It is understandable that many in our day use the word “religion” as a synonym for patriarchy, superstition and moralizing. Many religions have been guilty of all that evil and more. Some people consider themselves “spiritual, not religious,” but can any of us be purely spiritual beings? Against our best intentions, we who would be purely spiritual fall into some of the age old traps of religion. My question is, “Can religion ever be a gift to humankind?”
If religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must be universal. That is, religion must consider the good of all. It must purge itself of nationalism and merely sectarian loyalties. It must see itself as a servant of all, not as some heavenly appointed bouncer.
If religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must align itself to nature not just to some invisible being it is calling “God.” Religion must learn to love real people in the real world and to find the sacred in the ordinary. Religion must learn to be kind to animals as well as people. It must limit its wants to those that are sustainable ecologically.
If religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must completely purge its language of sexism. When religion uses exclusively masculine language for what it considers holy, it is actually worshipping patriarchy. Such patriarchal religion becomes an accomplice to every act of violence against women and LGBTQIA+ members of our human family.
If religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must not use its own creeds to replace reason and science. Religion must cease speaking its own special jargon and learn to communicate humbly with its neighbors.
If religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must stop making its own moral code a substitute for universal human rights. Religion must not shame people for having bodies and for having physical needs. It must stop teaching ethics as obedience to its own authority and begin to call people to their own prophetic responsibility.
In other words, if religion is to be a gift to all humankind it must see itself as a means, not an end; an example, not an exception and a servant, not a master.