by monty keeling
CStation
10/16/2003

Do you find it ironic that religion, always considered a main vehicle to make people's lives better, often accomplishes just the opposite? Of course we all know this happens because some folks worship the wrong religion, and others don't really practice the faith they claim to believe. And then there are those who would say that the whole idea of religion is basic human fiction anyway bound to cause trouble because of its closed-minded systems.

But I can't drop the certainty that if God exists, and the majority of us believe in a higher power, than it makes sense the creator would want to be in relationship with the created and that equals religion. So it seems a particular shame that the practice of relationship with the creator should so often involve the destruction of what the creator has created. Would we command one of our children to destroy the belongings on another of our children? And what kind of parent would enforce family discipline by asking that one child kill another?

Stupid isn't it? And yet almost without exception, the leaders of the world's major religions teach that we are children of such a God. The machinery of war, all the destruction, all the pain and loss, could not exist unless it was sanctioned by religious leaders. For they provide cover for political leaders to make war and oppress people for the good cause.

Look at the Middleeast. Isreal, God's first biblical chosen people, commit holocaust against another slave people by killing innocents and destroying thousands of homes in response to the murder of innocent Jews. Never mind that by its actions Israel is making widows and orphans when the Jewish faith demands the protection of widows and orphans. Have we heard one outcry from Israeli religious leadership?

The mainline leaders of Islam tell us the terrorists killing innocents in God's name are misguided outsiders to the true faith. But Islam's adherence to just violence in God's name has spawned growing terrorist violence around the world.

And then there is Christianity, the greatest offender of all religions. For it is the only faith founded by a leader who disclaimed the God of violence in favor of a loving father who wants service to others. In the Old Testament Holy War was fought by killing others, the New Testament sets an ethic of Holy War as dieing for others. And yet Christians have fought more wars in God's name, killed and destroyed more of God's creation than all the other religions combined.

God help us.