Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The author of "The Martyrs of Columbine" on the strange and sometimes violent collision of religion and politics.
Oct 23, 2002 | Remember Columbine? A year after the terror attacks of last Sept. 11, as the country gears up for a war with Iraq that will likely claim a heavy toll in American lives, it's easy to forget Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and the 13 victims they murdered in 1999. But for many in the evangelical Christian community, Columbine has yet to fade from view. Two of the teenage victims -- Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott -- reportedly professed their faith in God before being shot, and preachers all over the country still invoke their names to win converts and argue for prayer in schools.
"The Martyrs of Columbine: Faith and the Politics of Tragedy" (to be published Nov. 9) meticulously documents this enduring use of martrydom for political purposes. Author Justin Watson, a religious professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., explains how the two girls have become contemporary Daniels in the lion's den: how their stories have been exploited for political purposes by both the left, which saw Columbine in terms of weak gun laws, and the right, which argued that Harris and Klebold were the direct result of secularization.
The attacks of Sept. 11 and the violence in the Middle East remind us that politics aren't just local but also, in many cases, religious. Watson is something of an expert in the area of political religion. His previous book, "The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition," was praised for its balanced but critical take on the paradox of a movement that's looking for recognition within the system of American religious pluralism while it also tries to destroy the very tradition of tolerance that lets it mobilize in the first place. In "The Martyrs of Columbine," he once again approaches the evangelical movement with a fair but skeptical eye. Watson emphasizes that it's doubtful Cassie or Rachel actually replied yes when asked if they believed in God by one of the shooters -- and yet, he says, their families and defenders continue to traffic in their stories as if they'd never been discredited. The pull of martyrdom, the attraction to the story of someone dying for her faith, he argues, is too compelling to pass up.
But is there danger in glorifying death for a religious cause? Is there a relationship between the way the American right wing exalts Cassie and Rachel and the way many Palestinians exalt suicide bombers? What role, if any, should religion play in politics?
Salon chatted with Watson about God, martyrs and the way they mix with political and social conflict.
Your book is about how quickly a martyr story spreads and how it's able to overcome facts that discredit it. But it's been several years since Columbine. Why does this message matter?
As an example of how a martyr story develops and how it's used, even generations afterward. It's still something quite relevant. The formative power of martyr stories in Christianity and in other traditions is still very much with us. Think of this as a case study: The lessons from it can be applicable in other places.
What are some of the lessons you learned from the case of the Columbine martyrs?
The largest lesson I gained from it is about how the politics of the tragedy of martyrdom, of the loss of life, of sacrifice, is still politics. It becomes used not as something set apart, as a sacred thing; it instead becomes used for political purposes.
Is this a new trend or has it always been this way?
I see it as essential to the concept of martyrdom itself. The definition of martyrdom that I've used involves a notion of ideological conflict between communities. The martyr becomes the great representative, the crystallization of the values of a community in conflict with others. So there's an inherently political aspect to martyrdom.
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