in the past my focus on Triggered to Thinking isn’t to examine theology or which religion or religious view is more “correct.” I’m more interested in the anthropology of religion, but examining the diversity of religious thought is related to different Christian views of hell. It’s also important to remember that a person’s religious identity is often more complex than one might think, and modern Christians seem to have divergences on the topic of hell. Within Christianity, some believers may reinterpret traditional teachings while maintaining their Christian identity, and this consideration is important when evaluating modern religious identities. Modern religious identities are not always static, and diversity exists within every major religious tradition 

Works Cited

Hart, D. B. (2019). That all shall be saved: Heaven, hell, and universal salvation. Yale University Press.

Katanacho, Y. (2023). Reading the Gospel of John through Palestinian eyes. Langham Creative Projects.

King, Y., & Pérez, M. P. (2015). Double edged marginality and agency: Latina conversions to Islam. In K. Aghaie & M. A. Barrera (Eds.), Crescent over another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA (pp. 295–312). University Press of Florida.

Martinez Vázquez, H. A. (2010). Latino/a y musulmán: The construction of Latino/a identity among Latino/a Muslims in the United States. Pickwick Publications.

Martinez Vázquez, H. A. (2015). Dis-covering a historical consciousness: The creation of a U.S. Latina/o Muslim identity. In K. Aghaie & M. A. Barrera (Eds.), Crescent over another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA (pp. 261–277). University Press of Florida.

Morales, H. D. (2018). Latino and Muslim in America: Race, religion, and the making of a new minority. Oxford University Press.

Pew Research Center. (2023). Among U.S. Latinos, Catholicism continues to decline but is still the largest faith.

Raheb, M. (2004). Bethlehem besieged: Stories of hope in times of trouble. Fortress Press.

Waren, D. (2022). HELL KNOW!: Eternal torment or everlasting destruction? Soaring Eagle Press.

Waxman, D. (2019). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: What everyone needs to know (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Witherington, B., III. (2014). Hell, salvation, and the justice of God. In C. M. Date (Ed.), Rethinking hell: Readings in evangelical conditionalism (pp. 291–298). Cascade Books.