Religion isn't the enemy....

Part I – If religion isn’t the enemy, what is?

Religion seems to take the brunt of the blame for much of humanity’s frailties, abuses, oppressions and egoic needs for control and domination. People have been fighting, oppressing, suppressing, controlling, dominating and manipulating others for centuries. A large segment of the population today believes that “religions” are the main culprit. The reality is that dominators and oppressors will use any excuse, rationalization, justification, rationale or scapegoat that is in their world view for these abuses. People have used race, ethnicity, gender, nationality and just about every other outward identity as the motivating factors for conflict and hostility.  For some reason, though, religion seems to be the lightening rod scapegoat more than any other factor. Why is that?

There is no question that religion has been used throughout history to justify discrimination, oppression, control and domination. No question. That continues into present day. Religion, however, does not have a monopoly on such malice, hate and hostility. We’ve seen oppression around the world based on ethnicities, gender and nationality with equal fervor.  Genocides, displacement, and oppressive and suppressive societal controls have been forced onto certain segments of the population on every continent at some point. Some believe that the religions themselves promote inequities and discrimination based on identities such as gender, sexual orientation and other religious affiliations. Do they really, though?  Take women as an example, which is the most commonly oppressed identity with religious justifications, particularly with Islam and Christianity. In the times of both Jesus and Muhammad, women had leadership roles around them and in their community which both teachers embraced, supported and respected. Interpretations of these religions’ holy books saying otherwise have been distorted and taken out of context. Both Jesus & Muhammad believed they were servants to their people, embraced other cultures, ethnicities, professions and genders and were never biased or discriminatory based on an identity.

What about ethnic and nationality oppression? Is religion really responsible for some hostilities but then something else is responsible for others?  These purported justifications for discrimination and hostility are gross distortions and cherry-picking out of context certain limited statements in religious sacred texts. This also presumes that you define a “religion” by what is currently viewed as the institutionally sanctioned sacred text and dogma of the day. In any event, there is little in any religion that truly justifies hostility or oppression towards any group or identity.  Despite this, religion, as much or more than anything else like money and power, is viewed by so many as the ultimate world corrupter.

 I contend that it is not in fact religion, or money, or power, or anything else outside us that motivates and drives thoughts, emotions and behaviors towards “us” and “them”.  Money, religion, and power are just tools, and not the underlying cause or problem. All of these behaviors and mentalities arise

from one thing. The ego. It is the ego run amok – our shadows - that justify oppression, control, domination, bias and hostilities. It is not a religion, or a flag, or money, or power that corrupts. All of these are just vehicles to carry our own egoistic hate and need to feel superior over others and our environment by controlling and dominating others. Our egos will use anything and everything at our disposal to justify and tell ourselves the stories that rationalize our desired beliefs that we are superior and our resulting behaviors.

Stay tuned for this ongoing discussion….