There is a place for religion, but not for hypocrisy or being too supreme to see all of humanity. Not when selective tolerance and acceptance becomes a common theme among those who claim allegiance to God. If you do not try to know the world outside of your own community, this adds to the problem of division.
It took a lot of searching for me to find my faith and to truly feel comfortable with talking about God. I listen to a variety of speakers and read many books (from religious to non-religious) to see how I resonate with the goodness, values, concerns, and morality of topics being spoken about. I am always asking myself how what I am learning makes sense to me and why, and if not, then I should learn more about it. I no longer accept what I hear from others to be true, and always seek my own answers. I am addicted to seeking knowledge, and I am thankful for that as I can receive better clarity about life in all of it’s variety.
I recently heard a Christian sermon that focused on the importance of peace and unity. But I was disappointed it did not mention these concepts beyond a vaguely described community or family structure. I was hoping to hear more about peace and unity extending to the acknowledgment of differences and beliefs, including religious, racial, and cultural tolerance. But then reality slapped me in the face and reminded me that religions across cultures has a tendency to divide based on what your core spiritual belief is. And if you do not believe in what they do, they’ll either try to convince you their way is the only way, or turn their back on you. If this is what God “tells” you to do, then you should question your morality and check your ego.
I think great motivators and leaders should encourage deeper learning about all people, and make an effort to understand what makes them different. This is what culminates compassion, humanization, brings one closer to God, or just becoming a better human being.
How you use morality in a position of influence will reflect your true motivations
Religious communities and congregations do have a huge impact on their followers and should be emphasizing love and acceptance even to those outside of their own practiced faith. Not with the prime ambition to convert others, but to authentically move through God’s love from one human to the other, accepting one another for who they are, not what they are.
You do not have to agree with what others believe in. You can still hold on to your own beliefs and be a good human being and servant to God. Being selective in your treatment of others means your arrogance has won you over, so be careful. Go ahead and double check to see what your scriptures say about that, but then judge how that truly makes you feel. Be reasonable with your actions, whatever you believe in.
In my own belief, the true knower of all is God, which sees and knows the truth and actions in all of us. No I am not a preacher of religion, but I do enjoy exploring deeply and sharing my views. We have all of these amazing resources provided for us and ways to connect to each other and look what we do with it. Look at what causes disconnect. People chase and worship money, power, compete over who is right and kill over ideals and resources of others. Building walls and boxing out visitors from other countries based on spreading fear of one another. Whose job is it to define and create peace? America is failing at purporting to be role models for peace, freedom, and equality. One country, under God, indivisible? We have never been so divided and it is all fueled by the most influential places: media, internet, institutions, and by many elected leaders of our country past and present (which is appalling). So who is to blame? Ourselves. We must become seekers of our own truth. Know thyself.
The message of peace and unity should include all of humanity. Being an intelligent and reasonable person, or even a good follower of your faith means stepping up to the plate and leading by example. Explore and make an effort to understand the world around you. Don’t just stand on one thing without fully being knowledgable about what you are following or hating on. Ask more questions. Dig deeper into theology, philosophy, psychology, science, and historical facts. There is a plethora of ways to access subject matter for gaining a broad education and gain different perspectives. This is important in fueling your inner guidance system.
Educate yourself (I can’t emphasize this enough)
It is up to us, the people of the world, to smarten up and stop letting programs run us. We have to learn to educate ourselves better on a variety of topics, and use our individual strengths to make this world a better place. Why do we stop learning at just what we are taught in school? What we learn in school about our world and it’s history, plus the societal, economic, political, and cultural structures within it is microscopic. It is a shame when people lose initiative to learn, living life with blinders on leaving themselves exposed to manipulation and falling under a program.
The path to wisdom includes being individually educated over adopting collective here-say from what others around you think or propose to know, or depending on what the media has to say about those we do not understand. If we want to achieve world peace and unity we all must make individual efforts to become more informed so we can improve wisdom and intelligence…to co-create together, not tear down, block out, or destroy each other. We must cultivate our own backyards in order to arrive at peace and unity. Our sanity and survival of humanity and our planet depends on it.
I am calling out all spiritual leaders to be more aware of what they say and do. You could be breathing hatred and division from your mouth when you think that is protection of your herd. You will cause more harm than good if twist what is good and bad, spreading lies to the ignorant you prey upon to listen to you. If you use your words as weapons to instigate more fear and hatred, you are doing the opposite of spreading peace and unity. You turn good people away and introduce destructive characters.
May wisdom lead our hearts and minds to unite us in peace.
