When Faith Is Tested
The aid worker wanted an explanation for the death and destruction he was witnessing, and the bishop was speechless.
"How can a loving God allow this to happen?" asked Alex Balasanthiran. Since the deadly tsunami hit that killed nearly 30,000 Sri Lankans the day after Christmas, Mr. Balasanthiran has been arranging food, water and shelter for communities across his native island country. In the northeastern Sri Lankan city of Batticaloa, where 2,600 people lost their lives and tens of thousands were left homeless, he had come to the home of the Most Rev. Joseph Kingsley Swampillai in search of an answer. "The disaster has shaken my faith," the 60-year-old Roman Catholic said.
CLOSE TO HOME
We talked to spiritual leaders at a selection of churches, temples and synagogues across the country for an idea of how those of various faiths are comforting their congregations in light of the tsunami disaster, and how they are contributing to relief efforts. See a sampling.
WAVE OF DESTRUCTION
See complete coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia.
Bishop Swampillai, grieving over his parishioners' losses just a few days after the event, was at a loss. "Everyone wanted to know why did this happen to us, and at this level of magnitude," recalls the 68-year-old Roman Catholic bishop. "This was unimaginable."
As South and Southeast Asia dig out from the devastating tsunami, survivors and relief workers are continuing to search for the missing and to find ways to distribute aid and rebuild. But now, another type of search is taking place. Because the waves hit such a wide swath of Asia, the dead and the grieving include Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Jews -- a virtual microcosm of the world's major religions.
All are seeking meaning in the tragedy, or to reconcile their faith with the terrible loss of life. Even across the world, those who weren't directly affected, or who take a more-secular view, are trying to come to terms with the randomness of the destruction, and the twists of fate that separated the living from the dead.
The disaster is both testing faith and reinvigorating it. In the midst of the tsunami's immediate aftermath in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 22-year-old refugee Fitriani spent her days rescuing the garments needed for Muslim prayer. "People who had zero time for Islam, who had many sins, they're now 99% committed," says Ms. Fitriani , who uses one name.
In Sri Lanka, a 52-year-old aid worker named Mamangarajah admits to losing his faith. "My wife is a Hindu devotee and lights oil lamps to the Hindu gods 24 hours a day," says Mr. Manangarajah, who also uses one name. "I, however, have carried 37 bodies on my back. I have big doubts."
Praying for tsunami victims and survivors during an Indian community prayer meeting in Matthews, N.C.
Around the world, many churches, mosques, temples and synagogues have become important centers of gathering and response in crisis. Sunday at the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J., the Rev. Muriel Burrows replaced her regular Communion reading with a discussion of whether God is just.
"I told them it is OK for Christians to ask, 'Where is God's role in this?' " she says. In Hong Kong, Rabbi Michael Schwartz expressed the difficulty in understanding the disaster. "Had there been a storm raging, somehow the tsunami would make more sense to me," Rabbi Schwartz told the congregation during his New Year's Eve sermon. "Some noise, thunder, an explosion, a voice from heaven -- something to signal 120,000 deaths."
And in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, some spiritual leaders say emotional energies are better spent in worship, not questioning. "Allah has his own way," says K.H. Ma'aruf, head of the governing council for Islam. "As humble humans, there is no way we can comprehend his infinite wisdom."
Punishment or Inspiration
The different responses grow partly out of ancient theologies, in which Christians and Muslims acknowledge a divine plan that humans can't understand -- while Hindus and Buddhists hold that souls are reincarnated or reborn again and again, and emphasize that life, while sacred, is impermanent and shouldn't be clung to. Even within faiths, geography and wealth are shaping how people are making sense of the tsunami -- as a punishment, an inspiration for greater faith or a massive opportunity to reach out.
A mass at a relief camp on Car Nicobar in India's Nicobar Islands
There is a "major difference in how traditional and modern religious communities tend to think of God in situations like this," says William Stacy Johnson, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J. Traditional Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups -- who see God as a "giver and taker of life" -- sometimes blame themselves for natural disasters or believe they are being punished. Other communities, mostly in developed nations, de-emphasize God's role in the natural order to instead focus on God's redemptive responses to relieve suffering, he says.
The event's freak nature has intensified the search for explanation. Unlike other large-scale destruction, such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., responsibility can't be placed at the feet of any person or group. Religious leaders of many faiths have grappled publicly with how to keep faith in the face of such suffering. Pope John Paul II on Sunday called the calamity "the most difficult and painful of tests," and told thousands of Roman Catholics gathered Sunday in St. Peter's Square that God hadn't abandoned people.
In Sri Lanka, Bishop Swampillai, having failed to answer the aid worker who questioned him, returned to the pulpit with a reply for the 2,000 parishioners who came for midnight Mass on New Year's Eve. "I said, 'God has spoken,' " he recalls. "He wants us to realize his presence in order that we should live according to his design and not according to our plans, designs and desires. Man proposes, God disposes. This is clearly manifested in this disaster.' "
A Tibetan Buddhist monk and Christian nuns at a service in Bangalore, India.
Not all his listeners were convinced. Jude Rajandra, a 27-year-old Roman Catholic, lost two of his immediate family members and his house. He fled from the disaster and is now living in a school with other refugees. His experience didn't draw him closer to religion, he says; it made him "hate God." The formerly religious carpenter now says that if God existed, this tragedy would have been prevented.
Mr. Balasanthiran, the aid worker who had visited Bishop Swampillai shortly after the waves hit, wasn't at the Mass. But in the days after their conversation, he began hearing stories from friends about signs from God, including a red moon in the night sky, that reminded him of Bible passages he's been rereading. He points to Luke 21:25: "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves."
"Having read these passages, my faith has now increased," Mr. Balasanthiran says. "The Bible has predicted what has come."
Some Muslim survivors of the disaster have also seen signs in the devastating waves, which they believe were sent from God to punish man for his sins and lack of faith. Malaysian fisherman Mat Yusoff Kasa says that on the morning the tsunami hit, he was fishing in his small boat when he pulled in a catch 10 times the size of his usual haul. Rather than celebrating his good fortune, Mr. Kasa was terrified. He threw half his catch back into the sea and returned to shore. His 8-year-old son, who was fishing from the shore, called to him soon after, telling Mr. Kasa he saw the face of the devil in the lathering waves speeding to the beach.
'Do More Good'
Mr. Kasa's home on the coast near Penang was flattened when the tsunami struck a few minutes later, but the village's two mosques survived unscathed. The family has only one explanation: "It is a sign from Allah that [he] wants the people of the village to go back to the mosque, as very few people from the village attend prayers," says his wife, Zainab Wanchik. Rather than losing faith, she says, the family is now "resolved to do more good."
Women in Sri Lanka during a national prayer service.
Further from the epicenter, some Muslim and Christian leaders have a gentler explanation of the events. "It's very hard to know God's intentions and plans, but we should focus on the lessons, rather than the questions," says Hasan Sabri, Imam of the Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach. "Say 'This is from God, I accept it.... But more importantly, focus on what I'm going to do tomorrow, and what I'm going to do to alleviate the pain and suffering of people.' "
The Rev. Dominic Chan, vicar general and parish priest of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Hong Kong, also did not see a vengeful God. "This was not because of our sins," he says. "I don't think God wanted this to happen. Even God is sorry for this."
For Hindus and Buddhists, divinity plays a minor role at best, because their religions don't account for a single god. Many Hindus believe that suffering is punishment for misdeeds in a previous life, and that bad things can happen to good people who still have bad karma from previous lives. Conversely, many believe that victims of the tsunamis may be happier when they are reincarnated in the next life. (This week, Hindus world-wide have been offering prayers to help release the souls of victims who couldn't be cremated, to help them be reincarnated.)
Georgetown University undergraduate Mala Ramchandani, a Hindu who was visiting her Indian family in Hong Kong when the disaster struck, says the catastrophe spurred her to action. She canceled her 21st birthday party Sunday, and persuaded family to donate more than $1,000 for relief efforts instead of buying cake and presents. She spent the day at a Hindu temple praying, and then helped to raise additional donation money through a book sale at a friend's nearby Sikh temple.
Ms. Ramchandani says her religion made it easy for her to refrain from questioning why the catastrophe occurred or looking to religious leaders for advice. Instead, she says, Hinduism made it easier to put the disaster into perspective, respond and move forward. "When you have Hindu perspective on life, it makes it easier to accept. Whenever anything bad happens, you are able to look at the situation more objectively," she says. "For me it is all karma -- it is everyone's destiny."
Spreading Beliefs
The disaster has also brought into relief the area's collage of religious faiths: India is predominantly Hindu but with a pocket of Jews in the affected area of Kerala, while Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist with a minority of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Buddhism is predominant in Thailand and Islam is the major religion of Malaysia and Indonesia, yet communities of other faiths are spread throughout. The disaster has unified members of different religions to administer aid, compelled clergy to work together to provide interfaith rituals for the dead -- and, in some cases, provided an opportunity for adherents of one religion to spread beliefs to those of another.
Muslims in Malaysia pray for victims.
Last Sunday at the Evangelical Christian Church in Hong Kong, Pastor Brett Hilliard urged his congregation to respond by spreading Christianity. "Indonesia is the largest Muslim community in the world. I don't know if 100 years from now whether it will be the biggest Christian [nation] in the world," he said. "Wouldn't it be great if God redeems the tragedy to change the eternal destination of a nation?"
As part of the Hong Kong church's relief efforts, its congregation has raised about $4,000 to aid the Cherngtalay Church in Phuket, Thailand, a 70-member congregation in a predominantly Buddhist area. The church's pastor, Thikhun Yai, has rented accommodations and a car for eight volunteers, and is planning weekly visits over the next month to each of 150 grieving Thai families there. "What they need now is not just the physical help, but also the spiritual help," Pastor Yai says. "The goal is to comfort them, to make them feel like they have hope. We are Christians, so we can tell them that God will take care of them, even if they are not Christian."
'Buddhism Cannot Be Changed'
In nearby Krabi, on the coast of Thailand, Buddhist Abbot Phrapalad Boonlert Dhammarako says it is up to individuals to choose their own faith. Still, he says it would be difficult for missionaries to convert those in Thailand, where Buddhism's roots go back hundreds of years. "Buddhism cannot be changed overnight," he says.
Abbot Phrapalad says his more immediate concern is cremating and offering burial rites, an important Buddhist ritual, for many of the 643 people who died there. From sunrise to 10 p.m., his funeral fires are burning not just for Thai Buddhists but for people of other faiths, from Japan, Singapore and Europe. Recently, a Chilean family arrived at the abbot's crematorium with a local Roman Catholic priest. They asked that the saffron-robed monks, who normally spend 15 minutes on prayers during the Buddhist ceremony, not perform the religious rites on their dead relative, but rather allow their priest to make his sacraments. The abbot agreed. "I'm ready to be tolerant, even to share my crematorium with any other religion," he says.
Buddhists, Abbot Phrapalad says, believe that life is impermanent, and suffering is part of the human experience, regardless of their faith. "Human life is like fruits falling off the trees," he says. "Sometimes they are not ripe when they are picked."
Nicola May, who lost her 25-year-old sister, Lisa, when a wave swept over Phi Phi Island, has taken a Buddhist-like approach in accepting her sister's death. She does not believe in a god or hell, she says, but feels that "we regenerate and go somewhere" when we die.
Nicola's husband and father spent a week searching for Lisa's body, finally learning that a body they believe is hers had been buried in a mass grave in Krabi. The body has been exhumed and DNA samples are being compared before the body is flown back to London for burial. "We'll probably cremate her and celebrate on top of her favorite hill," says Ms. May. "We'll just have a big party."
She says tragedy hasn't made her more religious. "I don't put it down to God. It's just the way of life. This has reaffirmed to me that you have to live life to the maximum."
灾难考验宗教信仰
一位救援人员想为他所目睹的悲惨景象讨一个说法，主教却无言以对。
阿里克斯?巴拉桑帝兰(Alex Balasanthiran)问道，“为何仁慈的上帝会让这种事发生？”。海啸灾难在圣诞节次日造成近3万斯里兰卡人死亡，巴拉桑帝兰一直忙著为斯里兰卡全国各地的社区安排食物、水和帐篷。在斯里兰卡东北部的拜蒂克洛市(Batticaloa)，有2,600人遇难，数万人无家可归，巴拉桑帝兰来到该市大主教约瑟芬?金斯利?史万帕莱(Joseph Kingsley Swampillai)的家，希望可以找到答案。这位60岁的罗马天主教徒说，“灾难动摇了我的信念。”
史万帕莱主教对他所辖教区居民的死亡感到痛心，他感到非常困惑。这位68岁的罗马天主教主教回忆道，“每个人都想知道为什么这样的事会发生在我们身上，而且如此惨烈。这在以前是不可想像的。”
随著南亚和东南亚正走出这场浩劫，生存者和救援人员继续寻找失踪者，并想方设法散发救援物品和进行重建。但是现在，另外一种搜寻也在进行中。由于此次巨浪袭击了亚洲多个国家，在死亡和幸存者中有印度教徒、佛教徒、穆斯林、基督徒和犹太教徒──囊括了世界各大主要宗教。他们都在从这次灾难中寻找真意，或者根据自己的信仰为如此众多生命的消逝找到一个解释。甚至在世界各地，那些没有受到直接影响的人，或者一些非宗教人士，也正竭力去面对灾难的无常，以及令人生死两茫茫的命运多桀。
这次灾难既考验著宗教信仰，又令宗教信仰获得新生。在海啸袭击印尼班达亚齐(Banda Aceh)后，22岁的难民费瑞尼(Fitriani)一连数日忙著救出穆斯林教徒祈祷时所穿的外衣。费瑞尼说，“以前没有时间信仰伊斯兰教、有许多罪孽的人现在99%都信教了。”在斯里兰卡，52岁的救援人员马曼格拉吉(Mamangarajah)承认丧失了信仰。“我的妻子笃信印度教，她给诸神点的灯每天24小时亮著，”他说道。“但是，我到现在已经背了37具尸体。我非常怀疑。”
世界各地的许多教堂、清真寺、寺庙和教会堂成为了危机时刻人们聚会和作出回应的中心。周日在新泽西州普林斯顿的Witherspoon Street Presbyterian教堂，牧师穆瑞?巴罗斯(Muriel Burrows)没有像往常一样唱圣歌，而是举行了一场关于上帝是否是公正的讨论。“我告诉教徒们他们可以提问'此次灾难中上帝何在？'“她说道。在香港，舒瓦兹(Rabbi Michael Schwartz)表示理解这场灾难很难。“如果有一场猛烈的风暴，我在某种程度上还能理解这次海啸。”舒瓦兹在新年前夜的布道中对会众表示，“一些声响、雷鸣、一次爆炸、一个来自天堂的声音--这些预示了120,000条生命的死亡。”在世界上穆斯林最多的印尼，一些宗教领袖称，最好将精力用在祈祷而不是提问上。“真主有自己的行事方式。”伊斯兰管制委员会的首领穆拉夫(K.H. Ma'aruf)说道。“作为渺小的人类，我们无法理解他无穷的智慧。”
各个宗教之所以作出不同反应的部分原因在于古老的神学，基督徒和穆斯林都承认神有著不为人类所理解的计划──而印度教和佛教徒认为灵魂是可以不断转世的，并强调尽管生命神圣，但却非永恒，不应该执迷。即使在同一个宗教里，地理和财富也改变了人们理解这次海啸的方式──或是惩罚、或是激励人们更虔诚的信仰，或是伸出援助之手的重要机会。
普林斯顿神学院(Princeton Theological Seminary)的教授威廉姆?约翰逊(William Stacy Johnson)说，“传统和现代宗教团体在这种情形下对神的看法大相径庭。”传统的基督教、犹太教和穆斯林团体──他们认为神赋予并拿走人的生命──有时将自然灾难归咎于自己，或者相信他们正受到惩罚。他说，其他的大部分在发达国家的团体则淡化神在自然秩序中的作用，而重点关注神对减轻苦难所作出的救赎回应。
这次事件的反常性促使人们向更深处寻找答案。与911等其他大型灾难不同，这次事件责任不在任何人或团体。许多宗教的宗教领袖在公众场合表示在面对此类苦难时保持信仰比较困难。教皇约翰?保罗二世(John Paul II)称这次不幸事件是“最困难和痛苦的考验，”他对聚集在圣彼得广场的数千名罗马天主教徒说，神没有抛弃人们。
在斯里兰卡，史万帕莱主教未能向发问的那位救援人士提供答案，他在讲坛向新年前夜作弥撒的2,000名教区居民作出了答复，“我说过，'上帝已经开口'。”他回忆道。“他希望我们认识到他的存在，以让我们根据他的旨意而不是我们的计划、设计和欲望生活。谋事在人，成事在天。这次灾难明白无误的表明了这一点。”
但不是所有的听众都信服。27岁的罗马天主教徒裘德?拉加德若(Jude Rajandra)失去了两位至亲和他的房子。他逃离了这次灾难，现在与其他难民一道居住在一个学校里面。他的经历并没有拉近他与宗教的距离，他说道。这场灾难使他“憎恨上帝”。这位以前信教的木匠说，如果上帝存在，这场灾难将会被阻止。
曾经在灾后不久拜访史万帕莱主教的巴拉桑帝兰没有参加这次弥撒。但是在与主教见面数天以后，他开始从朋友那儿听到一些关于上帝存在的故事，比如夜空中出现红月亮，这让他想起他重新翻阅《圣经》时读到的章节。他指的是“路加福音” 21:25：“日月星辰要显出异兆，地上的邦国也有困苦。因海中波浪的响声，就慌慌不定。”。
巴拉桑帝兰说，“读到这些段落以后，我的信仰增强了。《圣经》预测了未来发生的事。”
一些幸存的穆斯林教徒也在海啸中看到了一些景象，他们相信这些景象是神发出的惩罚人类罪孽和不信神者的信号。马来西亚渔民卡萨(Mat Yusoff Kasa)说，在海啸发生的当天早上，他在渔船上打到了比平常多10倍的鱼。如此的好运没有让卡萨兴高采烈，他感到深深的恐惧。他将一半的鱼放回大海，然后回到岸上。过了一会，正在海边钓鱼的8岁儿子向他大叫起来，说他看到正向岸边袭来的波浪中有一张魔鬼的脸。
卡萨家在Penang附近的海岸边，数分钟后到来的海啸将他的家夷为平地，但是村里两座清真寺却完好无损。卡萨一家对此只有一个解释：“这是真主阿拉发出的信号，他希望村民回到清真寺，因为现在只有很少的村民做祷告。”他的妻子万契克(Zainab Wanchik)如是说。她说，他们没有丧失信仰，相反，他们现在决心做更多的善事。
在远离灾区的地方，一些穆斯林和基督教领袖对这一事件有一个更文雅的解释。“了解上帝的意图和计划是很难的，但是我们应该将注意力放在教训上，而不是问题上。”南加州伊斯兰中心(Islamic Center of South Florida)的教长哈萨?萨布里(Hasan Sabri)说道。“比如，'这是神的旨意，我坦然接受...但更重要的是，关心我明天要去做什么，以及我做什么才能减轻人们的痛苦和苦难。'”
罗马天主教香港教区副主教陈志明神父也不认为神这样做是为了报复，“这不是因为我们的罪孽，我不认为神希望这种事情发生。即使神对此也感到难过。”
对印度教和佛教徒来说，神在此事件中的作用很小，因为他们的宗教没有全部系于一个神上面。许多印度教徒相信，今世的苦难是对前世所犯罪孽的惩罚，好人会由于因果报应而遭到不幸。反之，许多人认为海啸的遇难者转世后可能会活的更好。(上周，全球印度教徒为尸体没有得到火化的亡灵颂经，帮助他们转世。）
乔治城大学(Georgetown University)的学生马拉?拉姆查丹尼(Mala Ramchandani)是一个印度教教徒，当灾难发生时她正在香港探望家人。她说，灾难促使她行动起来。她取消了周日的21岁生日聚会，并说服家人不要买蛋糕和礼物，而是做出了1,000多美元的捐赠。生日当天，她在印度教寺庙中祈祷，然后通过售书又筹集了另外一笔捐款。。”。
拉姆查丹称，她的宗教很容易阻止她询问为什么灾难发生或者到宗教领导人那里寻找建议。相反，她说，印度教很容易让信徒全面地看待灾难，作出回应并采取行动。“当你以印度教的观点看待生命时，你能更容易的接受灾难。不管什么不幸发生，你都能够更客观地看待情形。”她说。“对我来说，一切都是因果报应──这是每个人的命运。”
在这场灾难中，需要拯救的还有人们对宗教的忠诚。绝大多数印度人信仰印度教，但在受灾的喀拉拉邦，也有少量的犹太教教徒；斯里兰卡人主要信仰佛教，少数人信印度教、伊斯兰教以及基督教。而佛教在泰国占据主导地位，马来西亚和印度尼西亚则主要信仰伊斯兰教。除此以外其他宗教也在这些地区拥有信徒。海啸让不同宗教信仰的人团结在了一起，也促使各类神职人员共同工作，为死难者举行不同的宗教悼念仪式，有时候，某类宗教的信仰者还能利用这一机会向其他教派的信徒宣扬本教的教义。
在香港福音基督教会(Evangelical Christian Church)，希利亚德(Pastor Brett Hilliard)号召全体教徒利用这次机会传播基督教。他说：“印度尼西亚是全世界最大的穆斯林国家，我不知道100年后它会不会成为世界最大的基督教国家。如果上帝将这场灾难变成改变一个国家信仰的契机，岂不很好？”
在香港基督教会的赈灾行动中，基督教徒们向泰国普吉岛的Cherngtalay教会捐赠了4,000美元，这个教会共有70名成员。该教会的牧师Thikhun Yai为8名志愿者租下了一处房子和一辆车，并计划在下个月每周都对当地受灾的150户家庭进行挨家挨户的造访。Yai牧师说：“他们现在需要的不仅是物质上的帮助，而且还需要精神上的帮助。我们的目的是要安抚他们，让他们看到希望。我们是基督教徒，因此我们能够告诉他们说上帝将会保佑他们，即使他们还不是基督教徒。”
在普吉岛临近的喀比(Krabi)，佛教僧侣达马拉卡(Abbot Phrapalad Boonlert Dhammarako)称，选择哪种宗教信仰应由个人自己决定。不过他说，由于佛教在泰国有著数百年的历史，根基深厚，因此传教士们要想改变当地民众的信仰并不是一件容易的事情。他说：“人们对佛教的信仰不是一朝一夕就能改变的。”
达马拉卡说，他现在最关心的是如何为当地643名死难者举行佛教火化和安葬仪式。从日出到晚上10点，他不仅要为泰国佛教徒举行火化仪式，还要火化来自日本、新加坡和欧洲等地不同信仰的遇难者。不久前，一个智利家庭和当地一名罗马天主教牧师找到达马拉卡的火葬场，他们要求达马拉卡不要为他们死难的亲属举行佛教仪式，而由这位牧师来完成他们的宗教仪式。他说：“我会对此持以宽容的态度，甚至还会让其他教派的教徒使用这个火葬场。”
达马拉卡说，佛教徒认为生命并非是永恒的，无论人们的信仰是什么，苦难都是人生经历的一部分。“人的生命过程就像是果实逐渐成熟，然后从树上掉下来，”他说，“有时候没等成熟果实就被摘了下来。”
妮古拉?梅(Nicola May)在皮皮岛(Phi Phi Island)失去了她25岁的姐姐丽莎(Lisa)。她用一种佛教徒的心态来接受这一事实。她说，她不相信上帝也不相信地狱，但她觉得在人死后会获得重生，到另外一个地方去。
妮古拉的丈夫和父亲花了一周的时间寻找丽莎的遗体，最后得知他们认定的一具遗体已经被埋葬在了喀比的一个集体坟墓中。于是她的遗体被挖了出来，在经过了DNA鉴定后，她被运回伦敦安葬。妮古拉说：“我们可能会为她举行火葬，并在她最喜欢的山上举行一个隆重的悼念仪式。”
她说，灾难并没有让她更加信仰宗教。“我不会因此开始信仰神，生活就是这样的。这让我更加坚信我们必须尽其所能地善待生活。”
