Religious Morality vs. Enacted Reality
A 19 year old male discusses his disillusionment regarding religion, violence, and money.
Where to begin with religion? For my entire life I have been a Catholic (largest sect of Christianity and dominant religion in the Western world). I was taught Catholic morals and ethics from the time I was but a wee lad up until I was around 15. Then came high school. The world changed for me. I heard new expressions of beliefs and was told at some points to stop taking the Lord’s name in vain. I was a bit shocked and apologized. The first few years were a dark period. I felt as if God had turned his back on me and for the most part I questioned my faith. I stopped attending mass solely because the new priest was a jackass.
In grade 10, a person I had known since I was about 9 committed suicide. It was an eye opener to what Catholicism really means. People interpret it as how they want to. As well, the priest was a real jackass about his death and kept referring to his suicide. As I looked over to his family, I could see his mother falling apart more and more each time she heard that word “suicide.”
For the most part after that I stopped going to church full time and stopped caring about what I did. Then in grade 12 last year, another friend died in a tragic car accident. His funeral was the following Monday in which almost the entire school attended. The church was absolutely packed and it got me thinking about why God had taken him, but that same priest kept saying how the Lord did not take him… Hmmm then why did he die, is what I kept asking. But the way I saw the school come together to support his family was a bit astounding; [it] made me see that Christianity in all forms can bring people together into a common area to grieve for a fallen friend.
A small sect of my school has fallen into atheistic views. I saw myself falling towards that group but I still had some belief that God was up there and this was just part of the master plan. …
Somewhere along the sands of time, religion was twisted around to only benefit the rich and powerful while the poor are weak and damned. I for one am a capitalist. I can admit it. I care about money a lot. I want to be rich and powerful. I know I am a bit hypocritical and I know there is nothing I can do to change this. But I wish that the future generations change this point of view in which there is no turmoil over religions. What makes it any better for one person to kill another over religion? Does it not teach that a person should live in prosperity with neighbours and to share? Apparently that view went out the window a long with the rest of the morals. As long as there is religion in this world of ours, there will never be peace. In the end of all this fighting, nobody will win. We need to stop and re-evaluate ourselves … before it’s far too late.
I find it interesting that there is common emerging theme of questioning faith when someone passes away. He is also questioning his faith because of the contradictions he sees between religious morality and enacted reality. The traditional religions preach peace, love, understanding, tolerance, and compassion. However, religion is too often used to justify violence, aggression, and the erosion of human dignity. Many religions have as one of their foundations the principle of charity. But what is charity? Charity in a religious sense means giving money to those less privileged for their sustenance. The Church’s role was to act as an institution to redistribute wealth. Today, there are some lavish, extraordinarily expensive places of worship that are run more like a business than a charity. This is not new; there are many lavish cathedrals throughout Europe that exemplify the relationship between faith and finance. Modern youth notice these hypocrisies, and have trouble trying to make sense of what is said versus what is done.
I find this ironic considering the word ‘religion’ originates from the Latin root ‘religio’ meaning “to bind together.” Its seems that in many cases throughout history, religion is tearing people apart.
May 12, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Contributor: Somewhere along the sands of time, religion was twisted around to only benefit the rich and powerful while the poor are weak and damned.
Commentator: Corruption is infinite. It has no particular domain. How could religion, or any other institution, not be undone at some point? The Chinese seem to have insulated themselves from this type of perspective through their Book of Changes or I Ching.
Contributor: I for one am a capitalist.
Commentator: Whether you are a communist or a capitalist you possess some form of materialist theology. Don’t believe me. Consider instead Bertrand Russell, prominent socialist activist and atheist, who wrote this in History of Philosophy (1946) as a dissection of the ultimate so-called secular societies then established, Marxist and fascist:
“The Jewish pattern of history, past and future, is such as to make a powerful appeal to the oppressed and unfortunate at all times. St Augustine adapted this pattern to Christianity, Marx to Socialism. To understand Marx psychology, one should use the following dictionary:
“Yahweh = Dialectical Materialism
“The Messiah = Marx
“The Elect = The Proletariat
“The Church = The Communist Party
“The Second Coming = The Revolution
“Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
“The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth
“The terms on the left give the emotional content of the terms on the right, and it is this emotional content, familiar to those who have had a Christian or a Jewish upbringing, that makes Marx’s eschatology credible. A similar dictionary could be made for the Nazis, but their conceptions are more purely Old Testament and less Christian than those of Marx, and their Messiah is more analogous to the Maccabees than to Christ. (Russell 361)”
Contributor: As long as there is religion in this world of ours, there will never be peace.
Commentator: John Lennon put those sentiments to music years ago with “Imagine” (1971). One of the more curious things about this song is prescription for our future what had already recently past in WWII. Stalin desired/imagined “no countries” save one Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Slavic nations were hardly better off. Hitler desired/imagined “no religion too” and we know very well how despicable that solution was with ovens and gas chambers.
There is no reason, as far as I know, why nations or organized religions can’t co-exist in the right environment. The question then becomes, How do you create that environment and/or adapt to change? Perhaps, then, our true question amounts to: how do you update the I Ching for the current global milieu?
May 21, 2006 at 2:02 am
Very interesting, though I must disagree withyour comment about how religion is tearing us apart. If you look at each religion, then all the people in it are a family that is bound together. And each religion sees their own as the right one don’t forget. So although it is true that two seperate religions may cause tension between each other, within those religions there is definately a binding family between tehm all. Iknow that at my church everyone knows everyone and there is almost on strife that i can see at least. I can see what you mean by when other religions crash together though. As a whole, yes, religion does tear two people apart if they are so devout to their own religion that they will not listen to the other person, but within each religion, there is certainly a strong bond.
May 23, 2006 at 1:56 am
nice blog!
June 11, 2006 at 5:29 pm
[...] There seems to be a common mentality demonstrated in this post, and other posts, connecting the presence of ‘bad’ in our life to the absence of a higher being. Misfortune occasionally causes one to question one’s religion, whether God is “doing His job,” or His very existence. [...]
November 16, 2006 at 8:25 am
Religion; when seen as an institution that controls ones way of life is surely to spark controversy. However when one strips away the contingent nature of an institution and focuses only on the beliefs, and teachings religion becomes an individually controlled way of life which serves no political purpose as many of you have attempted to prove time and time and time again.
The world is made of humans, and humans possess the free will to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. For this reason when one is to consider the corruption present within religious structures such as the Church, we can understand how the wrong doings of certain individuals who claim to be performing the work of God do not reflect the actual teachings of that religion.
To follow a religion is not the same as living ones religion. We are all human and it is up to each individual to look past the controversy and doubt, we must look in ourselves and decipher between what we believe is right or wrong…what we hold the truth…and that truth should not come from other individuals we must know what our religion actually teaches…not what ‘believers’ claim it does. sop often we fall into the trap of believing the deception we are fed in attempt by society to degrade religious structures and instill doubt in believers. Doubt is a sign of uncertainty and if one is uncertain about a particular issue then they cannot make any claims about it let alone against it. If you do not know what the Catholic Doctrines actually teach then you can disregard or crticize its authenticity. one corrupt priest does not alter the original message of Christ, it only brings to light why He had to die for our sins…all of OUR sins…yes the priests and Bishops!