Religious leaders should not seek to divide us

I’m sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels. Suddenly I hear a man say, “you are a… I’m sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels. Suddenly I hear a man say, “you are a pre-destined baby.” I stop. He continues. “All of you are pre-destined babies. God has already decided what you will do.” Wow, this is good news, I think to myself. I can just sit back and chill. The really creepy cult leader just told me the big man upstairs has the helm. Nothing for me to do, my life’s on autopilot.

This is so exciting I should run down the street right now and tell the homeless guy eating out of the dumpster that he is also a pre-destined baby. “Relax, my brother,” I’ll say to him. ” You’re fulfilling your destiny, be content.” And when he asks, “but why does my destiny suck?” I’ll tell him, “ah, it doesn’t suck, it’s just different. Now don’t pass up that half eaten, soggy chicken McNugget, dig in, it’s God’s will.”

OK, now let’s get serious. And let’s start by saying God does exist and he’s pissed. He’s pissed because for thousands of years people have been misinterpreting the truth and steering generation after generation into ignorance and conflict.

A few minutes later, on that same enlightening program, I learned it was also God’s will for every viewer to donate money to this brainwashing Christian cult show. And that night I learned Islam was an evil religion.

The fact is these radical Christian preachers are no better than the Islamic fundamentalists they so detest. Both spread intolerance, distrust and ultimately hatred. And they’ve gotten pretty good at it too. They’re on television, in newspapers and magazines, on your front door step and all over the radio.

Two weeks ago in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times, Blaine Harden addressed the issue of religious stations muscling around public radio. In communities all over the country people are having difficulty getting something as basic as their local news because their public radio has been drowned out by the conservative Christian yapping of Rev. Don Wildon. Wildon is the founding chairman of American Family Radio, a network of 194 Christian radio stations from Indiana to Oregon to Louisiana. And he has plans to acquire hundreds of more stations in the near future.

So I’m forced to ask the question, does the American public really need any more of this crap? Do we really need any more avenues for one-sided, closed-minded preachers to spew out their ridiculous, nonsensical gibberish? Isn’t it time religion evolved into what it was originally intended? A means of bringing people together?

I attended Catholic school for 11 years. I can still remember the first time one of my teachers told me that no one but Christians can go to heaven. I shook my head in disbelief and disagreement. I was 7 years old. The most frightening aspect of that recollection is that probably 90 percent of my classmates still believe that lie.

Just once I’d like to hear a preacher, priest, cleric, rabbi or politician stand up and tell the truth. The truth is it doesn’t matter if you pray to Jesus, Allah, Shiva, Buddha, the sun, the moon, a rock or a fish. What God wants is for people to work together, not be divided by what essentially amounts to details. I wear a veil, I wear a cross, I wear a yarmulke. Those are details. What matters is being decent to people and contributing a bit.

So, a good first step to mutual respect and understanding would be tuning out these Christian extremists and any other person or group that seeks to divide us. We need to embrace more responsible and realistic approaches to solving our problems. Our kids don’t need to be taught that Islam is evil. They need to be taught tolerance and acceptance. And that homeless guy eating out of the dumpster doesn’t need to be told he is a “pre-destined” baby. He needs a little education, opportunity, and a goddamn burger and fries.

Ben Magid is a columnist for The Pitt News.