Religions

H. Religions

Throughout history people have sought to find meaning in their lives, and to understand reality and intelligence as distinct from pseudo-reality and distress.18 Often religions began as attempts to help people find this meaning.
The theologies of various religions have had many positive ideas (e.g., "love thy neighbor," "repair the world"). Religious institutions have made attempts to build communities of people, to provide people with a place to stand up for what they believe in, and to provide structures to fight against poverty and for human liberation. Unfortunately, religious institutions also have been largely co-opted by class systems to separate people from one another and to provide yet another means of social control. Many religions throughout history have caused separations between people, have brought about bloody "holy" wars, "we" and "they" separations, "our God" and "their God" separations, martyrs of all sorts, suicides, and other irrational behaviors. Current examples surround us (e.g., Ireland, Yugoslavia, the Middle East). Men are required to kill and be killed in the name of some religions. Many religions encourage confusion around sex and insist on the invalidating idea of "sin." Some religions encourage some men to refrain from sexual relations altogether and from building families. Some religions encourage the oppression of Gay people and the sexist oppression of females. All people are in some ways victims of religious institutions, but males are often the main victims. Circumcision is only one of many "religious" ideas for imposing pain and terror on a very young male child.

Religions are steeped in rigid notions of what people are like and the roles that men are "expected" to play. Often these rigid notions are founded in the idea, promoted by almost all organized religions, that God is a male-this idea provides the bedrock for patriarchy within religious institutions and within the family. Religions provide an irrational, rigid model of what a family "should" be like. Men are cast as patriarchs and as "in charge of the family," while women are made to be subservient, which robs men of their full humanness and installs sexist oppression. Religions interfere with men's needs to be close to many people in their lives, not restricted just to an often "thin" relationship with one's partner in marriage.

Religions discourage people from doing their own thinking by providing a set of beliefs for people to adopt without thinking. Religions are also a large factor in forcing men to adopt pretense. Religions cause men to hide things that they do and to think that feelings they have been made to feel
are "socially unacceptable."

Often religions legitimize suffering and cause it to be sought out because "martyred" lives are considered virtuous. For example, the Protestant work ethic encourages men to see value only through their work and to exhaust themselves at work.

Religions are not wholly committed in a negative way. The negative forces within the religions are often being combatted by progressive forces, which are also within the religions, seeking to take a pro-people direction. Religions can be places where the struggles between attempts to be intelligent and attempts to insist on continuing unintelligence can be dealt with, sometimes encouragingly.

GOALS

We need to issue a call for a basic agreement among all "religious" people in every religious organization to put themselves forward as a force for intelligent activity, for the liberation of all people, and for permanently ending all armed conflict.

STRATEGIES

a) Organize campaigns to demand that all religions declare themselves against armed conflict by any group against any group. Expose the function of religion in furnishing a cover for exploitation and warmongering with the excuse of religious differences. Call for an end to the use of religion and religious structures (such as the "religious right" in the United States) as a cover for any anti-democratic activity or as supports for any oppression and exploitation of human beings.

b) End any rigid oppressive models of "males" promulgated through organized religions. Consider acceptance of women priests and other religious leaders as rational models. Eliminate the concept of "sin." Eliminate condemnation of sex by organized religions, including condemnation of boyhood sexuality by religious authorities. Insist on a rational attitude toward sex in religious instruction of priests and religious leaders. End any mutilation of children for religious purposes.

c) Call for a world-wide meeting of religious leaders in order to address each of these proposals.

(c) copyright 1999
Rational Island Publishers
Reprinted on this site with permission of the copyright owner.

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