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Religiously motivated hatred,
animosity and intolerance

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Quotations:

This quote is repeated elsewhere because we are so fond of it: A man told his grandson: "A terrible fight is going on inside me -- a fight between two wolves. One is evil, and represents hate, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and superiority . The other is good, and represents joy, peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, inside every other person too."   The grandson then asked: "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied simply:  "The one you feed."  Anon.

Toni Morrison, at her Nobel Lecture on 1993-DEC-07 having received the Nobel Prize for Literature, said: "Oppressive language does more than represent violence. It is violence. It does more than represent the limits of knowledge, it limits knowledge. ... It must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language -- all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas." If she were delivering the same speech today, she might well have added oppressive "homophobic language" and "transphobic language" to her list.

Overview:

Religion can generate great personal commitment and passion, expressed as caring, love, respect, and support for others. It can motivate believers to dedicate their lives to the alleviation of suffering and need. However, it can also motivate people to hate followers of other religions, and secularists. This can escalate into actions of conflict, oppression, murder, terrorism and genocide.

This section discusses instances of religious hatred, describes why they occur, and suggests how they might be avoided. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes to this problem.

Topics covered in this section:

	Background: We suggest that you read the first seven essays.   Root causes & examples of religiously-motivated violence, conflict, oppression, etc. Introduction: one possible cause   Quotations re Golden Rule, religious tolerance & religious hatred Definitions of and quotes on religious intolerance Recent examples of religiously hatred by Abrahamic religions Cooperation & conflict caused by religious diversity in North America A new word for religious intolerance & hate: "religism" "Religism" as defined on the Internet How religions change their teachings on hate-related topics: human slavery, the role of women, sexual orientation, and other topics Religious hate propaganda: one story; many versions; all false Teaching tolerance, intolerance, etc. in various world religions
	Attitudes towards other religions: What believers think of their own religion compared to other faiths How Christians view non-Christian Religions Three Christians disrupt Hindu prayer in Senate By Americans towards Mormons and Evangelicals Prejudice of Americans towards other religions
	Other information: The "silence of the [religious] lambs:" Religious inactivity as the world burns Church membership and level of prejudice Other considerations: tenacity of belief, problem of Hell Evangelical Christian video game United Nations' Declarations on Religious Intolerance
	Reducing religion-inspired conflict: By balancing organized religions' expectations By removing passages from holy books that promote hatred, violence, etc. A listing of some of the above passages in the Bible By proper use of the Golden Rule By modifying how religion is taught The menorah incident at Billings, MT

Related menu and essays on this web site:

	Menu: Peace and the role of religion
	The declaration of the Global Ethic
	The principles of the Global Ethic
	Theories of reciprocity

FYI: Useful references

1. David Barrett et al., editors of the "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200." Oxford University Press, (2001). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
2. Deborah Caldwell, "The Problem With Monotheism: Why the world's two largest faiths, Christianity and Islam, have a tendency to 'turn evil'." A Beliefnet  interview of Charles Kimball, at: http://www.beliefnet.com/
3. Charles Kimball, "When Religion Becomes Evil," Harper SanFrancisco, (2002). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store

Amazon.com lists the following books under the topic "religious hatred."

Reports on oppression and hatred involving, in part, religion:

	U.S. State Department's annual human rights reports: The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State publishes Country human rights and religious freedom reports annually. Sadly, although the reports catalog human rights abuses and victories in over 175 countries, it neglects conditions within the U.S. itself. See: http://www.state.gov/
	Hatewatch.org "monitors the evolving problem of online bigotry. Visit their news feed or their web site.

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Copyright © 2000 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-JUN-4
Latest update: 2009-AUG-16
Author: B.A. Robinson

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