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Religious tolerance, not conversion, is the answer
By: Jessica Montgomery | West Virginia U.
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Opinion
In the United States, we are assured freedom of religion. But when children are brought up in environments where they are constantly and incessantly preached to about the need to form "God's Army," are they really free from religion?
I find no harm in bringing up a child to hold a certain faith. However, in the interests of forming a productive and successful generation of future leaders, children should be brought up learning tolerance of other ideologies.
It is sad to see what our world has come to. If one were to examine all major world religions, one would find that although the details may differ, the message is the same - be a good person. Although many religions define "good" in different ways, it isn't hard to find the commonalities.
For example, killing is looked down upon in most religions. If religions would just stop bickering over the details of their theology and embrace the parallels that most of them hold, everyone would be better off.
I am not insisting that any one religion is any better or worse than any other. Certainly all religions have their positive and negative points.
Furthermore, one can pick out extremists in every religion. When children are brought up in closed-minded environments where they are taught that their set of beliefs are the only ones that can possibly be true, it is sure to cause problems in the future.
All the Islamic suicide bombers in the world wouldn't be able to convince Christian zealots to embrace Allah. Conversely, all the Jesus Camp pastors in the world wouldn't be able to convince Islamic radicals to convert to Christianity.
It is counterproductive for people to try and impose their own religious faiths on others. Instead, people of all religions should work together to help solve the problems that exist in the world today as opposed to creating more.
I find no harm in bringing up a child to hold a certain faith. However, in the interests of forming a productive and successful generation of future leaders, children should be brought up learning tolerance of other ideologies.
It is sad to see what our world has come to. If one were to examine all major world religions, one would find that although the details may differ, the message is the same - be a good person. Although many religions define "good" in different ways, it isn't hard to find the commonalities.
For example, killing is looked down upon in most religions. If religions would just stop bickering over the details of their theology and embrace the parallels that most of them hold, everyone would be better off.
I am not insisting that any one religion is any better or worse than any other. Certainly all religions have their positive and negative points.
Furthermore, one can pick out extremists in every religion. When children are brought up in closed-minded environments where they are taught that their set of beliefs are the only ones that can possibly be true, it is sure to cause problems in the future.
All the Islamic suicide bombers in the world wouldn't be able to convince Christian zealots to embrace Allah. Conversely, all the Jesus Camp pastors in the world wouldn't be able to convince Islamic radicals to convert to Christianity.
It is counterproductive for people to try and impose their own religious faiths on others. Instead, people of all religions should work together to help solve the problems that exist in the world today as opposed to creating more.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jesus
posted 4/13/07 @ 12:16 PM EST
A great article. This is the direction world should take. It is foolish to force somebody's faith on others and destroy their religions. Unfortunately even in 20th century missionaries and jihadis exist. (Continued…)
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