Background
Throughout history, religion has served as the ultimate answer to many complicated questions in society: Why are we here? What happens after death? As an individual what should I strive to be? Religion has usually taken the mores and customs of a region and transformed them into a uniform way of life for a particular area. Thus, religion takes customs, beliefs, and worldviews and relates them to humanity, spirituality and morality. Since religion takes custom into account, it is no surprise that religion should differ so much throughout the world. During times when the world was much less open and globalized, it must have been easy to say, “Oh you’re from Western Europe? Then, you must be Roman Catholic” or “You’re from the Middle East? Then you must be Muslim.” Religion shaped society and therefore the people of that society. However, in time, came the notion that one way of life, one custom, and one religion was far more superior to other religions. These sentiments of superiority led to discrimination, violence and war. Nonetheless, much of the ill consequences have unfairly used religion as a motivation when in reality prejudice and greed served as the true motivations. Ideological imperialism was waged with an appeal to a higher power as a façade. Now we live in a much more globalized world in which society has evolved to harbor many cultures and religions. Consequently, individuals must become more apt to accept others ideals, customs and religions in order to fully appreciate the great aspects of our global society. We need religious toleration. Any barrier to the acceptance of the belief of others will only result in the repetition of discrimination and violence for time to come.
The Characteristics of Modern Religion
Christianity and Islam both espouse ideas of unity, peace, and love for humanity. For Christianity, the most important and arguably most referenced idea of the bible is the Ten Commandments. Of the Ten Commandments, the most important commandments to apply to the life of the ideal Christian man would be “You shall have no other gods to rival me (God),” “You shall not kill,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear fall witness against your neighbor,” and “You shall not set your heart on…any of your neighbor’s possessions.” Therefore, in the basest terms, a good Christian is a man who accepts only one God as the one true God while respecting another’s trust, another’s life, and another’s possessions. A Christian’s life is introverted in the sense that the individual must have inner faith for one God, but he or she must also uphold a great amount of respect for other individuals. A Christian does not necessarily have to be involved with the life of another besides his and his family’s path in Christianity. Likewise, Islam also touches on the same type of nature in which the individual follows Allah, but still upholds respect for other individuals. Islam requires full faith and dedication to Allah, as in the sole faith in God (or Yahweh) for Christians. Islam also subscribes to the nation that peace can be the answer to many problems of the world. The Qur’an states, “And good and evil deeds are not alike. Repel evil with good. And he who is your enemy will become your dearest friend.” Instead of acts of violence or anger, Islam champions peaceful methods to show an overarching theme of peace amongst humanity. Violence harbors hate and division, while peace and love create unity. Both religions, in simple terms, support faith and peace as basic qualities of their theological ideals.
Religion in the Forefront of Violent Acts
For centuries, religion and theology have been used to support violent events from the crusades in the 11th century, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1800s and the recent presence of Al-Qaeda. The crusades were wars between Christian and Muslim armies over disputed lands (argued by the Catholic Church as holy lands and thus property of the Church). To analyze how serious the Christians and Muslims were about the lands they were fighting over, one must consider that there were more than five campaigns that spilled over many centuries. To deduce the crusades as merely various fights over lands is a gross understatement once the trade of goods and ideas is taken into consideration. But, the important quality of the crusades is this idea: “We are fighting for these lands because God/ Allah want us to do so.” Sure, the bible contains countless tales of King David and the wars he waged, but, many of the anecdotes offer advice or a moral, such as the story of when King David had the army general “accidently” killed in battle because he wanted to marry the general’s wife (don’t worry God gave David a good scolding). The bible must be taken into perspective as the guideline to the complete theology of the Christian church. The purpose of the bible is offer explanations for aspects of life. The crusades served as a means for the Church and its leaders to gain more land and thus more wealth. Therefore, it looks like many of the Church leaders were coveting their neighbors lands, and so, not a completely Christian motivation. There exist instances when an individual might have to kill another, but to say that killing is ever justified under a Christian motive is most definitely a fallacy. The Ku Klux Klan was and still is a hate group in the United States that supports a “white only” and Protestant America (usually nitpicking lines from the bible to find some biblical support for their cause). The Ku Klux Klan does not represent Christianity. Taking the Ku Klux Klan into consideration, “the golden rule” begs application. When a follower asked Jesus, “What is the most important commandment” he replied, “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself” (This became known as the “Golden Rule”). To scrutinize the Ku Klux Klan under the golden rule would garner this motto: I don’t like myself very much, so you can lynch me. Of course, the Ku Klux Klan would never endorse such a motto though Jesus himself taught love for everyone in the bible. Another group, Al-Qaeda, wants to fight the great nations of the world in the name of Allah. America is seen as Al-Qaeda’s greatest enemy. Famously, Al-Qaeda has called for a jihad, or religious duty, against the United States. Contrarily, scholars of the Qur’an deny that a jihad is a violent act in the name of Islam, but it serves as a “quest to control base instincts such as, greed, lust and cruelty and to seek spiritual purity[1]…” Once again, the Qur’an references peace towards enemies as a much greater reward than wanton violence. Consequently, Al- Qaeda cannot claim to justly represent the major views of Islam.
Real Religion
The individuals who truly embody the teachings of Christianity and Islam will never be celebrities, personalities or socialites. The heroes of religion are the people who push aside possessions in order to ameliorate people who are poor and benefit from specific services. The Mother Teresas and Ghandis of the world are unknown. Perhaps, it becomes easier to point fingers at groups or actions because of their unconventional views because the individuals who truly embody their religion are generally unknown and under the radar. It becomes much easier to blame religion when one of these groups or actions uses religion, though the actions do not even qualify to support a belief of a particular religion. Moreover, Christianity and Islam champion a peace amongst humanity as an ultimate goal through kindness and love in lieu of violence and anger.
Religion in Society
Religion works for some people and it doesn’t work for others. In the end, it is fine that some people choose to believe in a religion and it is also okay if others choose not to subscribe to a religion. My main problem comes when individuals try to discredit religion as some kind of underlying evil force in society. Ultimately, individuals who waged war in the name of religion obviously did not comprehend that some of the world’s major religions strongly oppose violent acts in favor of peace towards others. A writer cannot be a writer if she doesn’t write. A race car driver cannot be a driver if he cannot drive. But, for some reason, an outlying religious zealot (or group) somehow represents a specific religion even if he doesn’t fulfill the most basic tenets of a particular religion. No one ever blames the thousands of religious organizations around the world for aiding and teaching the impoverished. On the other hand, there exist tons of groups, such as the Peace Corps, that are not affiliated to a certain religion, yet still fulfill many duties out of kindness. Therefore, it is possible to be charitable even if an individual is not tied to a particular religion. The blame for discrimination can go both ways. Conclusively, the solution is very simple: respect and toleration. Respect those who choose not to follow a religion and tolerate those who choose to do so. For too long, people have used religion and beliefs as a way to judge others. Now, it should be the time to actually recognize that in the midst of all the beliefs and ideas, we are just people.
Sources:
The Bible
The Qur’an
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