Organized ReligionHow we Miss the MarkWe come together in prayer and an earnest desire to do God's will on earth. Our intentions are honorable and our sincerity is sure. We seek the truth and believe that we are truly learning to walk as God would like. Then, why does mankind so often get it wrong and sometimes horribly wrong. It doesn’t matter whether your God is a Creator of heaven and Earth and all that exists or just a goodness you believe all mankind should desire to be part of, our understanding of that God is diverse and gets very complicated as we explore the differences. Examples are: how the Romans and Jews together crucified Jesus, the persecution of men of truth who professed facts like, the earth is round, and how Christians tortured people and burned them at the stake during the Spanish Inquisition. Even today many pastors and churches persecute people who are different from them just because of that difference. Buddhists are persecuted because they are Buddhists, Hindus are persecuted because they are Hindus, Muslims are still persecuted because they are Muslims and Christians still persecuted because they are Christians and Jews are persecuted because they are Jewish, etc… The fact is we the people often get an attitude of self righteousness that enlarges when we group together and our religiosity becomes more like mob mentality than Godly living. One of the most profound things Jesus said was, “what you do to the least of these you do to me". In a very simplistic way that is a great truth. We are all in this world together to be the love and goodness to one another as if we are the other. What we do to each other, under that umbrella, is the same as doing it to ourselves. I don’t have all the answers to solve the problem of man’s inhumanity to man but I can say that if we don’t love one another then we really have no business saying we love God. If we love God and don’t respect the individual right for another not to love or even believe in God then can we really say we love God? If we want to live a life saying there is no God and don’t respect those who do believe in God are we also disrespecting ourselves by disrespecting their beliefs. So many times I have thought I was right about a truth or life principle only to find as years rolled by that I had been wrong. So, at this time it’s not about me being right, no, it’s more about me being a human being who is willing to be wrong in order to better accommodate the needs and comfort of my fellow human beings. |