Don’t Blame It On Religion

By Cherina Jones

When you talk about religion and politics, someone is likely to walk away with a broken ego or broken nose—or both. People take their politics and god seriously, so we are always warned to walk light. But most times we go hard, with every intention of breaking up the beliefs of our opponents, noting how trivial and nonsensical their logic is. Granted if everyone believed the same, this would be a pretty boring world. We fuck with each other for entertainment. I get it.

I use to go hard on religion with people, especially after my salvation OUT of religion. Not finding God the way I was seeking it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Like a kid with a new toy, it was my sincere mission to usher people over to my way of thinking. I set out to prove how idiotic and hypocritical it was to “serve” god, at least how I was taught. After awhile what I was doing made even less sense. I was doing what a lot of religious folk do when speaking about their religion. I was telling them they were wrong and they should think like me. I became an asshole who was no more enlightened than a crooked Baptist preacher screwing the whole missionary board.

Religion is not corrupt—people are. Religion is used as a status symbol and stage to entertain egos. I’ve realized that many people need religion and the reasoning is far less spiritual than one can assume. If a young woman says she refuses to kill because she belongs to the Greater Emmanuel Hezekiah Walker Tubman Phyllis Dillard COGIC international Baptist Holiness church, and her pastor says so, then I am glad she found religion. I am sure I wouldn’t agree with the doctrine, but she does, and it is that doctrine that keeps her out of the streets and into the safety of like minded individuals.

I’m not saying the practice of religion can’t be dangerous, because erroneous application of any doctrine to suit desires and misdeeds is a recipe for disaster. We see corruption all the time, priests raping and molesting children, pastors committing adultery with other church staff, monies being stolen from church organizations to support the personal habits of preachers and pastors, and people killing themselves and others in the name of their god. It’s actually pretty disgusting when you think about it.

I don’t follow any specific religion. I probably never will again. In no way am I anti-religion, because I think certain people need certain things to keep them balanced and spiritually strong. I don’t necessarily believe that, from what I hear, churches are completely devoted to the individual spiritual growth of their parishioners, but that is not for me to judge. I do believe that church organizations need to strengthen whatever spiritual foundation they have and leave the rest alone. Church “corporations” scare me. What this world needs right now is healing, and healing can’t come from showering each other with irrelevant criticism about how they acknowledge or don’t acknowledge god. There are far more people who acknowledge god than not, and for those who don’t—let them be. Spiritual freedom given or taken by force is really not freedom at all.

I implore people to put aside petty religious difference. There is a greater goal and challenge ahead that we all will participate in, and frankly there is no time to bicker over bullshit.