Going to make a blanket statement here, so please do not get offended. I am sure that you are the exception, so please do not conclude that my assertion here applies to yourself. However, a sad reality of the Christian faith is that a majority of the followers do not actually follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and do not understand his teaching and worse probably have not read any of his teachings directly for themselves. Most followers of Christianity do not read the “word” as they describe it. Imagine what a world we would be in if Christians were actually Christians.
Actually, I am pretty sure I can say the same thing for almost every world religion. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu followers mostly do not follow the teachings that they profess a belief in. Generally most followers cannot follow their faith in earnest because they do not know the teachings. They learn what to do from parents, the culture they live in, and from religions leaders they come in contact with.
In my studies of world religions, and I have read quite a bit, almost every denomination encourages responsible social living where people are encouraged to be tolerant, kind, and helpful to those around them. Religion has always served as the first line of defense in maintaining cultural norms that are designed to preserve our communities, maintain social structure and allow us to leave peaceably with one another. Now, I am not going to debate the merits of one over the other, but I was raised in the Christian tradition, and have actually read the teachings of Jesus and I still do. As I look around me, witness behavior, see what choices people make, it certainly does not feel like I am surrounded by Christians.
All the statistics say that if you live in North America, the predominate religious faith is Christianity. The same is true for some other areas of the world. I imagine there is a person just like me in India scratching her head and thinking, if only the people around me were to practice Hinduism then things would be much better in her community. The reality is that she would be correct. If followers actually followed we probably would have a whole lot less human caused calamity.
In our modern society, we are moving rapidly away from a religious centered life. Our public social outlets, like schools are actively teaching against religions, or at the very least selecting a path of indifference out of fear of reprisal. I imagine it is a good concept to not force anyone religion on people, but it is also equally a good concept to have some mechanism in place to teach morality. Morality is not a religious concept. Morality is an essential code for successful living, you cannot throw out solid principles for healthy living just because you deem them religious.
Our society is quickly heading down a path of removing religion, faith, belief in Deity. We are removing references to any religions texts, writings, or references to moral code. This will have disastrous consequences. We are not teaching morality at all in more in a wave or moral relativism that has swept through our culture. This will not end well if we keep that up. You cannot wipe out thousands and thousands of years of social construct, formulated in religious belief in a single decade and not see a disastrous impact on cultures raised without any of these teachings at all.
If we get rid of religion then who is going to remind us to treat others like unto ourselves, hurt not others that which pains yourself, do unto others what you would not they should do unto you, what is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man, and do naught unto others which if done to thee would cause they pain?
All of the world religions, teach, enforce, encourage what Christians call the Golden Rule. Maybe we should start actually practice what we preach.
Guy Reams
