Voice of Reason: Can’t we all just get along?
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I was browsing through a bookstore there. I had made my way to the religion section when something caught my eye. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but I knew something wasn’t right. After studying each of the book titles in the section it dawned on me: all of the books were on Christianity.
Forgive my assumption, dear reader, that under a section named “religion” there would be books about at least some of the world’s larger religions. But alas, that was not the case.
That, to me, spoke loads about people and the mindset of Mississippi, and the rest of the South for that matter. Here in the Bible Belt, Christianity might as well be the only game in town. To not be a Christian, it seems, is almost unheard of. To be sure it’s anti-social. But on the flip side, we don’t have much religious tension here, that is unless you count the arguments within Christianity over which denomination (and even individual church) has the inside track to God.
Observing this bickering provides this people-watcher with endless amusement. At the same time, however, it is a bit depressing, especially when one considers it is this kind intolerance, albeit on a much larger scale, that is responsible for many of our planet’s ills.
Like most Christians, many adherents of the world’s other religions think their’s is the ONE TRUE faith, or basically that they’re right and will enjoy God’s everlasting grace, and everyone else is wrong and will burn in everlasting Hell. But we can’t all be right, or can we?
For the most part, we’re products of our heredity and our environment. We’ll most likely follow the religion our families and societies follow. In the U.S. and Europe that religion is Christianity. In the Middle East it’s Islam, in India it’s Hinduism and in the Orient, Buddhism.
Accepting the above logic, and assuming, for the sake of argument, that Christianity is the ONE TRUE faith, as most Christians I know do, it would seem the majority of humanity is pretty much resigned to everlasting death as only about 33 percent of people on this planet are Christians. Damning someone to Hell simply because of where he’s born isn’t exactly what I would call an act of a loving God.
Now before you get too upset, I don’t mean to pick on Christianity, it’s just the religion with which I’m most familiar. As mentioned above, many other religions, including Islam and Judaism, are seemingly just as convinced they’ve cornered the market on Absolute Truth as Christianity.
Some, including myself, have questioned whether religion is even relevant in today’s society. To be sure, it has brought its share of bigotry and hatred to humanity (see the Crusades, the Inquisition, Muslim suicide bombers, etc.). But at it’s best, religion can be a source of good. In can help people develop a sense of responsibility toward others and of the need to be ethically disciplined.
But in these days of continuing religious strife in the world, we must be tolerant of each other’s beliefs. To paraphrase the Dalai Lama, religion is like medicine. No one single medicine can cure every ill. Similarly, a religion that is most effective for me, may not be most effective for, and most suited to you.
(Will Stewart is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)