I am not a religious person; I want to be very clear about that. Nevertheless, I have had a full exposure to the Christian church – the Anglican church, to be specific.
My beloved, late uncle was a priest and one of my many father figures. As a child, I went to two or three different churches each week for any number of occasions.
I attended an Anglican school – primary and secondary. And, like most other Anglican school students, I went to mass at school once during the week and again at church on Sundays. My paternal relatives are devout Catholics.
But, today, I do not subscribe to Christianity or religion the way I may have done so before.
If you ever have a chance to make it beyond the confines of this island or this country, at least in spirit, you will find that there is a whole world of religion out there. Christianity is not the only religion, and it is not the oldest religion. But the way the Christian doctrine is taught in our country does not allow for the open and honest discussion of this fact.
I won’t deny that Christianity has done some good things in helping to create fine citizens with sound upbringings, teaching the “straight and narrow way”. For the most part, it seems the Christian belief system works to keep people fairly decent and out of trouble. But so do many other religions and systems of faith. Religion is a stabiliser.
I get it; people have religion because people need to believe in something, a greater purpose for being that helps them through the pains of human life. What I don’t get and can’t accept is that people will hate each other to the death for believing in different things. Even within the parameters of one religion, there is so much discord. There’s good and bad in everyone, yet people can be so hateful when they disagree, even to their own.
Life is difficult enough without fighting to be right about something that is a belief, something that no one knows for a fact is “right” or “wrong”. And my question is “why”? Why can’t we all just respect one another’s beliefs and rights to believe whatsoever we choose, without the hostility?
It’s been thousands of years since religion has been documented amongst humans, but still we’re fighting about whose is best or most right. Some are even fighting in favour of principles which have no root whatsoever in the practice of the very religion to which they subscribe.
It’s too much turmoil. I’d rather be on the outside and watch it and write about it, and so I do.
To my sight, religion is the worst thing to happen to humanity. It is the most divisive thing on the face of this earth; nothing separates people more, nothing stirs up more hatred, and nothing causes more death and destruction in too many countries of the world. As a result, I want nothing to do with claiming one faith over another.
What I do want, however, is that people should practice real love as their first religion, press pause on the religious theory and scripture and embrace each other as human beings. Real love for one another gives rise to genuine respect for one another. And from there everything else flows.
But human beings are obsessed with being the most right and the best (at worshipping), that they remove respect from the equation altogether. Even though my own beliefs will likely serve as my religion to the end of time, I recognise that others will continue to believe as they do. I just wish they would believe in themselves first, before looking to the outside for something to believe in.
Undoubtedly, out of many religions there will come good and bad things; I hope for the best from all of them.
There are many leaders of the world, of the Bahamas, who have arisen from the (Christian) church and many of them have been outstanding in reaching people with positive messages which serve to elevate and not diminish.
At varying times in my life, I have benefitted from these messages and this outreach. And I respect the messengers enough to know that they can have their faiths and I can disagree in part or whole with their religious theories, but at the end of the day how much good do they do, how many people’s lives they influence to make better, I think is most important.
I may not agree with all of Dr Myles Munroe’s beliefs or methods, but I appreciate his ability to rise above making a mockery of other religions the way many do…Read More
Source and Original Content by Tribune 242