RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE is the answer - by Jessica Montgomery

[Guest guest]

Religious tolerance, not conversion, is the answer

- Jessica Montgomery,West Virginia U.

http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/

 

Religious tolerance is an issue that has been brought

to my attention in recent weeks.

 

It all started a few weeks ago when I was talking to a

few younger girls at the horse stables.

 

They couldn’t have been older than 14 years old. For

one reason or another, I mentioned the fact that I am

a Buddhist. Their reactions, I can honestly say, made

my head spin.

 

One girl asked me how it was possible that I did not

believe in God.

 

Another asked me how exactly I planned to re-route my

supposed trip to Hell.

 

The questions went on, each being more preposterous

than the next. I asked if they believed in evolution.

 

One of the girls remarked, “Do you honestly believe we

came from monkeys? Science is just here to test our

faith.” Another girl chimed in and informed me that in

Bible school they learned that Charles Darwin admitted

“making up” evolution on his deathbed. And right now,

I really wish I were making this up.

 

I am all for freedom of religion. In fact, lay it on

thick. Those girls could possibly be right about the

whole thing, but that was not the issue.

 

What I find disturbing about the aforementioned

situation, however, is that today’s youth should be

learning how to think critically and be open-minded.

 

Instead, in places where we should see children

learning to embrace diversity of thought, we see

religious indoctrination that will undoubtedly lead to

intolerance and conflict. See the Middle East for

examples.

 

If anyone has seen the 2006 documentary, “Jesus Camp,”

they should be well aware of the religious

indoctrination of this country’s youth.

 

In this documentary, pastor Becky Fisher attempts to

train children into what she calls “God’s Army.” She

likens her camp to Islamic extremist camps, and

expresses her wish to see children in this country

radically laying down their lives for the Gospel just

as children are in countries such as Pakistan and

Palestine. Why? Because Pastor Fisher exclaims, “We

have the truth.”

 

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.

 

http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2007/04/13/Opinion/Relig\

ious.Tolerance.Not.Conversion.Is.The.Answer-2839430-page2.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

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