Tag: religious tolerance

The “True” Faith Is Only “True” For You

On By WinstonIn SocietyLeave a comment

I recently read an article about the need for men to attend Church (their capitalization) to ensure the next generation will also attend. So far so harmless. They go on to say that if the Mother attends but not the father, the next generation is less likely to than the other way around. According to one (and only one) study (done in Switzerland) if the father goes to Church regularly with or without the mother, the children are more likely to continue with the Church than if the mother attends regularly without the father.

The thesis here is that women are to be associated with early development only while men will shape the adult behaviors of the next generation. This apparently is the “created order” of things. If you just gagged a little, I’ll wait while you go rinse.

That is only the beginning. The author then goes on to state that a man who has been raised in a more gender equal environment will grow up to be “wet, spineless and unable to stand up in a breeze”. It seems that anyone who isn’t conforming to their narrow, fundamentalist, interpretation of Christian orthodoxy isn’t a real man, or real woman. Apparently, 99.5% of the world’s population is composed of inflatable pretend people. Who knew?

Whenever a religious group starts telling me why their interpretation is the ONLY interpretation I always have the same reaction. No it’s not hysterical laughter or sticking my fingers in my ears while humming loudly. I feel kind of bad that for believing themselves better than those around them they are (by their beliefs) committing the sin of pride. Claiming to know the will of God is, according to the scripture they love to quote, a sin. By their own deeds, if there is an afterlife, it may far different from the one they assume themselves entitled to.

I don’t mind if they choose to believe that a woman’s only role is that of supporting a man and nurturing his children. Not my belief, but hey; no harm, no foul. My issue is with the assumption that the entire rest of the world is wrong, and worse, worthless because they choose equality, inclusiveness and self-determination.

My Mother was equal to my father in my upbringing. My wife is my equal in every way, and we have raised our daughter to think for herself. Anyone who believes the women in my life are cheapened or failing as Mothers, wives or people, is welcome to tell me to my face. Then they can learn for themselves if a gender-equal upbringing has made me “weak” or “spineless”.

Believe what you like, but when those beliefs require the denigration of everyone else. That’s just wrong.

Cheers, Winston.

Judging is Easier Than Uderstanding

On By WinstonIn SocietyLeave a comment

I find it increasingly common for people to judge beliefs rather than people.  Most of the major faiths tend not to encourage their members to commit horrible, unspeakable acts.  Yet every time a member of any belief system does anything unpleasant, either they or others will attribute the action to the faith.

What got me thinking about this is the certainty that these people have undoubtedly done some socially dubious things of their own over the years. Does this mean that they believe they are as vile as the worst things they have done? Or would they prefer to be viewed as a totality of their experience and actions.

To my understanding, a belief system is usually a set of values and guidelines often spiritual in nature, which it’s followers are tasked with implementing in their lives. If a follower of a given belief misinterprets, either accidentally or deliberately, those values or guidelines, it is not the fault of the belief, but of the follower.

This remains true whether the individual is twisting the belief to justify hiding a pedophile to protect an institution, or to strap on a suicide vest. In either case, responsibility rests with the individual and not the belief they have hijacked for their own purposes. Yet many people on all sides persist in judging the belief itself.

I believe this to be an example of something which will no doubt show up in future posts as well. I tend to think of it as the depersonalizing of responsibility. The person encouraging people to blow up themselves and others isn’t doing this to create a more beneficial power structure for themselves, they are doing it for God. Likewise the person choosing to hide a pedophile in order to protect the organization they are part of isn’t doing it to maintain their own position of power and privilege, they do it to protect God’s spokespersons on earth.

The other side of this problem is just as ugly. When many people think of suicide bombers, they don’t think of a relatively small subset of a particular belief who have co-opted the entire group as a justification for an otherwise unthinkable act. Instead, these few are seen as being representative of the larger group about whose beliefs the average person likely knows next to nothing.
In the same sense, the pedophile and those who chose to hide them rather than address the issue are not seen as deviant and corrupt respectively, but as representative of the faith they use to hide their crimes. The faith again is judged by actions of these relative few rather than on it’s own merits.

Faiths in whatever are seldom judged on their own merits, but on the actions of individual persons claiming it for their own. It matters not at all if the person is acting according to the belief they want to take the blame, if they claim it, the rest if the world will usually go along with the joke.

I guess my ultimate message about beliefs and the people who abuse, distort and hide behind them would be this: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.