By Rev. Jim Rigby
I UNDERSTAND WHY MANY WONDERFUL PEOPLE HATE RELIGION
I certainly understand why many wonderful people hate religion. I know intelligent and compassionate people who use the word “religion” as a synonym for superstition, hierarchy and every form of intolerance.
Religious people have certainly done much damage in the world, and I agree wholeheartedly that humanity would be better off without religious superstition, cruel moralisms, and theocratic clergy. On the other hand, I also believe people are using the word “religion” meaning different things. Whether we consider ourselves to be religious or not, I believe it is important to find out what people mean by the word “religion” before we condemn them.
Religion can be the excuse some people give to dominate and control others, or religion can be a sense of calling to serve all of humankind. Religion can be a narcissistic sense of superiority, or religion can be a humble celebration of the web of life. Religion can be the pretending to know the details of the afterlife, or religion can be grieving communities coming together to celebrate a departed friend with songs and poems.
When I use the word “religion” I am including ALL the religions of the world. My aspiration is to lift my understanding up to the best insights of world religions and purge myself of humankind’s worst ignorance and cruelties.
When people say all religion is brainwashing, I wonder if they’ve studied Buddhist texts like the Kamala Sutra where the Buddha says, “Now, Kamalas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’”
When people say all religion is patriarchal, I wonder if they’ve ever listened to feminist and womanist religions like Wicca where the brilliant Starhawk says, “I am a witch, by which I mean that I am somebody who believes that the earth is sacred, and that women and women’s bodies are one expression of that sacred being.” I wonder if they’velistened to Christian feminist Rosemary Radford Reuther who wrote, “Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women’s movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this [modern industrial] society.”
When people say that all religion is about control, I wonder if they’ve ever listened to the liberation theologies of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, or Gustavo Gutiérrez who wrote, “The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.” And, “Liberation from every form of exploitation, the possibility of a more human and dignified life, the creation of a new humankind – all pass through this struggle.” And I wonder if they’ve ever listened to Bishop Oscar Romero who preached a Christmas sermon saying, “We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways.”
When people say all clergy are money seeking bullies, I wonder if they’ve ever really thought about the fact that Mr. Rogers was a Presbyterian minister?
Whether religion is good or bad for humanity is a living question, but, until we can stop talking about religion without even defining what we each mean that term we will be ships passing in the night.
I wonder what would happen if religious and nonreligious people listened respectfully to each other? What if we ALL strove to reject whatever is ignorant, sectarian or cruel, and to honor whatever is good, true and beautiful?