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 | Reinhold Niebuhr: "The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men." |
Religious obligations on believers:
Most religions place four types of obligations on their followers: In the typical order of importance, they are often:
- Towards deity or deities: In Christianity, for example, many faith
groups teach that a
believer's obligations to God outweigh all other responsibilities. Depending upon the exact
grouping used, about the first half half of the Ten Commandments deal with one's
relationship to God. In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus is recorded as saying that "the
first and great commandment" is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Usually, no other obligation exceeds this one in importance.
- Towards fellow believers: Next in importance to one's obligations to God comes the obligation to one's fellow believers. Some examples from the Bible include:
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However, there were other passages which suggest that non-Hebrews be treated with respect. Most notable is:
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These responsibilities can be shown symbolically in the following image:
The length of each line represents the typical importance given towards each responsibility in many theistic religions.
We don't normally express our beliefs in our essays. However, we will make an exception in this case because it seems to us to be so fundamental and important.
| We do not promote the elimination of -- or fundamental
change to the nature of -- any of these responsibilities. | ||||
| We do make the radical suggestion that a reduction in religiously-motivated violence
and general quality of life would result if people's commitment to the four responsibilities were more evenly balanced,
specifically by:
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Why organized religions offer the greatest hope for religious peace:
It is hopeless to expect religious leaders to modify their fundamental teachings in order to eliminate religiously-motivated conflict, mass murder and genocide. People have been murdered because of their religion for millennia.
Few religions have shown themselves willing to take steps to eliminate religious hatred from among their own followers. There are encouraging exceptions. Two examples are:
| The Southern Baptist Convention apologized
to African-Americans for their denomination's past and present racist attitudes. |
| Various Christian denominations in Canada apologized for the sexual abuse, physical abuse, and cultural genocide within their Native Canadian residential schools. |
Pressure to reform will probably have to come from the believing public, rather than from their religious leaders.
What is needed is not so much a change in religious teachings. Rather, it is a different emphasis within the present teachings. In my opinion, religions need to stress appropriate behavior towards persons of different faiths, and to those who are not affiliated with any religious tradition. In graphical terms, this means to equalize the importance of the four responsibilities shown in the above image.
Our feeling is that religions need to teach that:
| Followers of all religions, and of none, are fellow humans of equal worth. |
| The value of the life of a fellow believer is equal to the value of every non-believer. |
| All people should enjoy fundamental human rights, including freedom of religion. This involves the freedom to choose one's religion, to change one's faith and -- within reasonable limits -- to promote their belief system among other people. |
| One's responsibility towards one's neighbor is of great importance, about the same importance as one's responsibility towards deity/deities. |
| One's "neighbor" includes fellow believers, followers of other religions, and followers of no religion -- i.e. every human on earth. |
Almost all religions have an Ethic of Reciprocity. This is a statement that one should treat others as they would like to be treated; one should not harm others. Consider Christianity as one example:
| It's Ethic of Reciprocity is called the Golden Rule. |
| One expression of this ethic appears in Matthew 7:12: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." |
| If this rule were rigorously applied, then there would be little or no religiously-inspired violence. Unfortunately, followers of each religion often apply the Ethic only to fellow believers, and not to persons of other faiths, and to persons of no faith. |
| In Luke 10:27, Jesus is recorded as saying: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." 1 |
| In Luke 10:33-37, Jesus is recorded as delivering the parable of the Good Samaritan. In essence, it teaches that every other human being on earth is one's neighbor and has intrinsic worth -- whether or not that other person is of the same nationality, race, or religion, etc. We might try to extend this to persons of all sexes and sexual orientations. |
Our opinion is that all religious groups need to give greater emphasis to their Ethic of Reciprocity, and emphasize that it applies to everyone in the world: both to fellow believers, to persons of other religions, and to persons of no religion. They need to teach that is is quite possible to promote the right of a person to follow a different religion, even while rejecting the accuracy of another person's faith or lack of faith. That is, religious tolerance is quite independent of accepting the truth of other religions.
Some positive actions that religious leaders and followers can take to reduce religious hatred include:
| Organize community inter-faith groups throughout their area of influence. |
| Pressure governments to eliminate religious discrimination in employment, accommodation, etc. |
| Acknowledge that all religions, including their own, have performed evil deeds in the past. |
| Teach that other religions have beliefs and practices that we can usefully learn from. |
| Promote human rights generally, for persons of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, etc. |
| Modify their educational programs to teach comparative religion so that their members will have a basic understanding of other faith groups. |
| Remove sexist, racist and homophobic beliefs and practices from their own teachings and practices. |
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Home > Religious intolerance > Basic information > Religious hatred > here |
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Home > Important essays > Religious hatred > here |
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Home > Religious information > here |
References used:
- Quotations are from the King James Version. See also other passages at Mark 12:28-33, Matthew 5:43-47, Matthew 19:16-19, Matthew 22:35-40, Romans 13:9,
Copyright © 2002 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2002-MAR-23
Latest update: 2009-NOV-11
Author: B.A. Robinson
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