News reports show in graphic details
Buddhist monks attacking Muslims in Burma. Christians fighting and killing Muslims
in Syria indiscriminately. Islamist extremists blowing-up Catholics in Nigeria.
Sikh’s and Hindu’s battle each other in India.
Religious violence is a common factor in today’s world.
The face of the
twenty first century is deeply scarred by radical religious movements
constantly evolving and emerging it would appear from all the world’s cultures.
Whether they are Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh or Hindu they all share one basic common
denominator…MAN!
The key factor in
all these outrageous inhuman acts is man fostering and perpetrating violence
because of a deeply held belief that their God hates the other people’s belief
and will go to extraordinary lengths to crush and destroy the opposition.
This has little or nothing to do with religion. It
has all to do with man’s prejudices and self-interest. I am not an expert on
all religions, but I am sure that most faiths, and certainly the Christian
faith preach tolerance, peace, love and charity to fellow human beings. It
seems that in the very DNA of man is the proclivity to act violently towards
each other, especially when our beliefs are trammeled upon and offended. What is
this to do with God?
I know from my own
understanding of Christianity that it has nothing to do with God. My personal
knowledge of God is that he is an inclusive God reaching out to all faiths and
all peoples, rich or poor, black or white, Jew or Gentile.
At times it seems impossible that man, having made
contact with a gracious super-powerful creator, can remain silent long enough
to hear from God how he wants us to live and not rushing off with sword and gun
in hand to construct our own ill-founded versions of religion.
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