Religion and division
Since the beginning of time the human race has believed in a higher power. The oldest of artifacts suggest that people believed that this life would not be our last. We are the only creatures with the knowledge that we die; some suggest that man created God to deal with our need to live forever. Others suggest that our need to live on is because our soul does live on after we are dust. As humans we share the knowledge of death and paying of taxes but other than those similarities we are all different. These differences create very diverse religions. And the religious differences often provoke tragic wars and unnecessary deaths. Religion is intangible and unknown, so ultimately who is right?
Why do churches divide? The Bible is such a precise yet broad guide that every verse is up for interpretation. These interpretations often split churches. On a grander scale, the Bible as a whole can be debated as either truth or fiction. And what is “The Bible as a whole?” The Jews accept this to be just the Old Testament; and Christians believe in both the new and Old Testament. The Muslims accept the history of the old and New Testament and believe in an addition, the Quran. Most divisions in religion are not because of lack of agreement of core values, but because of fickle matters. Denominations have branched because of political issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Many churches have broken apart because of the pettiest of issues: Music. The older members accept the old ways and traditions. The elderly are known for their resistance to change. And the young are known for their resistance to tradition and push for the new. The older people want hymns played on an organ, and the young wish for contemporary lyrics played with drums and tambourine. This causes a frustrating conflict fueled by two headstrong groups. Some churches have tried to cut out the conflict all together by striping away the instrumental music and simply singing lyrics, but problems still exist. Churches split because there is disagreement concerning the destination of the funds coming into the church. Sects disagree over the interpretation of Acts 2, which explains speaking in unknown languages. There are disagreements about the Governing body of the church, should there be a Pope, a council, or a deacon board? How should people dress when they come to service? Should it be causal and conformable or fancy in the presence of the Lord? God knows what we look like should we really fake our fancy on Sunday morning? Should those who want to be baptized be sprinkled with water or submerged? Is baptizing done when some one gives his life to Jesus or when they are born as his parents commitment to raise him or her in Christ? Splitting churches is not an exclusively Christian event; there are several different types Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, and just about every other possible religion. The continual budding of religion makes for a tangible, messy, chaotic, confused picture for those standing on the outside. Is it possible that we can agree to disagree and live in harmony?
Despite the differences, most religions believe in love, brotherhood, and acceptance. The bible says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Romans 13:9. Our neighbors are the people who we share this planet with. Most of the world’s religions are similar but we forget our similarities and kill our neighbors. More wars have been fought in the name of religion than any other reason. As people we often become apathetic and less patriotic towards our country of origin. We will forget terrorist attacks less than a year after, but we are quick to pick up our gun and take human life in the name of our religion. We will fight in the in the name of Allah, in the name of Buddha, in the name of idols, in the name of money, in the name of self, in the name of Satan, in the name of God. We will go against principles of the religion to protect the name of whatever we may worship. We do what is wrong and close our mind to what is different, and we take the lives of many of the innocent. Is it lawful to kill in war? Did God give us life so that we may take away others? In the Dr. Seuss book The Battle of Butter the town prepares for war because some citizens spread their butter on the bottom of their bread instead of the top. In the end they realize that spreading butter up or down doesn’t matter a bit. They are all people, and there are more important issues than butter. Our world is fighting over butter instead of putting our differences aside and dealing with, global warming, hunger, and, poverty.
We all agree that we disagree, but who is right? Who has the truth? Who has the right book? Who has the right God? Who can prove it? Faith is the confidence that we are right, but every religion has that confidence that cannot be shaken. God cannot be proven, if he could, he would not be God. No one really knows until he dies. The dead cannot talk. The dead cannot tell us what is on the other side. We silence them in a coffin, but what would they have to say?
We are all so alike on this planet we share, but we do no celebrate what makes us different. Religiously, we all have different ideas and different opinions creating splits and branches. These differences drive us into war, killing and destroying families. We are stuck in the web of legalism and petty issues and forget our relationships with the higher power we cannot even prove exists.
