Archbishop Thompson was absolutely correct to strip the Jesuit school of its Catholic identity. The school's determination to promote beliefs and practices that laughably disregard Catholic doctrine and dogma is not something any good Bishop would let slide.
120
@Mr
If so, then Catholic doctrine and dogma has nothing to do with Jesus' teachings (as the author points out).
546
@Mr-Then why does the bishop permit divorced and remarried persons,or people who use contraception to attend his churches? Why are women who have had abortions allowed in the churches? Why are couples undergoing in vitro fertilization allowed in the church when the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares the practice morally unacceptable? Why does the bishop allow people in his church who do not observe Fridays as a day of penance, even though the current Code of Canon Law still requires it? Why is it only homosexuals that the good bishop throws out?
812
@Mr And that's why the Catholic Church is losing followers by the thousands every month, because of its inability to put love for everyone of its members above old-fashioned dogma not founded in the Gospel.
510
I am a follower of Jesus, a Christian, and do NOT support President Donald Trump. I cannot - even though ALL of my fellow Christians do - and fear the advance of socialism should one vote for a Democrat.
Mr. Egan, you are wrong about one thing however: God does condemn homosexuality. I'm sorry, but it's true. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for that very reason, and the Bible is clear on this point, that it does not accept homosexuality: Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.
NEVERTHELESS, and PLEASE don't misunderstand me on this point, I believe that EVERYONE is entitled to be treated fairly, and I am certainly not here to judge anyone: the Bible also tells us not to judge others - God is the only Judge. And so, I have chosen to live and let live, even if my Christian friends would disagree with this statement.
I applaud Sister Norma Pimentel - I feel that she is displaying the very essence of Christ's teaching, while our current P.O.T.U.S. is the polar opposite every time he lies; cheats; insults; berates; speaks words of bigotry, etc. This is the reason why I CANNOT support this man. I just cannot. Unless I see a "Damascus Road" experience in him, I see no reason why I ever would. He is a true Pharisee.
There are many who believe that it was God's sovereign will that caused Donald Trump to be elected P.O.T.U.S. I don't know - I only know God was still sovereign when Hitler and Mussolini were leaders and that sometimes evil men reign - for a time.
440
@Misty Martin I'm curious why someone who seems as sensitive and thoughtful as you would fear "the advance of socialism" should you vote for a Democrat.
It might be worth looking up what "socialism" actually means for civic society. And reading up on how things work in countries where -- to take just one example -- national healthcare systems have been a fact of life for decades. (That would be virtually all of the developed world except the US.)
1074
@Misty Martin
The Old Testament was re-written three times over a period of about 1000 years. We know this from the study of linguistics which can track how languages change over time, and the historical record of the ancient Jewish people. It was not a single dictation from heaven.
Did you know that is was common for the ancient Jews to have idols in their homes until the last major edition of the Bible was brought back to Israel when the scholars and scribes returned from about 60 years of exile in Babylonia? Point being that the ancient text was a work in progress. Then the idols went away.
The ancient Bible is a compilation of stories and myths that attempt to explain our existence. It uses the tools of metaphor and allegory to explain that which cannot be explained. It is, therefore a human construct.
There are many cruelties in the Bible that reflect the cruelty of the era. It discusses vicious wars and killings as a part of some kind of divine process. That's how people viewed the world 3000 years ago. They were wrong.
The prohibition against homosexuality was one of those errors. I was raised Orthodox but attend a Reform Temple. We leave room for humanity to adjust and progress. People of all sexual orientations are welcomed into our congregation with open arms.
1524
@Misty Martin
You lost me at God does condemn homosexuality
697
I gave up religion about the same time I gave up believing in Santa Clause...you reach an age where you just realize that a fat man riding around the world handing out gifts has no basis of reality...just like the promise of heaven when we pass on.
207
There are many fine examples of religious people who are on the right side of things. Sister Pimentel, for example, as described here. Such folks are not always quietly pious--and rightly so. In a national radio broadcast--which was cut off by the government--Rev. Bonhoeffer warned the Germans in 1933 that they were falling for an idolatrous personality cult. Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis in 1945. Jesus would not have put refugee children in cages. Jesus would not have voted for a dishonest, white supremacist demagogue. Jesus would not have said that his god gave the rich more money because they were more deserving than the rest of us.
167
“Evangelicals give cover to an immoral president because they believe God is using him to advance their causes.”
And just what causes might those be? The preservation of white “purity”—evangelicals’ cause celebre ever since they broke off from mainstream protestantism on account of slavery? The marginalization of the LBGT community—who they self-righteously believe are an “abomination”? Christian Zionism—which views Jews as mere eschatological pawns? The declaration of abortion as unconstitutional—which allows them to impose their own religious beliefs on everybody else?
I left the Southern Baptist Church a half century ago in large part because their causes at core seemed so antithetical to the teachings of Christ. How fitting that they have now chosen the most unchristian leader imaginable to carry their banner.
196
Jesus: "False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24
112
Being an atheist and having no faith that there is a heaven or Gates of St. Peter, it saddens me to no end to know that the hypocritical “Christians” will never be turned away at the gates and told that they’ve lived a life in opposition to the Bible. “Sorry, sir, your ticket is no good here. Try down below where it is a bit warmer.”
85
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." - Mohandas Gandhi
299
Religion lost me when they said a man heads the household.
158
Evangelicals have made a Faustian bargain with their mercenary Donald J. Trump. Their association with his explicit anti-Christianity, with the Christian Taliban commander Michael R. Pence rolling out the red carpet for him, will forever tarnish their brand. The hypocrisy is evangelicals is not lost on young people who will forever eschew religious affiliation.
122
O gawd may we never separate the evolving great faith traditions from those who co-op and "use them" for personal gain - yoo hoo Constantine Im looking at YOU!
21
Now, why didn’t the Evangelicals didn’t see Obama as sent from God? Was it because he was black or allegedly born in Kenya? Why is a rich, boorish, New Yorker deemed a Godsend when a poor woman or a poor person of color from anywhere would not? Evangelicals seem to see find their Jesus in Big Daddy.
126
Only People? Any God way up there would undoubtedly hate these religions also, if he or she could inform us!
18
If a person really needs a deity to worship, try Mother Nature. Even though we abuse her she is what keeps us alive until we exterminate ourselves.
129
I am not a Christian, but I am certainly more “Christian” than those greedy, judgmental, mean-spirited phony right-wing “evangelicals.” Gandhi was supposed to have said something like “I like your Christ, but not your Christians.”
He could well have been referring to the Falwell/Robertson/Franklin Graham “Christians”, all cold, cruel, dictatorial, greedy phonies selling, literally, “salvation”to hordes of, well, suckers.
Every religion has their Sister Pimentel, but also their Torquemada and Savonarola monsters.
105
NYT opion pieces and editorials generally receive a number of pro-Trump pushback comments. But so far, here, crickets.
Very telling.
63
Christianity has always been a very useful tool of the state for the advancement of inequality/white supremacy. The supporters of slavery used it to great effect in the enslavement of Africans and the extermination of indigenous people.
The so called Christians support swift capital punishment, separation of families at our borders and denial of women’s healthcare.
The fact that “religion is the opiate of the masses” has caused its adherents to be Intoxicated with visions of the “ hereafter” and blinded to the suffering that is ubiquitous “here and now”.
69
The irony, or perhaps the hypocrisy, of the support by evangelicals for this President is that Trump’s religion is as phony as Trump University. It’s a newfound political stance that serves his campaign—not any lifelong belief. Not even his most ardent supporters can argue that he is a sexual harasser, a developer who stiffs contractors, an employer who hires illegal workers, and easily the most flagrant liar this country has ever seen in national office.
76
Hypocrites didn't drive me away from religion, the message did. The idea that there could be a 'divine' omniscient entity governing everything we do is lunacy and flies in the face of reason and facts. Christopher Hitchens was right...religion poisons everything. Oh how I wish he was still with us.
99
White Christians have not become more like Trump. They have always been Trump. He personifies their bitter racial rage and ignorance. He is a perfect representation of the hypocrisy that is all things evangelical.
115
Why people hate religion or religious people who are hypocrites — and which religions to hate, all of them? And what of non religious people that are hypocrites? Are they deserving of hate? What level of hypocrisy merits hate? What if religious people were not hypocrites but still disagreed with your political perspective, would that still merit hate?
12
People hate religion ? Too strong word! People are not religious like before or do not go to church. They love God and Jesus Christ. But they do not like the religious leaders who are immoral, greedy and dishonest. The evangelical leaders are using religion to advance their self interest, to make money. They support wars which kill so many innocent people. They never talk about racial justice. They never talk about homeless problems or hunger. They are just fake, fraud and phony. So many priests are involved sex abuse of children and most the church leaders are hiding and protecting the abusers. Does anybody think that Jesus would support Trump?
39
You go, Tim! You and Mike Gerson (who I'm sure is disgusted by your comments on about Catholic education) have pulled off 2/3 of a hat trick in the same week by calling out evangelical hypocrisy and reminding the flock that Jesus was a friend of the poor and an anti-Roman rabble rouser, not a messiah for people who love guns, hate gays and liberals, want to put all minorities back in their place, and want to impose a "whiteness" on this country that it never had!
57
Let The NY Times congregation say Amen for this article : )
29
Reading this once again confirmed my atheist beliefs. Sure as heck there is no god. An all powerful, benevolent god would certainly strike these charlatans dead, yet, they’re still running around. No, there is no god, people.
50
I hate religion because it appeals to humanity's worst instincts: factionism, us-versus-them, holier than thou, etc. Actually, I see religion as a destructive force in society, not a good one. The notion that one gets "morality" from religion is ludicrous.
Oh, and another thing: Adults believing in fairy tales, unprovable deities? What malarkey! Grow up, already.
88
A Bible thumping contest. This should have been printed on the book review page.
10
I love reading your columns Timothy Egan. You put in words exactly how I feel. How trump's followers claim to be true Christians while slobbering over this narcissistic dolt, while ignoring the humanitarian and very Christian works of people like Jimmy Carter, baffle me to no end.
59
Amen, Mr. Egan.
21
People don't like religion because it's unseemly when grown adults believe in childish fairy tales.
31
You don't have to believe in superstition, which religion is, to do good. People, as a rule, opt to do good as opposed to doing evil. Like people choosing beauty and not something unseemly. --- Joseph Orbi, Kickin' Santa
12
“Beware of false prophets, look to their works” JC
20
Amen!
Enough said!
2
I was saved all this when the Catholic Church expelled me in 1968 for discovering that our monsignor had been raping a boy in our youth group for years. He dropped dead in the streets of Toronto about a decade ago and his body was not claimed for months. Different kind of expulsion for him.
40
The right has polluted even faith in God.
29
Religion is a wonderful way to get people to help one another, and to shelter and feed the suffering and impoverished.
But the 'god' part is a total scam and a joke dating back to our origins from apes. People will believe in flat earth and come up with Any Possible Argument to bolster their ego. There is still no god.
21
Pontificating, strutting hypocrisy has always attended religious organizations. However comforting and warm and fuzzy the tenets of religions may be, religious organizations become perverted by the people who run them and enforce their rules.
So much of American religious meddling in politics has been characterized by hateful and hate-filled positions:
bigotry of all kinds
denying science and the facts it uncovers
denying the rights of others
rejecting the modern world in favor of returning to some non-existent past centuries (or millennia) ago
establishing theocratic government to impose their straightjacket on the whole country
At the same time, so-called leaders of religious groups have thrown support to Trump because of -- not despite -- the monstrosity that he and his administration are:
marching Nazis ("very fine people")
supporting the rich at the expense of the poor
despoiling our Earth
endless lying
denying others rights, and even their humanity
authoritarianism
denying science
kidnapping children and putting them in cages
a culture of venomous hatred for all who disagree
Although this is at odds with their loudly proclaimed religions' teachings, that's incidental. To us on the outside, these people are little more than a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites.
36
These comments are nothing but a cascade of religious bigotry. Wonderful. Well, at least it’s only pointed at one religion. I’m sure all leaders of all other religions are wonderful people.
9
Religion divides. Moreover, it’s people putting their faith in fairy stories. Read your kid some moral tales when they’re kids and they’ll be far better off than sending them to Sunday School to be brainwashed with a bunch of baloney.
22
It would have been more accurate if Mr. Egan wrote “reject religion“ instead of “hate religion“.
16
Congratulations to Frank Bruni and the New York Times for their willingness to stand up and call out Trump's Christian supporters for the frauds they are.
I can only hope that the New York Times and its writers will finally stand up and denounce ALL religious frauds this vehemently.
19
The more things change......
From Marion Elizabeth Rodgers' H.L. Mencken biography "Mencken: The American Iconoclast," discussing his arrival at the 1925 Scopes "monkey" trial in Tennessee (p. 273):
"It proved to be one of Mencken's most crucial stories. The trial was the culmination of the anti-evolution crusade that the fundamentalists had begun as a counteroffensive against modern theology......One of the reasons for Mencken's hostility toward agrarian America was its ties to Protestant Fundamentalism, which he considered anathema to the nation's well-being. He went to Dayton (TN) as a combatant in what he sincerely took to be a struggle of civilization and science against bigotry and superstitition."
Later, the book quotes prosecutor William Jennings Bryan's wife as saying of the defense team: (Clarence) Darrow suffered from a "lack of faith" and Hays was "as forward and self-asserting as a New York Jew can be."
14
I don’t hate religion, just abhor the hypocritical statements and actions by those in charge of it, particularly those which force their beliefs on others by the force of government. You gonna try to make me pray your way? No you won’t.
16
The Church in its present form is more Babylonian than Christian and is the oldest cult in the world.
9
People, people--It's all just a giant scam. Wake up!
55
There is also Sister Maureen Turlish, who works with the victims of abuse by the clergy.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/03_04/2011_03_18_Barron_SisterMaureen.htm
Sister have somethig of a reputation for being naive and shelters, but some have seen the worst humanity is capable of. And they are underapprqeciated and in some cases "disciplined" by their own church simlpy for doing what they were called to do.
24
I stopped “believing” immediately after learning to read. You know, the Old Testament? My problem is that instead of incorporating Christianity as a lifestyle, most people use their “faith” as an object of convenience. It’s also useful when killing people that neither look nor think like you. The Swaggerts and Bakers would be among the first who Christ ran out of the temple. Something about a rich man, a Cadillac, and the eye of a needle, eh? Get out there and rape, plunder and pillage M-Sat and fork over the cash and sit near the front on Sunday morning...”we good, ain’t we”? I don’t need a book of spells, one of several thousands of sacred buildings, or a magic man to know the right thing to do in most every situation. You see it and you do or don’t do it. If you don’t then there’s always church on Sunday morning to get yourself off suspension. If I’m wrong, I’ll pay but it’s a bet I’m willing to take...
52
Can you tell us where we can donate money to Sister Pimentel’s mission?
Excellent opinion piece.
Thank you
26
Religion is trickery, superstition, delusion, and divisiveness.
The little good in it, is overshadowed by what's bad about it.
Holy books have some human wisdom in them, but are mostly gibberish used as filler.
All religions were created by men to control people.
55
"“To believe is to know you believe, and to know you believe is not to believe." - Jean-Paul Sartre
There, that is why thinking people hate religion.
31
Karl Marx missed it by one word. (ORGANIZED) "religion is the opiate of the people."
28
The Church is the original Mafia, which has coerced, stolen, killed, and raped in the name of god. Faith is what we are born with, it’s innate within, just as only god has ordained.
19
one can embrace spirituality without the assistance of the fairy tales and myths of organized religion...
49
Bullseye!
15
"The only thing wrong with religion is man." -- Dr. John
25
There are no gods.
26
Bravo! Well said.
15
I am reminded of Christopher Hitchens and how he always compared religious belief to a wish of being ruled by a celestial dictator. It's no wonder that Evangelical Christians favor hierarchical power structures. Trump is their alpha male. He is somebody that will stand up against the "godless liberals". Evangelicals know their power in this country is slipping away. They don't care that Trump cheated on his wife with porn stars. He is their guy to fight dirty, and it doesn't matter if they have to sell their soul in the process.
63
That's true of any institution claiming moral authority (the hate by the public).
It doesn't matter if it's academia and teaching (everyone think education is failing..yet 95 % of people love their own teachers); Congress (everyone hates Congress but 95% of the members keep getting re-elected); or Religion.
Fact is each institution above has been critical to the development of our organized and structured society that has led to a miracle of all miracles called America to exist.
Tell me another place on earth where 325,000,000 people with wildly diverse backgrounds, cultures, languages, religions and skin tones can agree to forego their tribal instincts in favor of One Perfect Union?
As our Founders said "here's the Republic..I hope you can keep it."
Institutions with moral authority are all under attack right now. Consider the NYT, WaPO, and other corporate media. If they don't police their own and throw the bad actors under the bus (Jayson Blair) by using such accountability police as a public editor, it's inevitable the public will become your editor..and if that public is tribal..you'll end up seeing news stories with political arcs historically found in Pravda and China Daily.
People may not like religion, but religious people seem to love their own version above.
People may not like law & order, but people who live in lawless communities seem to love the police and law & order.
Turns out we only miss institutions with moral authority when they're gone.
Too late
5
There is no charitable act performed by a religious person that is not or can not be done by a secular person.
In fact, without promise of heavenly reward, the secular person is being more caring and more charitable.
The Abrahamic religions deal from a book that supports:
Slavery
Mass murder
Serial murder
Genocide,
Rape
Theft
Infanticide
Child abuse
Oppression of minorities- religious and racial
Keeping women as property
And every other crime against humanity imaginable.
Using the bible as a point of departure - religion can not be anything but evil
And there was no Jesus - get used to it
31
I do not like the President at all, but the "very fine people" line by Trump has (once again) been taken out of context and republished by the NY Times. Accuracy matters and the editors at the Times need to stop letting this one go. The Times must show journalistic integrity and take the high road.
14
Good article. Thanks.
5
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift sword against nation and they will no longer study war.
— Isaiah 2:4
Jewish tradition posits that the Messianic Era of global peace and harmony will be ushered-in in the Hebrew Year 6000, the equivalent of 2239 in the Gregorian Calendar.
This coming September 29 Jews will celebrate the onset of the Jewish New Year 5780 --- leaving the world just 220 years shy of reaching the magic number of 6000.
A mere blink of an eye as it were before the arrival of the Messiah to usher in a thousand year period of redemption and reconciliation culminating in an everlasting world of universal peace and harmony.
Evangelical Christians interested in marking their November 2020 election ballots in a manner consistent with their own core beliefs should reflect on this matter long and hard before reflexively casting their ballots for Trump’s cronies and partners-in-crime.
One does not have to be a believer in Judaism to appreciate the fact that the old Jewish rabbis and sages who wrote the Old Testament and the Talmud got many important things exactly right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_6000
9
Marx was correct
13
What the evangelicals have proven to me with their support of Trump is that they don't really believe what they have always claimed to believe and that they know that their god isn't real. They are hypocrites and liars. Make these political organizations masquerading as religions start paying taxes.
54
"Faith" is an unbelievable con-game played by cruel holier-than-thou Liars and Hypocrites.
19
If there is a god, he'd resemble Trump, or bugs bunny.
7
I'm not sure how accurate this opinion piece is in painting with a broad brush. Is it really the "phonies" who cause people to hate religion, or is it mostly the pedophile Catholic priests and the Catholic bishops who conspire to cover up their crimes?
5
It seems that hating religion is not about hating God, but more about hating hypocrisy.
885
"Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool.” Voltaire
On the other hand, “Religion is what keeps the poor from killing the rich.” Napoleon
To sum up: “Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.” Alfred North Whitehead
173
Sure, pick apart from the OT when it suits you. It seems people then lived to be 600 years old and had multiple wives too. They had God telling them to choose which son to kill and so on. Forget all that stuff did you? The Bible is written by people. It's a fairy tale.
88
Wondering if you should have titled this article differently...... you mention Christ and that excludes a lot of religions.......
18
Thank God I'm Atheist!
80
Organised religion is the work of the devil. Evangelicals are hypocrites like the Pharisees in the Bible Jesus warned us about.
The age of superstition and religion is being replaced by the age of science and reason.
38
You copped out, Tim. You failed to mention abortion. These lunatics love Trump because he promised to appoint judges that will overturn Roe v. Wade. (And one can just imagine how many women Randy Donald ordered to have abortions. But, of course, he has now repented; he's been saved by the likes of Pence.) These people believe I advocate child murder. Guess who they're gonna follow?
42
So American, saying "religion" when you mean "Christian".
27
"Why People Hate Christianity" would be a better title to your piece.
27
"Evangelicals give cover to an amoral president because...he is advancing their causes" -- scratch that superficial veneer and the chief cause is Armageddon/"Christian Zionism," the death cult wherein all but Evangelical Protestant Christians are roasted in hellfire for all eternity. Jews who don't convert, Catholics, homosexuals, socialists, Muslims, liberal and moderate Protestants, etc. (Doesn't that look suspiciously like, oh you know?)
This is the Southern Strategy on steroids, a postmodernist retelling of "Elmer Gantry" mashed up with "Idiocracy" and "The Manchurian Candidate," the tumescence of credulous Americana and an unwillingness to empathize and fully reflect on The Golden Rule. Which is darkly comedic when you consider that the irrationalists purport to worship a homeless Jew from the Levant.
Silver linings? May they include the ends of the following: The GOP (who for tax cuts and regulation-gutting nominated a 6x bankrupt con-artist), "Christian fundamentalism" (which fell in line behind an obvious, irreligious serial adulterer and liar), "white supremacists"/false patriots who pined for a strongman ruler and thus acquiesced in Putin's interference, and the odious relativism ("Situational Ethics!" lol) which drove the above to accept such a stupid premise.
I pray (pardon the pun) that the actual conflagration which would be the worst case scenario doesn't happen; Trump and his hypnotized minions have caused too much pain already.
42
People hate religion you say. Well, usually it is highly educated and intelligent people who have a good sense of history as well as ethics who probably are not pro-religion.
How could that be otherwise?
Take the Catholic Church. The inquisition was beyond evil. It massacred people because they could. They caused Jews to suffer and lose their lives and their homeland if they did not convert!
Take the Vatican and the Pope’s attitude during the Holocaust. Much to be desired. Watch a Costa-Gavras film called Amen. Read about Hitler’s Pope.
Did the Catholic church ever apologize unequivocally for the inquisition? Their role in the Holocaust? Their role centuries before during the Crusades?
There are good religious people in all religions.
Ethics is independent of religion. Institutional religion particularly.
Spinoza comes to mind. His Ethics is infinitely better than any Bible. His Spartan life versus the luxurious life Popes live. Think about it.
29
Amen, Brother Egan
17
Organized religion is nothing but a tool to justify the action of the powerful. It is corrupted and it corrupts the individual and the society.
And oh... the righteous aura of despicable hypocrites like Pence is simply nauseating...
The worst crimes in the history of mankind have happened under the cover of religion and an establishment.
Church is all about money. Period, end of the story. As long as the White House devises policies in favor of church’s interest, for all they care Charles Manson could be sitting in the White House as the president of this country.
34
Thank you.
14
"All, high and low, are out for ill-gotten gain. Prophets and priests are frauds, every one of them." Jeremiah
20
Religion NO, Faith YES!
Easy to sit in pews piously, challenge to imitate Christ.
18
This article's headlines:
"Why People Hate Religion
The charlatans and phonies preen and punish, while those of real faith do Christ’s work among refugees."
So "religion" equals "Christianity"?!
7
As a liberal Christian pastor, I agree with your thinking whole-heartedly. But here is what vexes me about the news coverage of religion. How much coverage does Sister Norma Pimentel get compared to anti-immigration zealots? Every time the Roman Catholic Church fires someone for being gay, it is front page news. Churches who perform gay marriages, and offer pronoun buttons at the door to be welcoming of trans people don't make news. The racist undertones of Evangelicals gets full analysis, but not coverage of hundreds of churches working through anti-racism training, or the numerous congregations offering sanctuary to refugees. Being bombastic and narrow-minded is a sure way to a front page article in the Times. Being compassionate and having the courage to work for justice gets a few sideline human interest stories. No wonder it seems like religion is so terrible. The least humane brands suck up all the oxygen.
84
Bravo, Tim. BRAAA-V-O-O-O!!
Religion and hypocrisy are synonyms. Perfectly so.
21
If Jesus were to return tomorrow, the Xtians would not recognize him. They are looking for the second coming of a white, blond haired, blue eyed Jim Caviezel, not a short, dark skinned "Arab" man.
Trump, et al would have him arrested as a terrorist.
56
Time for some NEW GOD(S).
The old ones have been around at least 10,000 years of recorded history . . . but we are still killing each other . . . starving each other . . . taking from each other . . . ignoring or excluding each other . . .
The old god(s) have not delivered ANYTHING HE/SHE/IT PROMISED. None of ANYTHING that HE/SHE/IT 's "chosen spokesperson" has told us about has "happened" either.
Enough is enough . . . Boycott their "store" and quit giving them money . . . they have not been able to CHANGE ANYTHING !
15
Religion is a poison that's responsible for countless deaths, persecutions, and racism. Young people shun religion, which may stop the evil consistently committed in gods names.
18
"Real faith?" How about "Reason"? Come on, New York Times. Isn't it about time respectable news organizations stop giving credence to Bronze Age nonsense by pretending that belief in a celestial deity at all is anything more than wishful thinking?
26
I hate religion for the same reason that I hate capitalism and politics: I hate my tax money being frittered away to support charlatans.
19
Yes, many religious folks are like Sister Pimentel, and do good piously and quietly. Others however are by necessity not so demure, and pay the price for that. They are not lesser Christians, according to Christianity's own teachings, for doing so. The Rev. Bonhoeffer told the Germans in 1933 in no uncertain terms that they were falling for an idolatrous personality cult. For his troubles the Nazis executed him in 1945. Yes, the theatrically pious evangelical charlatans are legion. One of them has had the nerve to start a Washington DC policy think tank named for Bonhoeffer. What would Jesus do? He would throw the whole lot of them out of the temple.
18
Since man started walking on two legs he has denied what is self-evident. He is born, he lives, he dies, and death is forever.
All religion is derived from this denial.
33
Dear Lord: please, please protect me from the depredations of your most ardent self-professed followers.
Amen.
20
And it also baffles me how "nobody tells me what to do" Libertarians are in a cozy political bed with big religious types who are all about exactly telling people what to do.
Somebody's being a bigtime hypocrite.
22
Best. editorial. ever.
9
"Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?
Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.".
11
We hate religion because the believer always believes he is holier than us.
We hate religion because sociopaths use it to justify their religious wars.
We hate religion because we see examples of its brutality being played out daily around the world.
We hate religion because it entangles itself with the state and makes public policy decisions based on its beliefs.
We hate religion because it persecuted people like Galileo.
We hate religion because once you put a god in your pocket you feel you are above everyone else.
Religion is the most destructive mind virus ever to be unleashed upon the earth.
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Below is a copy of a letter to the Centre Daily Times, July 28, 2019
https://www.centredaily.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article233161976.html
Lessons from the Bible on the immigration crisis
What does the Bible teach Christians about how to handle the illegal immigrant crisis on our southern border? The Gospel of Matthew, (25: 31-46) describes how at the Last Judgment, Christ will separate all people into two groups. He’ll welcome the group of righteous people into God’s kingdom, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matthew 25:35-36).
Puzzled, they’ll ask him when they did this for him.
He’ll tell them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
Christ will tell the other group that they are cursed because they didn’t help him when he was hungry, thirsty, naked or sick. They didn’t visit him in prison or welcome him when he was a stranger.
Surprised, they’ll ask him when this happened.
He’ll reply, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me” (Matthew 25:45). The cursed people will go away “into eternal punishment,” and the righteous will go “into eternal life.”
We should insist that our government and our nation treat these strangers as Christ has taught us.
10
For most Evangelicals, claiming Christianity is a thin whitewash of their bigotry and hatred, that fools no one but themselves.
22
I am an atheist. I have more kindness, caring, humanity, and faith in my little finger compared to the right wing evangelical preachers I see wandering our America today. I actually believe, Jesus meant what he said about caring for our fellow man. I call these preachers the American Taliban. They harken a new dark ages.
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The Christian right is so hellbent on getting their abortion-hating SCOTUS picks installed that they suspend morality and decency as the highest values of their religion. Power trumps compassion and decency.
22
Where's the groundswell of committed christians moving to throw the charlatans out??
25
Religion - haven’t we outgrown it?
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Throughout history, whenever put to a test, the “church” has seldom failed to betray the true Christian ethics set forth by its founder.
Examples of this date back to the biblical betrayal of Jesus by Peter and Judas, and range on up through the Crusades, inquisition, holocaust/concordat with Hitler, slavery and segregation, Vietnam and other wars, child-sodomy and it’s current unholy alliance with Trump and the GOP.
Clearly, those seeking moral leadership in a complex world need to look elsewhere for their solace and guidance.
13
Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!'" — Matthew 7:23
2
I don't like religion because it's a grift. The best grift cooked up by humanity since the Bronze Age,
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https://youtu.be/wqIyIvL-gBs Willie Nelson Singing The Promised Land
2
Oh, no!!! Oh boy!!! Don’t start me on those phonies!!!
7
“ Be Still.......”
And “ know that I am god”
“Jesus Wept”
Pence et al are unfit representations of piety
5
Perhaps we should update our spiritual wisdom to better reflect the times. If Jesus were alive today, here are some "New Beatitudes" he might offer to better reflect the views of Christians who support President Trump:
Blessed are the rich and powerful, for they are the Lord’s favored, and their bounty shall increase without measure.
Blessed are the heavily armed, for only by the sword shall the children of God know His peace and mercy.
Blessed are those who insult and demean, for they show no fear nor betray their ignorance.
Blessed are the racists and the nationalists, for they alone know the will of the Lord.
Blessed are the arrogant and corrupt, for their boasts and cunning shall be seen as strength.
Blessed are those who sow division and hate, for they shall be called honest and wise.
Blessed are the persecutors, for they shall cull the weak from the flock.
Blessed are those who lie and falsely say all kinds of evil, for the people shall delight in their deception and wickedness.
Rejoice and be glad, for you shall be made great again.
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For too many, Jesus is their mascot, not their instructor
17
Amen!!
3
Hello, Americans. Sorry - or not so sorry - to tell you that there is no god.Christianity is a bunch of bronze age Mideastern myths.
Can we all go home now and try to act like decent human beings?
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At my grandmother’s funeral the church was filled with family! There were 2 lawyers, a doctor, an architect, an optical engineer, 3 cops and on and on! None of them would have been there in their professional capacities but for her! This she did starting out as a semi-literate Black washerwoman in the Jim-Crow South with no metaphysical consolation save for her Sweet Jesus!
From each generation she’d pick a pet. From my generation she chose me! Consequently I spent my childhood being steeped in the Good News Gospels 24/7/365! She overdosed me on Jesus! So much so that at her funeral I came out the closet and professed the atheism I had adopted decades before her death!
Still, when I’m confronted with one of these so-called Christian Evangelicals I take recourse in my profound knowledge of the Gospels and—for their sacrilege—attack them with the theological zeal of St. Peter! With all my heart I try to lay waste to their hypocritical souls and leave their ringing ears scattered all the way from the Sermon On The Mount to the winding road of Golgotha!
And when queried as to the paradoxical nature of my divine madness, I tell them I’m a Crusader For Christ! Not mine!! My Grandmother’s!!!
21
Egan....; caution...judge not....as you do here.
Your essay really does not make a lot of sense.
5
It's hard to imagine a more disingenuous piece of writing than this, unless it was something written by Trump. (assuming he could compose coherent English sentences.) It purports in the headline, and in the text to explain why "people hate religion." But, there is just one religion mentioned - Christianity. So, it really should be entitled "Why People Hate Christianity." I suspect even the NYT editors would recognize the bigotry and intellectual morass involved in trying to publish that piece. Or try, "Why People Hate Judiasm." How does that sound? Not so good. So, call it "religion" and it suddenly sounds great to write a piece explaining why it is OK to hate Christianity. Nice job. What cowardly schlock.
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"They hate religion because, at a moment to stand up and be counted on the right side of history, religion is used as moral cover for despicable behavior. This is not new to our age. Hitler got a pass from the Vatican until very late in the war."
AND they witness the daily hypocrisy of their parents and neighbors to whom religion is nothing more than a fear reflex.
Christianity has caused the deaths of more innocent vulnerable people than ten bubonic plagues.
14
The Vatican did speak out. Mit brennender Sorge (“With Burning Concern”) was authored by the future Pius XII and issued by Pope Pius XI, on March 10, 1937. The pope’s letter was read in Germany in all the Catholic parishes. He vigorously defended the Hebrew scriptures as preparing the way for the New Testament. He denounced “neopaganism” and condemned the “myth of race and blood” and the “idolatry” of the state and referred to a “mad prophet.” The Nazi government was furious and closed Catholic printing presses that had a hand in printing 300,000 copies.
8
People dislike religion for a number of reasons:
* no evidence to support is assertions
* a history of oppression, particularly women
* its message is self-serving and selfish
* its adherents are hypocrites
22
Amen
1
Religion gives people the power to commit atrocities in the name of their god, since they believe their god is the true god, and deeds done is his name can not be sin.
If not for the crutch of the divine, they would have to accept personal responsibility for their immoral actions. Thus we have a President who cheated on 3 wives, slept with a porn star while one was pregnant, ran a fraudulent university, is an open racist, and bragged about sexually assaulting women. Yet "christians" accept him by rationalizing his appearance as from divine intervention, avoiding admitting they were duped into electing a completely immoral man.
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Why People Hate Religion
1. God is as thin skinned as Trump.
"Eliseus was traveling to Bethel when a bunch of kids popped up and made fun of him being bald. God sent two bears that mauled 42 of these kids to death. (4 Kings 2:23-24)"
10
Religion is for those that fear going to hell.
Spirituality is for those that have already been there.
12
Religion is poison and slavery and nothing more. The reason the world is such a horrible place is directly due to religion - all of them.
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Why is Christ necessary to help refugees? Or do any other good deeds? Answer: He's not.
This is why people hate religion. It's the constant regrain on the part of Christians that they are good people and others are not because — Jesus Christ.
My Aunt used to run a non-profit to help the homeless in Philadelphia. She said the Jews gave the most, then the Catholics and lastly and always with stipulations attached to the giving, the Protestants. Maybe that's just Philly.
I was told for my whole childhood by protestant children that i was going to hell. They seemed to relish telling me. This was because i am not a protestant. Honestly people it's no way to make friends. Start by getting rid of the Hell thingy and then maybe I'll tolerate the company of protestants again. Honestly hypocrisy has no greater champion. They support Trump for Christ's sake. They know no shame and only bully others because of their vast numbers. Again:No way to make friends.
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“…Still, we are “prisoners of hope,” as Archbishop Desmond Tutu loves to say. And if you’re looking for hope in the midnight of the American soul, look no further than Sister Pimentel’s shelter for hundreds of desperate children in McAllen, Texas…
First, your link to the interview with Tutu is bald-faced clickbait…
Except that my religion frowns upon it – I’d hate you for that…
Second, if you’re looking for hope in the hour after midnight of the American soul, look no further than…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OlAe2Sfes
Can start about 14 minutes in – or spend the brief stint in purgatory with Craig…
PS
Here’s Craig’s reflection on that tête-à-tête:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4isCbRkgwA
Apologies in advance for any lead-in ads – may I burn in Hell for taking you down such a pernicious path to perdition…
2
Gee, one might have expected that in the 21st century, with science having explained so much since the "biblical" (i.e., largely ignorant, pre-science) era, that we would no longer be raising children on fairy tales about omniscient super-beings, heaven, and hell. None of the "miracles" withstand scrutiny; "faith" is essentially a willingness to believe ideas for which there is no hard evidence. An oral tradition, eventually written down by many people decades or centuries later does not constitute evidence.
Add to that the rampant criminality and hypocrisy of the Vatican throughout its history and tell me how anyone finds anything holy there. I think it boils down to "indoctrination", just like any cult.
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Pence thinks he's the real chosen one, just waiting in the wings for the charlatan to fall. I mean, if Joseph and Moses could suck up to Pharaoh....
7
Pick a bible, any bible.
How many times is 'homosexual' mentioned?
Now count mentions of 'heterosexual intercourse' or infidelity. Now count mentions of 'compassion.'
Which has the highest count?
What do you think the overall message is?
**SHEESH**
6
It is highly questionable whether Christianity promotes acts of charity. This is a creed that promises eternal salvation for its followers and the fires of hell for everyone else. Its true believers can and do behave as irresponsibly as they please with the knowledge that eventually they will be up there with the harp playing angels regardless. Those who are doing good deeds would surely continue to do them anyway, whether or not they decide to remain Christian.
4
My last straw was when I received a letter from the "good" members of the church "telling" us how to vote in the second George W. Bush election, implying that those of us who voted Democratic were going to hell. I'm sure they're okay with Trump and his immoral policies now.
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Like any large institution, religion can be bastardized by the few for their own agendas. The problem I have with religion, and the Bible, is that it divides the world into good and evil, and life must be played out by advancing good over evil. It separates people, and builds walls between people. When in fact, Jesus taught tolerance, inclusion and forgiveness. The other problem I have with religion and the Bible is that it promotes suffering as a way of advancing one's religious goals to obtain "heaven". As a doctor, practicing for 45 years, I've seen enough suffering in people and I say nuts to that. My role is to alleviate suffering, break down walls between people, not build walls which divide people. That is my religion. I am a Catholic who wants to follow Jesus's teachings of helping thy neighbor, and live in peace with others in the world, to not be judgmental, or segregate people into groups, or persecute anyone.
12
Jesus is pretty clear where he stands on people who pontificate but perform charitable acts: he would send them to hell (see Parable of the Talents in Matthew).
1
Excellent critique of religion. Historically, as you cited, Mr. Egan, religion was a tool for control and enrichment of the already rich.
The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, they ravished the known world, all in the name of Jesus. The Bible was used by slave-owners (Leviticus) to sanction the horror of slavery, and the "other" could be condemned and killed, because the other rejected their god, as though that was reason to take another's life.
And, now, the "saved" scorn those who refuse to worship as they do, proposing Hell for those. It's an intolerant world, one that masks itself as god-fearing, but really wants to preserve those White values it's own values, using the Bible as a crutch for an antiquated, intolerant, unreasoned, system of thinking and feeling.
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8
Most wars, most hate, most hypocrisy and most stupidity is religious in origin. From evangelical support of a pathologically lying serial adulterer, to Islam’s support of Jihad, the Catholics coverup of thousands of pedophiles in their ranks and tacit agreements with the Nazi’s all the way back to the holy wars, decrees, edicts, etc...all religious objectives.
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Religion is poison
13
I'm a secular humanist, but I don't hate religion, per se.
I simply don't regard almost all evangelical Christians as religious, Mike Pence included. They are not Christian, they don't know Jesus, and if the hell they fear exists, they're all going there and will deserve to, based on my study of Christianity and its scriptures.
14
Finally we have an essayist who will damn Trump’s Evangelical moral hypocrites with the same passionate Anglo-Saxon vocabulary that Sinclair Lewis made acceptable in his satirical portrayal of Elmer Gantry that iconic fictional American Evangelical huckster-preacher of the nineteen-twenties.
The mistake Evangelicals who worship Trump’s message rather than Christ’s Sermon on the Mount make is, as noted, they truly are Machiavellian moralists who pursue their political agendas by any means necessary. They forget Christ’s dictum, “ whatever you do to the least of mine you do to me”.
As Timothy Egan illuminates in his essay, it ought be no shock that when the religious faithful disavow Christ’s message in order to seek political gain or to validate their own tribal prejudices, others see them as hypocrites and damn religion itself rather than those that corrupt it. Dante had a sound reason for placing hypocrites in the hottest and lowest level of Hell.
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I grew up in a very liberal Christian family. Regularly attended bible school, church, etc. Grandfather, father both ministers. Both committed to working with the poor, civil rights groups, peace groups, social justice, you name it. But I am not religious at all. After years of discussion and study, I came to the conclusion that all major religions were invented by men to be instruments of political power, designed to oppress women, justify social hierarchies and authoritarianism, and to consolidate wealth, land, and political power into the hands of a few. I will never be religious again. "God" is a human invention. No one will ever persuade me otherwise. Scientifically primitive peoples are easily persuaded to be superstitious, and many of us today are still very stunted in our intellectual and emotional capacities. Let them suck on religion's teat, but the rest of us are done with all of the mysoginistic Abrahamic religions, and waiting for the day when they are simply relegated to the status of ancient myths, much like the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods have been.
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Where are the'caravans' of preachers - at the border?
Those who speak the Bible but can't be bothered to 'walk the talk' ?
TAX religious property as 'commercial' ! For starts....no more free services paid for by the public at large.
Maybe its time for a public burning of bibles if they continue to be "mis-used" by those who claim its their 'guide'.... NO THANKS !
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They are not spiritual sentries. They are religious salesmen and women. They reek of hypocrisy and have assumed the role of judges which is solely that of God. They are ruining this country, It’s time to have freedom from religion.
I avoid all people who claim to be blessed which I view as boasting and I refuse to hire a tradesman who tries to bless me or claims, without asking, to be a Christian. I prefer to hire Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists to Christians. I interpret the claim of being a Christian to be a subterfuge to rip me off which has been my experience.
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Just a flat-out Bravo to Egan for this piece. We are in a modern-day age of pharisees and hypocrites. Woe to you.
6
I hate religion because minority Christians are forcing their religion on us through secular laws, in direct violation of the Constitution. I hate religion because of the rampant hypocrisy it embodies. Anyone who claims to follow Christ while supporting Trump knows nothing of either man. Religion is the root of all evil - Kashmir, Palestine, Northern Ireland. Religion should be rejected by all thinking persons because its archaic beliefs have been outstripped by modern reality and because its leaders would drag us into a past dark age. The good sister can do her work without the being under the aegis of a sanctimonious, hypocritical, chauvinistic, outdated false belief system.
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I don't wear these Armani suits because I "want" to. I wear them because they falleth upon me from heaven.
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Mosquitoes and tics are proof that there is no god.
"Christians" can't have it both ways.
3
''Why People Hate Religion''
Because some of us have experienced religious based hatred, bigotry, and violence.
Because we see religion used today as a motivator of war, death, and pestilence.
The bigger a religion gets the more it resembles a power mad state answerable to no one outside of the cult.
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People who claim they are Christian, but are not...are simply the worst kind. Pious. Greed. Ego. Hypocrisy. They undermine the good work of a Christian.
3
Religious hypocrites astound.
Mike Pence is one of them.
His judgment is so Heaven bound.
Trump’s sidekick is a gem.
Humanity he would define
as something hard to grasp.
When he is caught crossing the line,
his memory will lapse.
He thinks a baby can be ripped
away from mother's side.
Aborting women, though, are whipped
‘cause they choose to decide.
Religions are good - overall,
but subject to suspicions.
Churches and leaders are on call
because of grave omissions.
Believers should not force their views
in matters of the State.
Keep to yourself, your church, your pews.
Don’t legislate my fate.
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Once again T.E. cuts right to the heart of the matter.
Self appointed moral watchdogs always, always!, are highly selective in their sanctions, denunciations, and punishments.
It's clear that white conservative Christians have but one God, that being $$$, before which they put no other.
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Mr. Egan is obviously unaware of how gay and lesbians are treated in predominantly Muslim countries.
1
Conservative Republican Jesus walked the holy lands in a fine suit and railed against health care for the poor. CRJ was armed and hated liberals. He performed such miracles as the swelling of the bank account and turning a horse cart into a fine automobile
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There is no God.
Start there and the world gets better and better.
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Great article!
2
Jesus : Healed : no copays or deductibles .. just LOVE
2
Good works are done everywhere by good people of all faiths and NO faith. If religious gatherings provide community to support people in that work, then great. Otherwise, the institutions are just power grabs.
Thank you for reminding readers that the Vatican turned a blind eye to the Nazis. My reason for leaving the church.
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Nothing new here. Some practice their religion and others don't; whether they be Protestant, Catholic, Moslem, Hindu, or Jew.
2
It is those who are enthrall to religion in its most damning form that have authored and then stirred up the literal hatred and divisions among Americans about abortion rights, women's rights, and queer rights, the 3 hot button issues of the day. It is they who say no to birth control keeping people in abject poverty and growing human population to unconfined levels threatening the planet with over-development and existential global warming. Following the precepts of a 2,000+ year old mystical tome about how to live in a modern world is a clear recipe for disaster.
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The reason I hate religion is because so many people believe in what amount to nothing more as fairytales and use these fairytales as excuses to hate and discriminate.
Oh also there is no evidence for the existence of god or any other supernatural phenomena.
8
Religion will be the down fall of man or the awakening.
2
God didn't create man.
Man created god(s).
Never be surprised at what the human animal will do.
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Here's an immutable truth on an end-of-summer morning and every day:
Organized religion is the scourge of mankind. Orthodoxy and fundamentalism are the plague. Professional religionists are the worst of all. Fact is, man created god(s) not just to explain but to subjugate and justify horrid behavior. Ethics matter not prayer. Vocal piety is the epitome of fake news. To summarize, Ultra Christian Republicanism is the true heresy. Where's Torquemada when he's really needed? A cleansing inquisition is required.
7
People of Abrahamic faiths cannot claim to be "pro-life" while opposing contraception or adoption of needy children by gay couples.
This simply paints them as misogynists (and liars) who think that sex should at least have the *possibility* of resulting in pregnancy. Straight out of the Old Testament. Never mind their taste for placing said children into cages.
Hypocrites and bigots with a penchant for codifying their sad beliefs into our (ostensibly) secular law.
Too long have we stood by as they have been overly-accommodated. They killed "nuance" long ago, choosing instead a hillbilly bonfire.
Enough. 'VOTE'.
9
Does the fact that He made so many of them prove that God loves hypocrates?
2
I am atheist , I don't hate religion or anything else. I know what it has done to brainwash and control the minds of the masses. As an ADOS/Black man I know the damage religion has done to Black people globally but particularly what it has done to minds of my fellow ADOS.It has done more damage than US Slavery has done to us. IMO religion has done more harm than it has done good historically.
6
True Christians are individuals who can live by the 10 Commandments. If you are rigorously honest, only saints are capable of that. Therefore, people should stop identifying as “Christians” and instead strive towards becoming true Christians. Otherwise, they will remain deluded and depraved hypocrites, the arrogant unwitting servants of darker forces.
2
Egan's best column to date.
Without doubt, Don Imus's fictional Dr. Billy Sol Hargis is the role model for these Trumpian evangelicals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyvUgodZWo8
3
The article missed a golden opportunity to point out that religion and the Bible were used by white Southerners to defend—even promote—slavery.
6
“What you hear about is the phonies, the charlatans who wave Bibles, the theatrically pious, and they are legion. Vice President Mike Pence wears his faith like a fluorescent orange vest. But when he visited the border this summer and saw human beings crammed like cordwood in the Texas heat, that faith was invisible.”
I view the people like Pence, Falwell, Franklin Graham (!), etc., as morally and ethically challenged Christofascists.
10
God gave us a heart and a brain.
And I never needed Moses to go up on the mountain to know thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not kill.
The Bible has slavery.
The Bible has polygamy - for men.
In the Bible, they stone a woman to death for adultery.
Funny they never stone a man to death for adultery.
Not only was the Bible written by man, it was written by men.
12
Religion has been used to justify the most horrific crimes against humanity. It should be abolished everywhere. We'd all be better off.
7
How about stripping all religious institutions of their tax exempt status? You'd see a mass exodus of Charlatans and crooks leave their churches and head straight to the used car lots where they belong.
13
As I read your first paragraph, I thought you were going to be one of the few journalists who tries to tell us about people like the good Sister. But no, you just gave us a long detailed article about the small but very visible part of the religious community who are hypocrites. I guess that's what sells. Sister Pimentel is probably crying.
2
“There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump,” said Ralph Reed.
File the under:
Sinners Will Lie, Cheat and Sin, So What's the Big Deal
5
Another reason why I am an atheist
5
So um, this is a defense of religion? As you note, pretty much ALL the Evangelicals sold their souls to Trump. Of course you can find kind and good individuals...as you can amongst the non-religious...so!? This is a about a system that gives old white men power, is nihilst and rotten to the core.
6
"Older white Christians rouse to Trump’s toxicity because he’s taking their side. It’s tribal, primal and vindictive."
The greatest trick the devil ever played, was making them believe he was on THEIR side.
3
Folks in this comment thread discuss fundamentalism without discussing the fundamentals of psychology. Fundamentalists — evangelical, Muslim, Nazi — all share the personality trait of authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism is rooted in fear (initially of a father-figure authoritarian) and unconsciously views the world as a frightening place where only a strong father-figure can offer protection. They will choose Trump, Hitler, the Ayatollah…the particulars don’t matter. What matters is that they feel fearful and persecuted, and believe their strong man will save them. Fear, not love, drives them.
3
What a heartfelt article of faith...in Sister Pimentel, teaching us and showing true love, independent of all the Trumpian religious faux fervor, hypocritical, and cruel, to the core. Even as an agnostic (given that we humans aren't smart enough to know whether there is a God or not), I've seen the dishonest behavior of those preaching one thing...while doing the opposite; shameful, and a deterrent to those that really want to believe in someone, or something, higher than themselves...and hoping it may save them from death...and have 'eternal bliss' (however preposterous a fantasy to some of us, but still). And we aren't even talking about religious fanaticism 'a la ISIS' (violent Islamic extremism) or, centuries ago, Catholic 'which hunting', torturing non-believers, or blasphemers, before burning them to death. That Evangelicals are supporting racist, xenophobe and mysoginous Trump, just because he 'agrees' with Bible's teachings against homosexuality, is so stupid it defies reason. Let's just remember that the Bible was written eons ago by ignorant and prejudiced men that didn't (couldn't) know the human varieties designed by nature; as such, homosexuality is not a choice people make, it is just the way they were made and feel. That religious rigidity won't accommodate to scientific findings, may be one more nail in it's coffin. Love, if practiced as preached, would do wonders to humanity, and promote tolerance...if not an embrace of the richness of our diversity.
5
This oped is so fraught with generalizations as to undercut its own thesis. Rehashing every bad thing ever said or done in the name of religion, as you have done here, is too easy, and you say so yourself: "Religious hypocrites are an easy and eternal mark." And then trying to tackle what you see as moral inconsistencies in the Catholic hierarchy in the same column inches as your disdain for the religious right dilutes the entire message. The former is religious leadership trying to hold the line on their own religious communities' values (not saying I agree with them). The latter is the religious communities' values spilling into the public marketplace of ideas. Two very different concerns. And when you say that Hitler got a pass from the Vatican until very late in the war, I do wonder if the hundreds or thousands of Catholic clergy murdered by the Nazis are turning in their graves. Yeah, I get it, we all hate hypocrites. But when we try to follow Christ, we're bound to be hypocrites. And when we try to offer any kind of leadership to others, human and sinful as we are, we're bound to seem even more hypocritical. Meanwhile, your silly distinction between faith and religion gets us nowhere. Would there be a "faith" if there hadn't been a "religion" to hand it down? The revelations of God were truly pearls before swine. We all get that too. I, for one, am glad the pearls were handed down to me, swine though I may be.
3
My wish for Donald Trump: May you be forgiven, May you be unemployed.
6
Religion is a cancer upon both this nation and the world. The best thing that could happen would be its elimination entirely from the human experience. I don't care what people believe, but when they use a belief in an imaginary friend to impinge upon my rights and now my daughter's rights it is not mere belief. Furthermore, the hypocrisy of religious leaders is beyond belief. As Mr. Egan pointed out the catholic church fires homosexual teachers, rails against basic human rights like birth Control and abortion, yet will shuffle around priest who rape children. Evangelical Christianity is all about control and a strange obsession with sex. Trump is just the latest symptom of their hypocrisy. The first step is to take away all churches tax exemptions. The next step is to use RICO laws to take the catholic churches money and property and properly compensate all its victims. Finally we need good education in this country so children will not grow up believing their imaginary friend is watching them.
5
I wish the title of this opinion piece were different. We don’t hate religion. We just hate the use of it by fundamentalists of any sect for the purposes of hate.
5
I am the 83 year old son of a deeply devoted Catholic mother.I have attended mass most Sundays and major Holidays ,but now I can no longer support an institution that harbors child molesters and supports hypocrites the likes Trump and Pence.Enough is enough
9
Imagine a world 'with no religion, too.'
John Lennon.
8
I don’t ‘hate’ religion I just try and ignore it as much as possible, not because of the hypocrites, you get hypocrites everywhere, but simply because it’s untrue. Like astrology and palmistry.
6
No description of Mike Pence’s hypocrisy is complete without reference to this story:
Vice President Pence (then Governor Pence) issued $1.2 billion in tax-exempt “disaster bonds” to help the Pakistan-based Fatima Group build a fertilizer plant in Indiana. At the time, American defense analysts cautioned Governor Pence that Fatima was known to supply ammonium nitrate to several terrorist groups that was being used in Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) against American Troops in Afghanistan. Despite these warnings, Pence over-ruled DoD experts and effectively paid Fatima to build the plant.
The big question: why did Pence give free money to a company that helps build bombs to kill Americans and why didn’t the press follow up on the story?
9
Organized religion is anti democratic and anti human. It is pro control and autocratic and it loves kings! Women are it’s favorite target and they are used to give men something to control and keep them in line. Organized religion is not religion faith at all its a power grab.
Yes, nuns who actually minister to the poor are great visions of Christ but who did the Roman Catholic Church investigate not the pedophiles or the higher ups who protected them but the nuns! I rest my case.
6
Virtue signaling is killing religion. It's about using visible identifiers to parade your religiosity instead of doing good without caring if you are rewarded for it. Pence is a perfect example. He parades his virtue (never being alone with a woman) but he can visit border prison camps without a twinge of guilt for the inhumanity the administration he is a part of has wrought.
6
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
Everything else is noise.
1
Unfortunately it took a disastrous election to reveal "the rotting core of Trump’s (read Republican) base."
Sad that such a large portion of the people around us, who claim to be Americans, would flush democracy for a Mussolini.
5
Some of the most mind-blowing issues I have with "evangelicals" includes their rationales. Number 1 among them, saying Trump was (OMG) chosen by god. He's the guy in charge, so God must have chosen him.
Where was that thought when President Obama, a real Christian man, was president? They hated him and wanted him out and accepted a philandering, lying, blaspheming conman.
One can only surmise that being black meant it was ok to hate him, that he couldn't have been chosen by god.
It's impossible to accept religion when it's defined by money-grubbing, grievance-driven people. They make it impossible to believe in any kind of just god.
7
People don't hate religion per se -- many people crave it. What they hate are the organizations built by humans that pervert the cause of religion or use it for their own base desires.
2
Christian religious fanatics will bring the end of civil society, which is of course their intention. They want nothing more than to hasten some bizarre prophecy written down by a man in their fantasy book. The wall between church and state needs to be rebuilt, and fast.
4
>>Pence is the chief bootlicker to a president who now sees himself in messianic terms, a president who tweets a description of himself as “the second coming of God.”>>
Three cheers for Timothy Egan. Let's hope his kind of assertiveness, and forthrightness finds its way into the Democrat presidential campaign up and down the ticket. Hypocrisy is rampant in this country and the religious variety is the most detestful.
6
I've occasionally wondered if some Evangelicals voted for Trump because they think he's the anti-Christ and his accession will speed the apocalypse. That is why some Evangelicals are so pro-Israeli, after all, believing that the return of the Jews to Israel is a necessary precursor to the Rapture.
6
I was a Pastor in an evangelical denomination for 12 years. I preached, taught Bible classes and went in people’s homes to share the “Good News of the life , death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is clear in its teaching of how we are to treat to people. The lessons taught in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John say, “Do into others as you would have them do unto you.” The teaching of, “Love the Lord your God with with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.” The very next text is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
I have one question to ask Evangelical Christians who support our current president. Are you proud of the president’s actions? Are you proud of the way the president treats people? What would Jesus have to say about our current president who claims to be a Christian and to His Evangelical followers. Would He say “Well done my faithful servant?” Or would He say, “Depart from Me you who are cursed.”
8
I am THE way, THE truth and THE light. NO man shall come unto the Father EXCEPT by me...blah, blah, blah.
The original declaration of exclusionary prejudice, and hogwash to boot!
5
This really should have been titled "Why I hate religion."
Because while Mr Egan, and no doubt plenty of other Times readers hate religion, and blame it for everything from global warming to Donal Trump, I don't.
I don't hate Quaker meetings, or Passover. I don't hate midnight Christmas services. I don't hate Sister Act.
You go ahead and hate all you want. If you hate hypocrisy and greed, cruelty and stupidity--I'm with you. But religion and religious people don't have a lock on those qualities.
2
Christianity believes the ends justifies the means.
2
You have only scratched the surface. I recommend you read "Acts of God: A Primer for Atheists, Agnostics, and Those Who Have Lapsed." When "Christian" armies went to massacre the "heretics" in Beziers, some objected that it would be difficult to tell the real "Christians" from the "heretics." Abbot Arnaud Amalric reassured them: "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet." Kill them all. God knows his own.
5
Intelligent people dislike religion because of all the hypocrisy.
Children are being raped and mutilated in this world. Children have and likely still are being raped by supposed religious leaders. I truly feel embarrassed for anyone that clings to religion. If there was a "God" these atrocities would not be occurring.
Please feel free to reply to me as to how raping and mutilation of children could occur in a world where there exists an "almighty power". I eagerly await your justifications.
4
Please read "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell. Or you can hear him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6J8o7AAe8&t=21s
2
Wow. Shouldn't this article be titled "Why People Hate Christianity" ??? One of the things I hate about my fellow Americans is that so many of them use the phrase "Religion" and "Christianity" interchangeably. This article isn't about why people hate Judaism, Islam, Buddhism...
1
This should have been titled: "Why people hate Christianity." Egan mentions no other religions.
6
Religious people don't THINK - - they BELIEVE.
7
People don’t hate democracy just because of the pathetic leaders it sometimes puts forward. People don’t hate social clubs just because some of them haze people to death. So if one “hates religion” because of the hypocrites that too often grab the public’s attention, there must be other reasons for that.
3
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."
- Arthur C. Clarke
11
Let's do a survey of men and women arrested for violent crime, child abuse, and manslaughter/murder in the last year. What percentage of them were in a church, synagogue, or mosque the weekend before their arrest, compared to the same percentage of the general population? Maybe people should stop hating religion and start doubting secularism.
1
The other thing Christians rarely are is humble and compassionate.
6
Why can't people do the right thing without assistance from God or trying to satisfy God? If they must cave into superstition, it is better to use God to justify good deeds, not hateful ones.
5
If Jesus showed up at the American border today he'd be denied entry, locked away and branded dangerous for espousing socialism.
12
Those who work in Catholic schools and for Catholic organizations are well aware that they do not accept homosexual marriage. They are most welcome in their employ but cannot work at these places if they do not follow this rule. They knew very well that homosexual marriage was against Catholic teaching and yet they disregarded this policy anyway. If they do not want to conform, they should find employment in the public school or in a private school where they can live their lifestyle in any manner they wish. The Catholic Church will not bend the rules to conform to society. And for this they should be commended.
1
Remember when certain evangelicals warned us that President Obama was the anti-Christ? How very rich that these same people have been duped by this most unlike Christ figure to ever lead the nation.
9
Imagine Jesus standing among the “Christians” at a Trump rally, watching them screaming their loyalty to a man who is doing everything he can to punish people for being brown and poor. Would they be ashamed when Jesus looks at them or would they just shrug him off and keep screaming hate?
8
The biggest fraud of all is the so-called prosperity gospel, that somehow giving yourself up to Jesus and blindly following what your ministers preach will result in you becoming a wealthy person in life - and it's okay to aspire to that.
From Matthew 19:24, New International Version (NIV)
"24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
8
Thank you.... Thank you...
Be a kind person. Give back to your community. Help those in need and don't fear what you don't understand.
It's not about the fallacy of Religion. It's about humanity and being a good person no matter what you believe.
We won't learn until everything burns down.
3
The only things you need to know about religion can be learned by watching George Carlin's standup routines.
5
"When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." - Leonard Matlovich
12
“Faith is not that complicated. Religion always is.”
Best two last lines ever.
1
Pence and the white evangelicals who support Trump aren't really "religious" by my definition. They're using religion, and the moral goodness associated with religion, as a cover to grab for material power. Jesus' teachings are very clear about how Christians should behave.
"...for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me... Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." (Matt. 25:41-43, 45)
7
As expected, the comments are a stew of contradictions. “My morality is better than your morality”, and therefor excuses and absolves radical, hurtful actions. Why not just live by the ‘Golden Rule’ and do the right thing?
Spirituality is a very good thing whatever the icon of your spiritual hunger. Religion is evil. As soon as you institutionalize your beliefs it then becomes all about power, control, money and as history has shown, violence. There is no middle man required. You don't need guys wearing silly robes and funny hats or other guys dancing around the stage with a large book in their hands, screaming and yelling but saying nothing. Just pursue whatever feeds your spiritual hunger. No money required.
5
More and more people are coming to the realization that religion is nothing more than a control mechanism run by charlatans. Do this, say that, kneel now, sing this, give me money. Evangelicals are the worst. The gold standard of hypocrisy. If you want to believe in an invisible man in the sky watching you 24/7, have at it. Just don't ask me to pay for it or push your beliefs on me and my family. And never trust someone with a hand tooled bible cover.
9
Historically, religion has served a useful purpose...the “promise” of a heavenly reward keep feudal serfs in their place for hundreds of years. The Catholic Church depended on the promise of a better next life to maintain control of most of the European monarchies. tCloser to home, the American slave population was kept in their place by the belief that god would take care of them when they died. If the next life is that great, why do so many church people fight dying?
4
One of the answers to this essay's title lies in 90% of the comments. Out of over 4,000 world religions, because of the West's "christian" socialization, it must just be Rabbi Jesus worshippers to which the question is posed. And THAT pretty much answers the question.
That's also why we started trading in earthbound, man-made religion for true transcendent spirituality centuries ago...
The use of supernaturalism to manipulate and control people is the world's oldest confidence scheme. It relies on the ritual abuse of children at their most impressionable stage by adults who have themselves been made childish for life by artifacts of the primitive mind. - Your Mom on a CNN comment.
5
Would it have been so much work for Timothy or his editors to alter the title to read something half-way accurate, like "Why Some People Hate Religion?" or "Faith Is Not The Same As Narrowmindedness"?
But the inaccurate title, a cheap, careless assumption, is actually a perfect title for an article full of the same. There are people of a fundamentalist-type faith who do not support Trump, who do not put hate first, and indeed recognize the Gospel calling to be kind to refugees.
The comedy-sketch Christian, full of reverence for God and loathing for most of humanity, makes for dependable movie-trope bad guys and sit-com chuckles at prude and prissy church-goers, but it's not an accurate rendition at all.
But such over-simplification of American Christianity and its adherents is simply a trope, an easy fallback to justify a hefty set of prejudices that are just as wrong-headed as Timothy Egan's targets in his article. It's sad to see an opinion piece so devoid of nuance published in the NYT
2
The world is a very scary place, and comes with little or no explanation. If the fables of religion get you through your day, more power to you. But even Jeffrey Epstein didn't rape 6-year-olds. I will thank my parents eternally for not forcing me to be brainwashed as a child and allowing me the courteousy and respect to make up my own adult mind.
5
I believe it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said
that when one loudly proclaims his faith, to count
the spoons
9
Christians, especially the Evilegelicals, set themselves up as morally superior to the rest of us. They believe that gives them the right to impose their version of moral on the rest of us and they are often able to do it quite successfully using their political staff members.
Fortunately, Donald Trump has exposed them for the truly vile and hypocritical creatures they really are.
Is Trump really a liberal undercover agent? He has really exposed the hideousness of the Republican party and the religious right.
3
This article is clearly heavily focused on Christianity. One has to wonder if the author has a personal agenda... If you truly want a serious debate then why not disect the dozens of other religions, starting with Islam? After all, the global jihad of the Salafist movement impacts us all. Our maybe you are a bit worried about the fall-out of such a discussion? So, how about a mention of the Satanist movement, or Pagans, or even the self-righteous atheists who profess to know it all. The reality is that it's is humans who are corrupt, despite the religious teachings which try to keep us honest.
4
All points well taken and yet the author has barely scraped the surface for what is driving the rise of secularism in America. As a pluralistic society, we are exposed to people of many faiths and it's impossible to reconcile the exclusivity professed by each. Sectarian violence by those acting in the name of their god against people they believe are infidels or blasphemers have occupied the front pages of our newspapers, informed our foreign and domestic policy and sent our troops to war for my entire lifetime. The primacy religious people place of knowledge revealed to them holy texts over that developed since the through the scientific method investigation is stupefying. The ignorance exhibited by creationists in their government subsidized amusement in Kentucky is manifest by anyone with an elementary knowledge of geology, evolutionary biology or astrophysics. Finally, the arrogance of those who seek to impose their religious views on others is only made more offensive by their seemingly infinite ability to excuse their own members when found to be acting in ways they themselves define as sinful. The private jets and mansions of televangelists, child rape by priests, and affairs with pool boys and prostitutes are signifiers of the pious, which marks them as hypocrites and grifters. Many Americans want no part of this for good reason.
4
I lost a few friends to God, pardon, to Trump! Thanks God I"m an atheist!
2
And the people said, Amen!
The Moral Majority was hypocritical, as was Reagan's bringing religion into politics. Child molestation has gone on in Catholic Church since times immemorial. However, it seems like the writer suggests that all good Christians must also favor illegal immigration.
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
7
Criticizing religious hypocrisy is misguided.
Failure to live *more* fully under the dictates of a magical sky fairy isn't the root problem.
Thank you for this well thought out portrayal of religious hypocrisy. If there is a God, he needs an advocate like you instead of the myriad numbers of priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams who have not a shred of humanity.
5
There is no such thing as "someone of real faith": everyone is both faithful and unfaithful.
There isn't so much dislike the teachings of religion, as there is disdain for people who manipulate religion to rationalize their mean spirited behaviors and beliefs.
2
One of my favorite Mahatma Gandhi quotes: "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
6
This article is well written and accurate in it's analysis.
3
“Hate” is a strong word, but it is safe to say that many of us "fear and dislike" religion simply because we believe that knowledge should be evidenced-based, and that it is dangerous to think otherwise. As a result, we are terrified by the fact that, in the 21st Century, a large swath of humanity makes decisions based upon divine voices in their heads or their interpretations of ancient fables written by primitive people who would have thought that a kitchen match was a miracle. While it is generally accepted that people who hear voices in their heads are exhibiting signs of mental illness, for some bizarre reason we allow people to avoid that diagnosis simply by making the unsubstantiated claim that the voice they hear is “god” (rather than, say, Napoleon). These are the voices and fables that have told people to fly planes into buildings, to invade Iraq, to marginalize and discriminate against women, to legitimize slavery, to conceal evidence of child-rape and protect the rapists “for the good of the church,” to pray over their dying children rather than seeking medical help, to refuse blood transfusions, to murder abortion doctors, to play with (and die from) poisonous snakes, to impoverish themselves by contributing to religious con-men (the estimated annual loss to religious fraud is $50 billion dollars), to suppress the progress of science, and to block the dissemination of knowledge in our schools. We think those are some pretty good reasons to dislike religion.
7
Most people are good people, religious or not, whatever the religion or no religion.
Organized religion does many awful things, though: corrupt government, talk poor and middle-class people out of their money, and try to control people in various ways for reasons of money and power.
Even Popes have until recently discouraged condom usage which would reduce unwanted pregnancies and transmission of STDs, just so people would breed more poor, unwanted people to become sheep of the Catholic church.
Fortunately, we in the USA have the first ten words of the First Amendment on our side:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
3
More and more Trump makes America resembling the Jewish's Antiquity, where prophets and kings present themselves of representatives of God. Three millennia ago, it works. Now?
1
Finally, somebody said the truth about Big Religion, which is as predatory as Big Oil, Big Pharma, Wall Street , etc.
5
Filling people's heads with delusional dreams of blissful eternities while propagating a bronze age morality is one way to evade the challenges and problems of modernity...
We may all be better off with less unbridled 'belief' and more humble and considered thought.
2
Yes, people of faith out out there doing good works, like Sister Pimentel. However, there are also many people who are not affiliated with an religion doing the same thing. Seeing the disgusting hypocrisy of the Evangelical community illustrates why many people would never affiliate with any of these groups. The history of the world frankly is often correlated with horrendous acts and wars undertaken in the name of religion. People certainly have the freedom to associate with these groups, but we do not need any further proof that they are frauds and charlatans than their embrace of Donald Trump.
6
I would like to add to my comment. I said Christ loves a good time. And i should have added that he wants that for all people and he is depending on us to seek ways to make that so for all 7.5 billion people living on this planet. Whew!
As Gandhi said, Christianity died on The Cross.
Too many Pharisees running the Churches, where they preached that they are the Victims, and Men are the true rulers on Earth because they claim that God, through the Old Testament, gave them that power.
Why do you think, Sexual Abuses are so rampant and covered up in these Churches, whether Catholic or Protestant. It is not the exception, rather it is the rule.
And like Voodoo chants, these same pastors can cite Bible verses, and like magic, their entranced followers give them their cash, their political beliefs and even members of their families.
Like the old joke goes.
"What separates Man from Animal?
Foolish superstition and meaningless ritual"
6
I’m sure the author is very familiar with the Old Testament views on homosexuality. The point was specifically that “Christ-based” criteria should look to what Christ had to say about it, which, as correctly pointed out, is nothing. (It’s mentioned in Romans, but not by Jesus)
The fact that those so vociferous about heeding the Old Testament regarding homosexuality simultaneously totally disregard the dozens of other Old Testament laws (like requiring capital punishment for crimes like adultery, not bleeding when losing your virginity, or lying about being a virgin, to name but a few) disqualifies them from casting stones at others. Christ DID have something to say about that.
5
How come I see so many intelligent comments in agreement with this brilliant article from a country where extreme egoism and selfishness under the banner of religion is the driving force of its national politics?? Is this a minority report? If so, god help us.....
3
Great analysis of religion. The hypocrisy of preaching the ends justify the means is possibly the biggest scam religious believers have ever espoused. A true believer lives everyday by taking responsibility for their actions and never supports a sinner while they are sinning.
1
The notion that there are some "good" and some "bad" religious people is elementally flawed. Any belief based on patent lies and obvious absurdities such as "virgin birth" and "resurrection" is bad from its inception, thus the people practicing it are essentially bad because they are promoting and propagating a massive pack of lies. Lying is bad. Religion is bad. Religious people are bad, regardless of what apparently good things they might do.
4
Too many God Botherers have worked over time to weaken the separation of church and state that the Founding Fathers wrote into our constitution.
There is no state religion and if they continue to stick their nose into government they should start paying their fare share of taxes
8
It isn't easy to follow the teachings of Christ and I deeply admire those who do. These evangelicals and their hateful, spiteful, bitter religion is not based on Christ and it is an insult to actual Christians to call them that. Christ wouldn't know them.
2
As Mark Twain said “faith is believing what you know and so”. For me it has always been self evident that there is no supernatural dimension to life. I don’t hate religion I just don’t have any respect for belief in the supernatural. I think some people may hate religion because it is simply predicated on a false premise.
2
Unprincipled, self-serving figureheads like Ralph Reed and his minions, indelibly stained by their longstanding repulsive hypocrisy, have done irreparable damage to the status of Evangelical Christianity in America, a vanishing breed.
Under their influence in part, ardent Evangelicals labor under the false belief that espousing their religion at any cost will get them into heaven.
Thus their unwavering support for our monstrous, unchristian commander in chief.
3
We hate religion because since the beginning of recorded time it punished those of other faiths or even worse no faith. We hate it because of the monstrous hypocrisy of politicos/apostles like Trump, Mother Teresa, Pence, Falwell, Tammy and Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, the Grahams, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, the Copelands, and countless others. We hate it because it puts the non-existent rights of the unborn and unliving before women. We hate it because of priests and nuns who so abused their flocks. We hate it because of countless wars fought to dominate others, like the joyous Crusades. We hate it because it's used to justify countless acts of retribution (an eye for an eye) or intolerance (LGBTQ rights). We hate it because it's silly nostrums are anti-science and incompatible with progressive values. Climate change denial is only the most recent incarnation of it's damage as a regressive force. What exactly is there to like about religion?
4
Religion is full of both internal inconsistencies and contradictions with reality.
How people interpret the nonsense of religions is simply a reflection of who these people are.
We should abolish the tax exempt status of these corrupt and anti-reality based organizations.
4
Devoid of love, compassion and empathy, it seems that what passes for religion these days could be administered by AI. Let the supercomputers sort out the countless contradictions and hypocrisies. It would at least be good for a laugh.
8
I hate to say this, but I think what evangelicals are showing us is how much of the focus of their religious engagement centers not around love, as Jesus taught, but hate. Hatred for those who would be different, who believe some other doctrine or none at all, or just the pure pleasure of hating. Hatred is the one thing they share with Trump, and they revel in it. People are leaving the church because they hate the hatred. I do too.
17
The evangelical church and the Republican party suffer from the same delusional mirage. The evangelicals are so identified with their religious beliefs and practices over all that matters that they have become blind to the pain that they have caused humanity. Likewise, the Repubs are so mindlessly identified with the party's schtick (via FOX, LImbaugh, et al) that they don't see how they are damaging the country.
Fundamentalists of all shapes and colors are always at war with life. Life is too infinite and universal to be shuttered in by a simple theology or ideology and, therefore, it leaves the fundamentalist's mind with fear and hatred. Thus we have the collaberation of two mean and angry groups joining arm in arm in their self-righteous war on behalf of God.
14
@KathyM - "Religion is just another business" - this is technically true, but companies passing as religion in all guises are the most privileged, socialized profit-centers in our culture
4
Why are churches granted tax-exempt status? Tax-empt status should be conveyed through applying for 502(c)(3) exemptions, and so on. The charity-giving religious organizatino would, of course, be given this status. Ideologically-based "religious" institutions should not be given any breaks.
During the 90s I went to several Baptist churches, the MD suburbs of DC, where the sermon consisted of long screeds against the Clintons. It was an abuse. I am not a churchgoer, but should not have to subsidize blatantly polemic, social clubs, attended by mostly middle-class people.
19
Oh, to ponder what our earthly lives would have been like if we had had no religions, if we’d kept heaven on earth and not subordinated it to groups of treacly pious men (always men!) who are the only one who have the code that will allow us entrance to some misty unreachable realm high above.
Ah, heaven on earth, now that’s something I can believe in.
12
There are thousands of people who do good works based on their secular beliefs and not religious beliefs. Religious beliefs no more drive good behavior than secular ones. In fact, since most of us non-believers are secular humanists, our guideposts are much closer to the christian savior than most christians.
While I don't their religious sincerity, christianity began its long decline with Saul of Tarsus who essentially took a Jewish cult founded around an anti-Roman zealot (one of many) and promoted him to a godhead, something that one is hard to find any evidence of in the earliest gospels and Q.
Once you start making things up, the sky is the limit which is why evangelical christianity is so plastic with its ability to believe in just about anything you want.
Sorry, this defense of the indefensible (catholicism, evangelicals, Hindu religious extremists, etc.) makes no sense.
It is fine if someone wants to go on some kind of spiritual journey but when you start jamming your crazy beliefs down my throat in what is supposed to be a country that espouses separation of church and state, it has gone too far.
10
Like the sister you mention, I, too, have seen many instances of selflessness and giving. After a tornado struck our city some time ago, a group of Baptists from Georgia traveled here and went door to door, asking if we needed help clearing fallen trees, limbs and such. They fired up their chainsaws and went to work clearing the huge mess in our backyard. At the end, one of them said, “let us pray.....thank you God for this wonderful day.” I couldn’t have agreed more. And off they went to the next house.
7
#VichyRepublicans sold their country for tax cuts.
#VichyChristians sold their souls for a Supreme Court Justice. Or two. I guess if they get three, the deal with the Devil won’t be as bad ...
9
Organized religion failed because of this pungent hypocrisy, yes. But also:
1) Christian “facts” don’t hold up any more than other faiths’ facts do, until they conform to secular facts.
2) And just as there are other faiths, which is correct? How do we come to know this? If I claim my faith is correct, where does that leave everyone else?
7
Religion is not based on fact. It is the root of much evil in the world, developed by man through fear and the unknown to overpower and control others. The article title refers to "Christ's work", as if there is indeed a missive detailing what that might be. The Bible is not fact. Religion is about power, and all of the assumptions that God exists, and in what form, and in whose design, are pretty hard to fathom. It's just a way to put down what you don't like or understand. As more than one person has stated, there's a page that was left out of the Bible. "This is a work of fiction...".
8
Never understood why so many only read one book that they obviously can't understand because some one else has to explain what it says EVERY Sunday, over and over and over . . .
13
People who call themselves religious or spiritual or followers of a particular faith which emphasizes the golden rule and the message of "loving the stranger" and who also adhere to the principles of the Trump Administration are either hypocrites or ignoramuses who do not understand the tenets of the faith they espouse and what the Trump Administration is doing. Right now sick children who are here illegally are being denied medical care. There is no kindness, mercy of simply empathy. The absence of these qualities not only hurts the children; it corrodes the heart of the nation which lets it happen. Once known for our allegiance to civil rights and human rights, we are now simply a mean nation which will go to any length to impose a policy which is simply heartless. All Americans of whatever faith should ask the deity for forgiveness in allowing these policies to exist in America.
5
Attacking others’ religions is just so easy to do, for obvious reasons (they often don’t make any proper sense). Mr. Egan, I missed the part where you share with us what your religion is, whether or not you are an atheist, and how that is going for you.
5
The person you expound in this piece has humanity not religion or spirituality.
3
Jesus is the greatest possible exception to the death of an audience surrogate. and in the TV lala-land of Amerikee therefore nothing plays better than stuff like "General Patton was the greatest US Army general". but the reality that what we can't see, and can't smell and accounts for all of our food and life on the 2nd of only 2 large rocky planets in the at all ever knowable universe we only have two "names" for. the tongue twister "carbon dioxide" and "God".
1
This article is mean to the evangelicals. To call some else's faith "play doh" is disrepectful especially if the are embracing the beliefs that the bible clearly says are true.
Do you get to call yourself Christian by throwing out the parts of the bible that you don't like?
2
Ah, yes, our religion(s) like our relationships work with convenient omissions and lies. We all do the same; imagine a discourse with language bubbles stating what we really think.
However, Judaism and Christianity have evolved to the degree that you can write this Jeremiad without fearing physical retribution, loss of job, or other despicable retaliation. That's good.
2
Atheism inherently makes people have a better sense of morality. When you gain a sense of right and wrong from life experiences, you will understand your beliefs better than if you just memorize spoken and written words.
11
Good column. The discussion of the so called Evangelicals reminds me of Deepak Chopra's "God gave us spirituality, the Devil gave us religion".
True.
3
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Leviticus, Chapter 18, verse 22.
"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Leviticus, Chapter 20, verse 13.
Human beings are persecuted and denied their human rights as a direct result of these verses.
It is a moral disgrace and outrage that elements of modern society should be struggling to respect and protect the rights of all human beings to live in a loving relationship of their choice because of the utterances of barely educated Stone Age men.
It is ironic that the greatest phrase in the Bible is NOT one of the Ten Commandments BECAUSE it was stolen from the Greeks.
I talk of course of the principle of reciprocity which has various forms:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Christians may recite the verse but many don’t know what it means, probably because their brains have not yet emerged from the spaghetti mess that is the rest of the Bible.
11
Why do people hate religion?
As Lincoln famously said "Both...pray to the same God."
Those for and against the enormous evil of slavery prayed to the same God during the Civil War.
Millions willing to kill and maim their own countrymen to defend
the enormous evil of slavery prayed to God in the same way as those who would emancipate the slaves.
Clearly religion is an entirely personal and subjective thing that is used in perfect sincerely to perpetuate the worst evils and the greatest good.
Ditto the Spanish Inquisition and the enslavement of and torturing
of the Indians perpetuated by the Church in what is now called Latin America, and what is now California.
Similarly many good people profess no religion and/or are openly atheists.
Religion and goodness seem almost accidental coincidences.
6
Absolutely spot on opinion piece Mr. Egan. The
christian evangelicals in our country would let their Messiah shoot someone in the middle of NYC and still bow at his feet. I believe it's about appointing right wing conservative judges to all branches of the judiciary. Look the other way while this charlatan destroys our country.
8
Amen and Hallelujah!
Here in Texas religion is used to justify every cruelty imaginable from sweltering prisons without air conditioning to persecution of any and all who differ from white, straight, and evangelical.
Anyone here can be a “pastor,” and all is forgiven “by faith alone.” The faithful pick and choose their Bible lines to fit their prejudices. Is it any wonder that Facebook nation is fleeing?
11
The Catholic Church here told their parishioners to vote for Trump in 2016. Know a couple of people who walked out.
7
The Trumpian evangelicals have just exposed the hypocrisy that is at the core of religion. Create a disease and then sell the only cure. I'm sure there are some decent believers, but I assume they would be decent people even without their religion. As George Eliot said, there is no God and yet we must be good.
3
If God were not patient, He would destroy the Church--- a hail of fire and brimstone as at Sodom and Gomorrah. What Mr. Egan accurately captures are the shortcomings of the Honored Prelates and varied dignitaries of the most powerful and longest lasting institutions of our history on earth, is that the church becomes a means of achieving power, prestige, and wealth--- all that is required is to don the pietistic garb of the most observant (but only in public) practitioners of the faith. Especially important is to stress how the little things--- call your wife "mother" and have no tolerance for the slightest deviations----be prepared to exhibit your attention to little things openly (but only openly) while paying little concern for the cries of the poor and afflicted. That an institution can canonize participants in the Horrid Inquisition with its racks and torture paraphernalia and burning at the stake shows how far they have removed themselves from God.
To maintain your position, you will do the greatest evil and sneer that your only concern is godliness. So the Evangelicals of America of today as seen with Pence among numerous others will stand shoulder to shoulder with the most irreligious man to enter politics in a long time. Give me power, give me position, give me prestige and I will make my Faustian bargain with you and pay scant attention to the cries of the children and those who come from afar for medical help to save their lives. Forget the most weak.
3
I think Christianity comes down to an expression I've hear many times over the years. Preach the word of Jesus and when necessary use words.
3
Religion is the most dangerous human affiliation known to man. That is because everyone consumed with their religion will not tolerate anyone else’s. That creates conflicts and wars. Who needs that? I practice ethics as my religion and I do not impose my ethics on anyone else.
8
I dislike religion because my belief system allows religions to exist and doesn't in any way affect them personally while their beliefs are constantly being forced on me(as laws) and often have adverse effects on my life. Just go do your thing over there and leave me alone, please!
8
if only these Americans spent as much time each week learning about our country and its history, its civic and legal traditions and institutions and jurisprudence as they spend learning about an Asian civilization from 2000 years ago
4
I saw film today on tv of migrant children being kept in cages. This is a for profit business. Our government (i.e. us) is PAYING for profit businesses to keep children in what looks exactly like dog kennels. A few days ago, it was announced that the few hundred medical visas for sick children are being revoked. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that isn’t what Jesus would do. Not only is it not what Jesus would do, it’s not what anyone with a conscience would do. Very few Christians seem to have actually read the guidebook.
6
To find justification for support of Evangelicals for Trump, one has only to read the Old Testament. God is smotes the enemies of his chosen people left and right.
Maybe, they should spend more time reading the New Testament... stuff like I was hungry and you gave me to eat, a stranger and you took me in.
1
Religion, like all woo-woo, is for intellectually incurious people who want explanations for things that are otherwise too hard to face - like the primitive drive of sexuality, or death. Religion provides, like astrology, a sense of “order” and “meaning,” to human existence.
6
I am not religious but I do not hate religion.
I hate discrimination against religious faiths in the name somebody's twisted judgment of other people's faith that fails to align with that of the bigot. I hate public policy, such as here in Québec, that elevates secularism to an ideology that tramples on the cultural identity of true faith-keepers.
I hate these things because they serve no better purpose than to demean and isolate people deemed to be "others." They protect nothing else. I am not diminished because a public servant wears a turban, a yarmulke or a cross.
I hate them because they forge paths of hypocrisy in the names of the leaders (yes, Jesus, I weep for the vanity of those who pretend to adorn themselves in your shroud) who wilfully ignore their teachings while claiming to deify the teachers.
I think about the very last thing that Jesus would ever condone, let alone carry out under the false cloak of "national security." It would be the brutally deliberate condemnation of a sick child to death for the crime of carrying a Hispanic surname.
1
Religion is fantasy and fantasy can support any form of behavior that it wants. The corruption within so called mainstream religions is nothing new. More people have been killed in the name of their faith than any other cause. It has always astonished me the latitude given to organized religion to discriminate in society without recrimination. Fortunately amid the chaos there are people who are genuinely kind in and out of religion.
3
I'm not religious. Gambling is a hobby of mine, akin to fishing. I don't spend money on video games nor the consoles. I will spend some money to make chum to fish. Sometimes you lose the chum, sometimes you catch fish but often not of the legal size or of the right species. Eventually you hit a school and its jack pot .. or to the legal limit. I view gambling in that way, much of the money I use for gambling I obtain through mturk as I await for my ambien to kick in at night. I also send all my aluminum cans and other scrap to a scrap yard to collect change on. I rather be paid for my trash than pay someone to take it away. It builds up each month and each month I play a few games of blackjack. Some is lost however usually there is a big win streak which then I just put the money into my brokerage act after deducting tax. Over a decade now of doing this I have amassed enough money to cover my debts, quit my job and more or less retire. Religion tells me I can't gamble. So to me I have no place in religion as long as silly rules such as no gambling exists. Also I'm pretty unforgiving of those using their religion to force me to live within their confines....
Thank god for Chris Christy and his court challenge on gambling.
1
And then there are “the Little Sisters of the Poor,” who have spent thousands on legal challenges to the mandate for contraception coverage by “religious” employers, knowing full well that it is “the poor” who are the most adversely affected. The picture of one of these nuns smiling broadly and shaking hands with Trump in the Rose Garden in the 2017 ceremony where the president signed a rollback on the Birth Control Mandate, hardly has its equal for hypocrisy. Trump told the nuns that they would no longer be “persecuted” by the federal government for their religious beliefs; I guess he forgot to mention that it’s now also okay for them to keep harming the reproductive healthcare of poor women who do not share their beliefs.
There are few things which enrage me as much as this kind of religious bullying in 21st Century America.
862
@Susan
The "Little Sisters of the Poor" need a steady supply of the poor; otherwise, they are out of business. Imagine, if the poor were no longer poor enough to need the Little Sisters! ("Socialism", that's what they would call it!)
71
@Susan
Likewise, sainted Mother Teresa opposed contraception, believing that the malnourished infants who don’t survive their first year are cherubs, the purest angels in heaven. They die to take sins from the world, like Jesus.
47
This all depends on the church. Our little Episcopalian church in Fuquay Varina NC has a vicar Susan Keedy who does a wonderful job of instilling in her sheep that we must love our neighbors as ourselves. This means dealing with gun control, taking care of the poor and those seeking a better life. Unfortunately there a lots of large brick baptist churches here that could have been an inspiration for this article. ,
31
Happily, the eternal can look after itself and therefore these questions, however difficult, are not easily avoided.
2
Thank you for being so forthright. I totally agree you. And further, I see religion as the cause of most past and current wars.
I think God (or Allah) must be wagging her finger at many, if not all, believers and admonishing them for not loving their fellow man.
Needlessless to say, as a person who cares passionately about justice, human and animal rights and the health of our world, I am usually pretty depressed about the disregard for and cruelty of mankind inflicted by all religions.
25
Thanks for your illuminating article, Mr. Egan. Keep up the good work. BTW. young people are not the only ones "leaving the pews in droves." I'm eighty years old and I left in 1960.
38
Having faith in a god - an entity beyond any material contact or understanding - is easy. Having faith in people with whom you are in close material contact and who are subject to rational study and analysis is hard. While one can appreciate his sharply funny curmudgeonry, it's not very satisfying to adopt H.L. Mencken's retail version of Nietzsche, bestowing faith only in himself and his fellow ubermenschen. Most people take the easy road, and that's perfectly understandable because life is difficult at best and people can be so disappointing. The rest of us must stumble on the hard road of finding reasons to trust each other without appeal to mysterious and unknowable forces beyond our control, or without completely becoming a creature of cynical self-interest.
4
I said so in other comments here before, but I'll say again now that I think a lot of this incongruity in observed Christian behaviour is due to the influence of Saul of Tarsus (otherwise known as "Saint Paul") upon the religion of Christianity. Christianity is in a tight spot in relation to the man because - frankly - without him it may have remained only a "Jewish sect" and died out. But on the other hand he was a person who was very un-Jesus-like in character and attitude - despite his apparent conversion and devotion to Jesus's teachings. The biggest differences between the men is that Jesus seems to have been very forgiving, and unconcerned about personal all-too-human failings, and particularly loved women as human beings and people. Saul, on the other hand, was apparently obsessed with sexual morality - according to his lights - and clearly was prejudiced against women, blaming them for the failings of men.
I guess if I was a Christian I'd devote myself to producing a revolution in the religion that would make the Catholic/Protestant schism look like nothing. I really think Saul's influence should be stripped from Christianity as much as possible. I urge every Christian reading this to pay no regard to everything in The New Testament beyond the four gospels. I really think your attitude with respect to Saul should be: "Thank you so much for making Christianity a world religion - now get thee behind me, Satan." Once an assassin, he remained a very dubious character.
17
Except that a number of studies show that people of faith are more compassionate and charitable than those without.
9
I believe organized religion, on balance, has done more harm than good throughout history. Its history revolves around amassing power and coercing the less educated. Organized religion divides us more than it unites us. It has rarely been fair to women, and sets up an inherently an us/them construct. It prioritizes faith over science and fact. One does not need religion to be kind, moral, tolerant and inclusive.
52
I wish I could say thank-you a hundred times. I was taken to task recently because non- Trumpet Christians are not staging major protests and having our ministers condemn Trump from the pulpit. Folks may not know that a church choosing a candidate is a violation of the separation of church and state. Appreciate the recognition that many Christian's labor long and hard, but quietly to follow the teachings of Jesus about respecting everyone.
14
Mr. Egan is on to something here, to escape evil do good simply, practice humility and avoid heroic certainty. I think he, the Sister, and our rabbi, Jesus, are right. I've gotten here the long way, i.e. religiously, yes, philosophically, yes, even psychoanalytically. I tend toward the idea that human nature is essentially intent on the suppression of fear and the denial of death, which obviously requires an expansion of the ego. In a word, Narcissism. Ergo organized religion in all its forms. By the way, I'd include science as one of those organized religions. A modern and superior form, more reliable and useful than any other to be sure, but a religion that we endlessly use to expand our egos and to gain for ourselves heroic immortality, whether we happen to be scientists or not, and that we are as likely to abuse as any. Think e.g. of atomic weapons, think about or consumer society and built in obsolescence. Believing this way doesn't make for cynicism, but I'd like to think it makes us realists. Existentialist perhaps, a pessimist with hope. A human who recognizes that humans have limits.
3
American Christians are not alone in cherry-picking parts of religious texts to make arguments for their hypocritical behavior nor are they exclusive in how they judge and persecute non-believers. And part of this is because the texts themselves (written by men, presumably dictated by God) are a mass of contradictions (however elegantly expressed - who was it said that God made Shakespeare a better writer than Himself?). I just wondered why American Christians can't follow the very simple directions from the Sermon on the Mount.
10
Human empathy does not require a deity to create or validate it. “Feeling the presence of god” is nothing more, or less, than feeling a desire to do good, to help. It should be a very human response.
20
Religion is not the same thing as religious institutions. The former is a recognition of some higher being and some set of principles to guide us. The latter (religious institutions) are in many - but not all - instances a corruption of the psycho-social need to believe in something bigger and better. People don't need a religious institution to believe or to relate to their idea of a supreme being.
7
Much of America has matured enough to let go supernatural effects and accept the core idea of Christianity which is a community based on compassion, empathy, mercy and forgiveness. If Jesus were to talk with us he would explain the miracle stories and Resurrection are CGI in print. Today we love movies filled with special effects. Who would watch any film if the SE was just words? Sister Pimentel is what Jesus was about, not some loudmouth spouting fantasy.
3
At least this columnist understands the difference between religion, the study of how people act and theology, the study of God. This is the very reason they are studied in two different departments of every college or university in this country. They are sociology and theology respectively. The problem I have with this commentary is the decided title of 'Why People Hate Religion.' Implied are some small truths encased in a big lie. Although some people are wearing their 'religion' on their shirt sleeves and yet are hypocritical they still represent a visible minority. You cannot blame the tenant of the religion for those who abuse it. If you wish to use the French Revolution as an example then you may wish to look again. Although it is true that the French Catholic Church owned 20% of the land and protesters did carry effigies of the saints to burn in the center of Paris, King Louis did attempt to allow the French Nationale more authority (The French version of Parliament) but that was refused. Eventually the Revolution began to devour itself and Robespierre was executed for not being Revolutionary enough. Eventually it took a despot like Napoleon to maintain order in the face of anarchy. To put all evangelicals in one pot is despicable. Evangelical simply means 'Defenders of the Faith' and 'To spread the words of Christ.' You have painted us with too broad a brush here. A Christian commandment says it all. 'Do not commit any atrocities in the name of God.' Missed it?
4
I'm a non denominational Christian and I can never see myself in discussions about the church. I'm pro choice, a Democrat, and an advocate for immigrants and refugees. Christians must be bold in speaking out against those that claim to love Jesus, but none of their actions back up that claim. Trump in the White House, backed by Christians, is a travesty. This piece was long overdue.
24
Thank you for your take on religion. A priest once told me that the Gospels speak for themselves. We live in a world where few listen and even fewer respond.
Whether a religion is organized or disorganized probably doesn't matter much. What religion has done to people's faith and how religion has brainwashed believers astounds.
Each one of us is on a once-in-a-lifetime, one-way spiritual adventure but how do we spend our limited time on earth? We should be reaching out to others. You know, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prisons, shelter the homeless, etc. Pursuing meaningless employment in exchange for numbers deposited in a bank account or spent on gadgets and toys makes little sense in the long run. Reaching out to others and emptying ourselves to help does.
Millennia of human existence and we still haven't got any of being alive and human right.
6
That priest is correct. The Gospels do speak for themselves and accordingly in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is quoted, ‘Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.’ (4:7). Years ago, I served on a priest council that was discussing clergy abuse. Many of us were surprised when one priest suggested all clergy should sign a code of ethics. It was clear that we weren’t listening to the Gospel!
3
I know a LOT of people who claim to be a Christian. A very small minority of these people try to genuinely follow Christ. The remainder claim their faith for appearances only. It just looks good to the community.
5
I attended a southern baptist (read: evangelical) church starting around age 10 through early 20s. Along with the evils of "secular humanism" we were taught that "the ends justify the means" thinking was unChristlike and unacceptable. So it pains me to see modern evangelicals flock to Trump merely because he is the candidate with the R behind his name and thus likely to nominate "pro-life"/"anti-abortion" judges. (Although we all know he is basically uninvolved in that process and has outsourced it to the federalist society and heritage foundation.)
11
@Billbo Your question is an interesting Gordian knot. I think you’d agree that the modern concept of immigration is a political construct. As such, it is used to advance any country’s own political agendas, being social, ethnic, political, or economic in nature. A crime is an act contrary to those agendas, as defined and legislated by laws enacted to advance such political goals or agendas. So immigration in and of itself is not a crime. It becomes a crime when laws to regulate it are violated, regardless of the intent of those who consciously violate them.
A question: do you really think Pence et al can function outside their religious convictions?
2
@Son of A. Bierce
"Your question is an interesting Gordian knot".
Please, look at it again; it is not a question, it is a statement. In other words, the author first states that people hate religion, and then he tells his readers why it is so. In plain English, the author "knows it all".
I don't like these "know-it-all".
1
I'm sure there are many decent people within many religions. Just like there are many decent people within any group - a bunch of sports fans, people shopping on Saturday, employees at my company.
Religion doesn't make people good or bad. Religion gives the bad people cover and the good people community.
Would that we just form communities without all the other hogwash. I know that doesn't really happen in practice, I don't really know why, but I wish it could.
10
Amen, brother Timothy.
And maybe revoking the tax-exempt status of religious institutions would go a long way toward separating the devout and the spiritual from the sanctimonious scam-artists.
38
Buried in the replies is a wonderful thought by Alan that triggered as suggestion.
What would be the result of polling, if questioners asked "Do you support", and then listed Jesus's main teaching, but didn't say they were from Jesus?
Simple things such as:
1) Do you think it important to help strangers, and invite them in?
2) Should our country defend the rights of the poor and the needy?
.... and so on.
The results might be very telling.
35
I left the Catholic church when I was 12 , hiding out in the candy store until Mass was over and I could go home. Lying, stumblingly and profusely, when my father would ask about the sermon I have never regretted it. I feel I have led a life of empathy kindness and understanding that if I had absorbed the dogma would perhaps be less so. Agnosticism has a lot to be said for it. There is a higher power in us all and we don't need sheltered old men to tell us how to find it.
21
@Deirdre Mack
My grandmother, too, once asked about the sermon. I told her it was about Louis XIII, and that was true.
From the resulting conversation between her and my mother (neither of whom had gone to church), I gathered that priests could use pre-written sermons, and I was not surprised. The parish was in a small rural community, in the boondocks of southern Burgundy, close to the Morvan. I am pretty sure everybody had heard of Louis XIII (the father of Louis XIV), and I am pretty sure also that they did not listen to the sermon any more than I did (I must have been 10 or 12 at the time).
[Years later, in high school, I learned about religious life under both Louis XIII and Louis XIV, and the teacher made it interesting; but in a rural community of small farmers... quite out of place.]
3
@Deirdre Mack Similarly, I stayed in the Church until my confirmation (~13 years-old), which was a deal struck with my mother. Never looked back and just can't fathom how numerous friends remain loyal to such an abusive and corrupt institution. Perhaps atheism allows me to see the immorality they appear blind to.
3
Today it takes very little effort to learn about the history of religion. After doing so, it takes slightly less effort to become a atheist. That's when a common rule of marketing kicks in: It cost six times as much to get an ex-customer back then it does to get a new one.
11
In this climate, as the tRump administration is busy getting in right-wing judges and writing regulations that privilege religious belief over civil rights, the mild- mannered atheist may even be turned into an anti- theist.
8
I suspect the proportion of religious leaders who are unscrupulous vs. those who are sincere and act ethically is equal to those of leaders in other businesses. What is unfair is that we treat religious organizations as if they are something special. Let's end the blanket tax exemptions to churches and instead extend it to them only when they do charitable work.
18
People of the True Church, as T.S. Eliot put it, perform a labor of love that is selfless, difficult and exhausting every day. Perhaps we are lucky if that labor of love never ends.
6
The leaders of the non-evangelical sects of Christianity in this country are failing to speak out againsttheir evangelical brethren as characterized so well by Mr. Egan. It reminds me of how I and others condemned the Muslim clerics and leaders who were mostly silent after 9/11. The similarities are inescapable.
12
Lots of great points here and those who follow Christ have no corner on the market of trying to make the world a better place. I wonder if there is any research to see if those who are critical of religion give more than lip service to the needs of the poor. I'm not Catholic, but I know that Catholic charities gives millions to those causes. People can get a following writing about the problem or the cure without actually putting their money to work making a difference. One caution is that in the efforts to remove shame on a people group for their sexual preference that we don't become guilty of strong-arming those who believe different.
3
@Ken
Well you know what atheists don't do is spend millions on enriching their elaborate bureaucracy, warping entire cultures in the third world, and creating and then sheltering a large scale network of child abusers.
And that's not even getting to the "evangelicals" and the harm they've wrought by enabling Republicans, blatantly violating prohibitions on preaching from the pulpit, destroying the machinery of Congress and ultimately putting Trump in charge.
Methinks it would take an awful lot of money to offset those harms.
4
I just finished reading the weekly e-post from my Episcopal church in Poughkeepsie where the Vestry has voted to continue allowing our church basement classrooms to used for overflow Code Blue homeless shelter from October to April. This is the second year we are doing this. Last year these guests shared Christmas morning brunch with our parishioners, ate Wednesday evening meals with us during Lent, and shared Good Friday and even Sunday services with the congregation. Our priest is a female married to another female, several of our members have been married in our church as same sex couples, and we are a healthy and active community. We believe in doing true God’s work without wearing our religion on our chests. I took a crooked path to get back to my faith, but I am glad I belong to this church where I feel confortable and do not have to leave my brain at the door. I wish churches like this were written about more frequently in the media.
24
@Believer
I know dozens of Christians living this life. For them, their faith is a gift, something that allows them to live a life they believe is worth living and something that keeps them centered and focused on what is important in life. They keep their heads down because Christianity is not something highly regarded in New York. No one writes about them. They just are.
6
The only role that I can see for organized religion these days is to exclude those who fail some pious litmus test.
Thank you for highlighting one person who is walking the talk. Those with the loudest religious megaphones clearly can't be bothered - too busy checking their bank balances and putting down hard-earned/fleeced dollars from the flock.
Organized religion as a tool for good is a contradiction. People use it to salve their conscience on Sundays, or to one-up their neighbors. It has lost all values of inclusion.
I have no use for organized religion and it has no use for me.
11
I don't hate religion, I just have not use for it. I raised my children to have strong moral bearing when it comes to compassion for others without the help of religion. As opposed to science, religion is completely useless and uninteresting in the way it describes the world universe around us. There isn't even any mention of atoms or microorganisms anywhere in any religion. If we were still using religion as a basis for understanding our existence, we would still go to bed on the right side and get out on the left in order to avoid the plague. And the whole notion of your eternal fate, like more than 500 billion years, being determined by the life you live on Earth for a few decades just seems like a case of the punishment not fitting the crime, taken to an absurd extreme. None of it is of any use. People don't need religion to be good and religion does not have a very good track record of preventing them from being bad. And it just has absolutely nothing useful to say about the nature of things.
45
@MRod...you've summed it up perfectly.
2
This is the best thing I have read in the NY Times in at least a year. So spot on. Well done.
22
Sung to the tune of Bobby Mcgee: Faith is just another word for nothing left to know. If I don't know it, I'll have faith, and pretend I do.
What's wrong with not knowing? What's wrong with helping people just because that is the best way to be human? What is wrong with being nice even if there's no god around to tell us otherwise? What is wrong with just admitting that we are, as all life on the planet is, just plain here? Why do we need faith to explain the obvious?
15
Article describes only EXTREME religions. It doesn't mention the Unitarian Church member who will be facing a second trial in November, for felony charges for rescuing migrants from the deadly Sonoran desert in Arizona; driving them to a shelter, and leaving them food and water. He testified that his actions were based on his religion's specific stances re: saving lives.
Reform Jews have rallied, protested, and blocked detention centers, leading to the Jews' arrests. Methodists, Presbyterians, and many other 'non-evangelical' members of Christian denominations have done the same. Just recently, a liberal branch of the Lutheran faith, the American synod, is the first Church body to announce that all of its churches will act as Sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, and will also be fighting their deportations.
Generalizing Almost always does much more harm than Good. I, myself, was raised in a branch of a religion with extreme views; I left, and joined a branch which is more humane. I do not support Any organization or religion with extreme views. But we must remember that not every single religion is extreme.
31
Thank you for mentioning the Unitarians. I had lived about 30 years wandering around in a spiritual desert, then in the mid-1990’s I found the Unitarians: no dogma, just caring communities. I have a spiritual home.
7
@Resharpen
Generalizing Almost always does much more harm than Good.
******
Many NYT readers have a stereotype, almost always negative, of "religious" people in their minds.
3
We can build a beautiful human society based on:
Science and the real understanding, insight and power it confers upon us.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Greek philosophical principle of reciprocity - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
John Lennon’s immortal song - Imagine.
39
@Prometheus
I agree, one problem though, the human condition. I tend toward the idea that human nature is essentially intent on the suppression of fear and the denial of death, which obviously requires an expansion of the ego. In a word, Narcissism. Ergo organized religion in all its forms. By the way, I'd include science as one of those organized religions. A modern and superior form, more reliable and useful than any other to be sure, but a religion that we endlessly use to expand our egos and to gain for ourselves heroic immortality, whether we happen to be scientists or not, and that we are as likely to abuse as any. Think e.g. of atomic weapons, think about or consumer society and built in obsolescence. Believing this way doesn't make for cynicism, but I'd like to think it makes us realists. An Existentialist perhaps, a pessimist with hope. A person who recognizes that humans have limits.
2
@Greg Pool
Science is profoundly different from religion.
Science accepts that it must be measured by its ability to explain empirical facts obtained from real physical, definable, measurable and quantifiable systems.
Science is and always will be an evolving working hypothesis subject to constant scrutiny, analysis, revision and refinement.
Religion makes the deity assumption (unproven) and thereafter relies upon references to religious texts books purporting to the word of the deity. It’s a logically absurd circular argument.
The claims of life after death in return for compliant faith, belief, support and subscription to the Church is a clear fraud that is not based on any evidence.
Christianity 1.0 ( the Old Testament ) is dark.
Christianity 1.1 ( the New Testament ) is still seriously flawed because of the all bad things it says ( eg anti-LGBTQI ).
I’m looking forward to a plain English Christianity 5.0 when the religious fantasy does not become someone else’s living nightmare and only good things happen when a fundamentalist goes all in :)
2
As a youngster in the late 50s and early 60s, I was very devoted to the Catholic Church, But as I got older, the hypocrisy became more obvious. The nuns who taught me were respected, but eventually I started to see the anger and spite that came through with some of these women, and I believe damaged many of their students. As a teenager and young adult, I really tried to stay with the church. But the final nail in that box of regrets was in the 70s, when I was working at a residence for adults who had multiple disabilities. We were a few blocks from a Catholic Church on the upper west side of Manhattan, and several of the Catholic folks in the house enjoyed walking to services on Sunday morning, and I enjoyed taking them when I was on duty. But then the pastor of that church called me and said some of the parishioners had complained that the presence of these disabled people made them uncomfortable. Other than rocking slightly most of the time, we were not noisy or disruptive. But we were asked to not attend, and maybe the priest would agree to visit the house and give communion. The message was, you look different and you are not welcome as part of this community. Message received, and I myself have never returned.
66
@Kathy. I Remember that episode well as I lived in Rockland County at the time
6
@Kathy
Horrible! Indefensible! Do you imagine that even this same parish would respond in the same way today?
4
So many reasons why I'm not religious, won't even go there now, but the common sense reason to me to have doubts is, there are Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, Methodists and a few more of the "standard" religions so to speak. I'm sure the members of all mentioned will agree there's only one God. So in my mind it's like, "to get to heaven and prove your love for the Lord, this is what you have to do, and then someone from another will say "no, that's wrong, this is what you have to do" and so on down the line. Religion is like a fraternity, play by our rules or else.
13
I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools through high school, Confirmation, was an alter boy and choir boy--the complete package.
I fell away from the Church around age 17. Organized religion, in my opinion, is mind control and today I accept nothing on "faith."
22
Religion and morality have nothing to do with one another. As an atheist I find it highly offensive when religion and decency are conflated -- the implication being that as a bob-believer my moral sense is inferior to a revisionist. Believers believe in some supernatural entity which creates moral authority. The fact that some believers are exceptionally decent, caring people should not imply that their religious beliefs dictated their morality. Quite the converse: their morality (or lack thereof) framed their religious beliefs.
34
Thanks Paul for writing what I’ve been saying for years!
3
@Paul
But religion and decency do go together. Very much so. This doesn't mean non-religious people aren't decent.
4
"The French Revolution was driven in part by the revulsion of starving peasants toward the overfed clerics who had taken vows of poverty."
I've a dear friend and former co-worker who is Italian. He grew up in S. Philadelphia and raised Catholic. As a young U.S. Army officer in 1960 he visited the village in Italy where his father was raised before emigrating to America.
My friend saw that the local Catholic church had gold-plated items in the church but the people in the village had no running water in their homes. Seems that not much has changed between clerics who take a vow of poverty and the people who actually live in it.
My friend left the Catholic Church and is now more than happy in his Episcopal church in Loudoun County.
I'm glad that, as mentioned, a healthy majority of Catholics are in favor of same sex marriage. A nearly unanimous Catholic population also uses birth control -- despite whatever the Vatican has to say about it in their ancient obsolete 'doctrine.'
Gods were invented thousands of years ago to explain what then was unexplainable but those mysteries have long been explained by science. It's way past time for humanity to move on and relegate religions to the dust bin of history.
23
I walked away from the nonsense that is religion approximately 57 years ago at 13 when the tales no longer passed the 'critical thought test' (i. e., too much nonsense). On my good days I'm an atheist and the rest of the time an anti-theist with the fear that if one can believe the fairy tales they're selling one has given up rationale thought and will believe anything, even the insanity of the tweeter-in-chief.
The desire of those pushing the concept of 'religious liberty' is to return to the good old days when they could discriminate against those they don't like for one reason or the other.
45
In my opinion - and this IS an opinion column -
Religion in this country, especially as taught to children, is responsible for the dumbing down of America. Children up through adulthood are taught to have unquestioning faith rather than to reason things out; to follow The Word rather than use common sense; to accept something "because the Bible says it's so" instead of looking at the world around them and living in Real Life.
This results in an overall lower average set of reasoning and decision making skills that many people in this country suffer the lack of. And it is getting worse. Notice I did not use the words "science," Creationism," or "evolution" in the paragraphs above. I don't need to.
56
@Joe G.
AMEN.
2
It is a scary underlying assumption in this piece that if it isn't the promise of an afterlife, a redemption by an imaginary sky god, or fear of damnation to an imaginary place that people will not do good or be kind to one another.
If it takes those circumstances to make one act decent and humane to others, how humane and decent are they?
19
The last time I was in a church for a Sunday service, with some relatives I was visiting, they pulled down a big screen and showed a brief lecture from the church's national guru on the subject of financial investment. Say no more.
45
@Carl...
Didn't even Jesus allegedly predict the rise of phony... hypocritical... mendacious... corrupt... and greedy religious leaders and priesthoods?
Didn't he also allegedly say that if you want to follow him the first thing you must do is give all of your possessions to the poor?
Not to the Church... not to God... but to the poor.
Didn't he also say that... "It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to ever get into heaven."
Doesn't this mean that the American Dream is a contradiction of the teachings of Jesus?
How odd that a country so devoted to wealth should be so allegedly Christian.
6
Any generalizations about people of faith are not useful. There are awesomely good folks in all parts of our country of varying faiths and political leanings. Just as there are in all segments folks of far less caring kindness. I have lived in New England, the Midwest , the Deep South and Southern California and have been befriended by oh so many kind folks of all faiths and those of no church connection. We are a blessed but far from perfect population of folks getting along in many different ways.
11
@david, maybe so, but about 90% of evangelicals support and adore Trump. Case closed.
2
Thank you for speaking the truth. Now if we could hear it from the pulpit that would be even better. many of us who read the Bible struggle with this every day, but it is mentioned by few. How could a true believer in Christ support or turn a blind eye to Trump, or to this administration's treatment of immigrants or to the uplifting of the 0.1% above all, to list just a few of the cognitive dissonances. To those of us that believe, it seems our leaders have been deceived as has the majority of the flock...
21
One question for evangelicals. What would Jesus think of Trump? And what would he think of your support for him? If Jesus is who you say he is, then surely there is only one right answer.
53
It's unfair to criticize VP Pence for doing his JOB of protecting the US border and upholding US LAWS.
There is sound theological reasoning for the STATE to have different obligations than the INDIVIDUAL - for example, it may be correct for a state to go to war and kill enemies even though 'Do not murder' is part of the ten commandments.
4
Excellent. Separation of church and state. But somehow they tend to disagree with the idea.
8
@Outspoken O
Ostensibly, the US Constitution provides for freedom from religion as much as freedom of religion. Trump, Pence, and their so-called evangelical Christian brethren seek to make their brand of belief the law of the land (STATE) as well as the law for all individuals, regardless of our chosen beliefs or no beliefs.
Critizi g Pence for allowing the warehousing of human beings in deplorable conditions is well within my rights as an American citizen and as a devout Christian.
By the way, most of the migrants today are refugees from violence and food scarcity. By coming here and presenting at the border, they are breaking no laws.
32
@Outspoken
You can enforce laws and STILL acknowledge the humanity in every man, woman and child.
He lied about the conditions in which they’re being held. He lied for the administration. He denied his faith, yet again.
2
• ...those of real faith....
"Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."
~ AMBROSE BIERCE
(1842-1914)
US Author and Humorist
From: The Devil's Dictionary
16
this seems a bit unfair. As much as it hates the label, Atheism is a religion too. Historically at any given time, most science has been subject to revision, so believing in the infallibility of science is not even a particularly rational belief either.
3
Nope. Atheism is not a religion just as biology, physics and other sciences are not religions. Some of us prefer to live this way but we don’t engage in worship.
39
No, not "belief" in the infallibility of science, rather, "acceptance" of evidence which has been subject to repeated empirical examination and evaluation. When the evidence fails to be substantiated the associated ideas must necessarily undergo revision or be rejected entirely.
24
@nickgregor
No, atheism isn't a religion. It's simply a lack of belief in any gods. Or as we atheists sometimes say too theists. we only believe in one less god than you do.
I also don't know a single atheist who believes that science is infallible. Science is based on evidence. If the evidence changes, then the science corrects itself.
Theism is not based on evidence, but rather on wishful thinking and ancient mythology. There are certainly some positive things about religion. It creates support systems and at its best, it provides charity for those in need. But it's based on mythology. If you find value in these myths. at least choose the ones that help make you a better, more tolerant person, unlike the hateful judgmental believers who falsely believe they have found the ultimate truth.
36
Very well written commentary on the hypocrites that support tump.
Religion in my view really boils down to: don't harm others, especially intentionally.
Follow the golden rule sincerely to the best of your ability.
Help those in need to the degree you can.
Don't lie, cheat or steal.
Be honest, kind and responsible.
And if so moved have Faith, which often means a belief in the unbelievable. Or things will work out somehow, at least in the end.
At least have Faith if it helps get you through the profound challenges and unbelievable cruelty and injustices found on this planet
Beyond that, many beliefs are products of the ego, ignorance and ultimately selfishness. Other's well being isn't truly considered in many organized dogmas.
Each has to decide for himself or herself, of course.
15
@dre
The claim of those of the Christian Faith is that everything comes from God, and everything should be drawn back to God; and that God’s original intent for Christ becoming human was not redemption from the Fall but adoption as sons and daughters of God that is the deification of human beings. God created the world to bring humans in union with God through the incarnation of God’s Son, that is through the Son’s Union with our human nature. As one Eastern saint described it: “God became human so that humans might become god.” The end of Christian faith is a personal love relationship with Christ. Sadly, too many Christian have rejected a personal relationship and a life of humble charity and moral virtue for power, wealth, fame, vanity and the vain pursuit of pleasure.
Well said! It `s not what one believes - or professes to believe - that makes a person but how one feels and acts in relation to one `s friends and more especially to those from different cultures. Millions of people with no religion accept and help to improve the lot of those living in straitened circumstances. Kindness does not require belief in God. We are far too quick to judge others whether they be Chinese, Iranians or Russians while overlooking our own flaws and the havoc we have created all over the world. We should examine our own conscences before judging and condemning others.
12
Of course people hate organized religion. It is an institution whose time has passed. People can think for themselves now. They understand the difference between religion and a life of the spirit. And they certainly know hypocrisy, corruption and brutality when they see it. So many people have led lives externally defined for them by their religion. But folks are coming to understand that their lives are theirs to live. Choosing to do good with one's life as a free decision rather than out of fear of damnation by a god or by a community seems a purer option.
20
The author, like too many people, is conflating hate for hypocrites with hate for religion.
Sister Pimentel is a case in point. If her beautiful, selfless humanity is inspired by her faith, why should anyone hate her faith?
No one likes a hypocrite - religious or otherwise. But hypocrisy does not indict beliefs. It only indicts the "believer".
The truth or value of a creed should never be judged by its worst followers, but by its best. Like Sister Pimentel.
As GK Chesterton wrote: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."
12
@Patrick Talley
A lot of hate directed at religious people. Perhaps they could use a little religion to deal with all that hate.
3
There was a time in living memory when religious leaders were important moral figures. This was particularly true in the civil rights movement and in the anti-apartheid movement. But since that time there has been nothing, no one. Religion has lost its moral voice. Religious leaders today are well-fed reactionaries. They are defenders of privilege and authority. And they a corrupt grifters. The good news is that they are also killing religion.
At its core, religion is believing things because it makes you happy to believe them and not because you have any reason beyond that to believe them. It is an exercise in public self-deception. The less appealing this to young people, the better off humanity will be.
16
@Jack Craypo I agree that too often my religion (Christianity) is invoked to protect privilege and power, and I think this is a betrayal of the life and teaching of Jesus.
I still see religion also being used for purposes I see as morally legitimate. I am thinking of the Jews who have been demonstrating at ICE sites; of the Christians and Pagans I know who are presently active in the sanctuary movement; of Revs. William Barber and Liz Theoharis and the Poor People's Campaign they are leading; of Desmond Tutu, still alive and speaking out for justice and mercy...
At its core, as I see it, religion is recognizing the sacredness of every living creature, realizing that they are created and beloved by God and are not ours to use or abuse: it is acknowledging the spirit in which we are all one. It is, for me, an experience-based assent to reality.
2
In many respects organized religion is a front for worldly power grabs, land grabs, and organized hate. The survival of humanity depends on a thorough repudiation of all religious organizations who have given themselves over to worldly power grabbing. If it walks, talks, and smells like organized hate, it's hate.
14
I think was the preacher Billy Sunday who hit the nail on the head: Going to church on Sundays doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
14
It really doesn't matter if Christ died on the cross for our sins. Nailing someone to a pole is a bad idea to prove a point. That's why people "hate" religion. If God's so smart, couldn't he think of a better way to convince humanity to "love" one another? If he just asked someone's opinion before he decided to nail his "son" to a cross, I bet most people would have told him not to do it, but men never want to take advice. That's why Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years. He simply wouldn't ask someone for directions.
20
I think there is a subtle, but critical, distinction the headline and author miss. I'm not sure people hate "religion." They hate the hypocritical practitioners of religion. "Hating religion" implies hatred of a belief system. "Hating practitioners" implies hatred of individuals who ignore, misinterpret, or violate that belief system.
10
@MediaProf
One who commented today offered the possibility that the editors might have chosen the title.
1
@MediaProf, honestly, I think what people hate are stupid, mean-spirited, hateful people who cede their brains to religious nonsense. I know I've come to detest my bible-waving relatives who voted for Trump and who, as soon as the election was over, began spewing their racist, homophobic, islamophobic, misogynist filth in every direction. I had no idea I was related to so many horrible people. And their justification is always religious.
4
Yes i hate religion. Why does every religion subjugate women?
2
A lot of people have been killed in the name of religion. Most wars throughout history have been religious.
So until everyone who is religious actually follows what their religion teaches I’m not buying.
8
Amen, brother Egan. I always have found it breathtaking the number of 'Christians' that assume/believe Jesus of Nazareth was conversing in English. It has been ages since anyone has told a good joke in Greek Corinthian!
8
A brilliant article that should be compulsory reading for every Evangelical or self-proclaimed Christian Trump supporter.
Being Christian and a Trump supporter are incompatible, and hypocrisy is the defining feature of contemporary American Christianity.
If he existed, Jesus would not like what he sees in the GOP: a party of greed, selfishness and bigotry.
22
I whole heartedly share these thoughts. I’ve been a skeptic since my early teens, when our catholic instructors tried unconvincingly, for me, to preach the infallibility of the pope. Infallibility of a mere mortal soul, indeed!
16
I whole heartedly share these thoughts. I’ve been a skeptic since my early teens, when our catholic instructors tried unconvincingly, for me, to preach the infallibility of the pope. Infallibility of a mere mortal soul, indeed!
3
I had the privilege of talking with Sister Norma several weeks ago at the humanitarian facility. In the midst of the crowd she forms the calm center, exuding warmth and welcome. I think of this as holy, and real.
14
Organized religion has no solutions to the main challenges of our times - climate change, overpopulation and the depletion of earth's resources, human suffering. In many cases it obstructs secular solutions or aggravates the problems by teaching flocks to be fatalistic about the "end times" or urging women to have lots of babies or promoting downright dangerous fantasies (vaccinations are bad, science is wrong, Trump is our savior). Adding insult to injury, churches buy up large tracts of public land and instead of offering something useful, like a park for children or public vegetable gardens, they construct monstrous edifices with satellite transmitters and huge parking lots - all tax-free, praise the lord! Religion is just another business in this country feeding off naiveté and fear.
1818
@KathyM
Religion may not offer the practical solutions you're looking for, but it does address itself directly to the fundamental issue underlying most of the problems humanity is facing today -- the selfishness of human beings.
31
@KathyM It's hard to accept such a sweeping statement as anything less than unexamined prejudice. Given the human proclivity for both light and shadow in every thought and action, organized religion necessarily carries both as well. You might want to look a little deeper at the possibility for good, especially in mainstream religious expressions of the Abrahamic faiths. Or just keep your mind closed if it makes you more comfortable.
29
@Jack
I would add Buddhism, Hinduism, etc to the mainstream expressions of Abrahamic faiths also.
There is much wisdom to be gleaned from religion.
This from a secular agnostic.
33
Funny how Western religions all claim to be the only way to heaven, completely ignoring Eastern religions, and demanding that the world bends to their often misguided beliefs.
And whenever anyone criticizes and/or doesn't blindly support them, they claim they are being persecuted. No surprise that intelligent people reject their true policies of hatred, pious judgement and exclusion.
Ian Anderson once wrote: "In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him." Who would think that this kernel of truth would be found not in any religion, but on a 1971 Jethro Tull album?
13
You could swap the places of the words “Eastern” and “western” and it would also be true.
August 30, 2019
Cultural inheritance identifies the both the psychological and spiritual narratives that one must connect to. And then impose our actions contemporaneous and for living guidance for our path and faithful decisions. So it is that as we journey personally and collectively we are deterministic as definition of the religion that makes our faith expressions for love and indeed never hate. Those that mix politics and acts of spiritual personalized grace are just too often off the mark of self truth and truths to operate our actions and as such great mistakes are too often consequential - but must not be hopeless and so let's give deep appreciation to Mr. Timothy Egan and his call to reality and with reflection and grace we can fine love is always the answer.
4
People see what they want to see, believe in what they want to believe. Facts, evidence, measurements, data, ..., all irrelevant.
Built-in subjective viewpoint distorts perception of reality. It's a natural cognitive dysfunction. Distorted perception then generates twisted thoughts & ideas. The twisted ideas and concepts in turn feedback into one's subjective viewpoint. The dysfunctional process repeats in loops.
People always insist they are rational, and that they are right. Self-righteousness is human nature. Most evident in self professed religious people.
Belief in any ideology is entirely irrational, it's emotional, be it religious, political, gender, whatever. Send the kids to Sunday school or equivalent religious indoctrination. Brainwashing as early as possible.
2
The childlike faith in pure objectivity is a childlike faith; the arrogant insistence from Randites that they, and they alone know the truth is massively annoying.
The point of this article is as follows. Christians who agree with the writer's politics are truly Christian, while those who disagree are not. That is 100% of what I took away from this reading. I believe this is truly why people like me have walked away from ALL religion. It's simply politics by any other name.
12
@Joe
Progressive ideologues have a special bitterness towards religion. Their ideology trumps everything.
3
I am on the outs with my wife and in-laws as I have been a recovering Christain for some time. There are some very good Religious folks out there who do good work and walk the talk, but I haven't personally met them.
Many thoughtful and insightful comments here. Many have cited the bible, especially Jesus and the New Testament. I also wonder what party Jesus would identify with? It is clear from reading the more recent text that it wouldn't be the GOP. As far as the angry words about homosexuality, the old MEN of the OLD Testament likely simply wished for children for the tribe, so chasing other men presents a problem. . .
11
Really enjoyed this piece today, Mr. Egan. It is important to note that religion is overflowing with hypocrites who use it to their own ends.
I used to go to church as a child and while in college. I stopped once I realized that some people SAY things based on faith but don't mean them. They weaponize it for their own purposes.
I read the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes and realized that some people cling to Jesus without understanding anything about his teachings.
What we see each day from the Trump administration is a slap in the face to those teachings. That he sees himself in messianic terms is because the religious right characterize him that way.
I prefer to believe in the true Christians who go out every day to improve the world and the lives of people. It's that old 'walk the walk and talk the talk'. I've met them, marched with them and through them have found my faith again.
I'm happy they are still out there not seeking money and fame. One thinks this will give religion a good name again.
389
@nwgal Do you really believe President Trump figues he's a messiah? If so, do you have any evidence substantiating your belief?
1
There are points, Mr. Egan, on which you and I differ.
Gay marriage is one of them.
You are right when you remind us, "Yes. Gay marriage has indeed been legitimized by the Supreme Court. A man may indeed marry another man. A woman may indeed marry another woman. Well and good."
Except that for Bible-believing Christians (whether Catholic or Protestant) it's NOT "well and good." The Bible says what it says about homosexual relations. Plainly. Unambiguously.
Having said that--
--I am with you ALL THE WAY on "evangelical Christians" and the heart-breaking alacrity with which they have rushed--stampeded en masse to the banner of Mr. Donald J. Trump.
You are ON THE MONEY! when you tell us, "No. The evangelical church has NOT cured or reformed Mr. Trump.
"Just the reverse! To a horrifying degree--the man has corrupted the church.
"The crudeness. The brutality. The venomous name-calling. And--more than any of these--
"--that unabashed HEARTLESSNESS.
"This man really and truly doesn't feel your pain. The suffering, the crushed hopes, the deferred dreams of millions--
--mean nothing to him."
I think "evangelical Christianity"--please note how many Christians now choose to shun that label--
--I think "evangelical Christianity" will be paying the price for their tragic, misplaced loyalty--
--for a long time.
--a VERY long time.
They're beginning to pay it now.
They'd better get used to it.
6
@Susan Fitzwater "The Bible says what it says about homosexual relations. Plainly. Unambiguously. " Sorry, but that is a matter of your own understanding. It is neither plain nor unambiguous, and your certainty and belief nothwithstanding, does not make it so for everyone. Please also don't presume to speak for all Catholics and Protestants on this point.
3
Religion has always has been a malignant force in the world, too often wielded by immoral men and women bent on exploiting the fears and ignorance of others. Certainly, the hypocrisy of people like Trump, Pence and Reed is deserving of your disgust and derision, but it pales in comparison to the damage inflicted on mankind throughout history in the name of religion.
Even the charity of work of Sister Pimentel is tainted by religion. Would the children that she now tends to even need her help if the Spanish invaders, operating with the full blessing of the Church, not pillaged their homelands and slaughtered and enslaved their ancestors?
I am unaware of even a single war that was ended in the name of religion; but I can list hundreds that were started in its name.
How much further would science be advanced if brilliant thinkers like Galileo, Copernicus and Darwin not been pilloried from the pulpits?
Even the art and architecture attributed to religion is specious. Had the artists and architects not been in the employ of the church, they would no doubt have applied their passion and talents elsewhere with equally magnificent results.
But by far the most iniquitous effect of religion is its fundamental and enduring goal to divide us. Slavery, the Holocaust, countless genocides and atrocities: most, if not all, were carried out by people who believed that some god or another was on their side.
There are plenty of reasons to hate religion. Hypocrisy is just one of them.
11
The most significant event of my life was the change in Christianity in the U.S. I depended on Christianity as a guide to a spiritual life as Jesus taught. I now have no association with it at all since it turns my stomach. (The nuns are an exception.) I watch it from a distance and wonder what psychological pathology could be at work since it isn't love or even sanity.
7
When the new pastor of my new church (having moved) basically told the congregation to vote for GWB over senator/secretary (not sure which one takes precedence) Kerry because “abortion” (who cares about post-birth deaths in war), that way end for me.
I still love the nuns I grew up Nextdoor too, and the Priest across the street, but that was just too much hypocrisy for me. 
3
"Faith is not that complicated. Religion always is."
True to a point. Faith is a leap into the unknown, and generally the unknowable, in exchange for a measure of comfort in the face of different unknowns. Religion offers, among other things, guidelines for holding fast to your faith when times are tough. That's why it's complicated. It wouldn't be complicated if keeping faith always felt right but faith doesn't always feel right. Christianity calls that inner turmoil the battle between good and evil, evil being, by definition, whatever is contrary to the guidelines. Yet we see multiple sects of Christianity adopting different guidelines -- not because people like complications but because faith itself *is* that complicated.
As such, while I admire the work of Sister Norma Pimentel and others like her, I regard their faith guardedly. If religion sometimes inspire hatred, it's because faith drives a hard bargain.
2
"Faith is not that complicated. Religion always is." Too many have conflated faith with religion, and we are left with dwindling, listless congregations. It's easy to point at the current crop of white evangelical leaders supporting Trump and paint everyone who has a heartfelt faith with the same brush. We need to leave room for, and have curiosity about, the idea that spiritual guidance and meaning goes well beyond the mess we have made as misguided religious leaders seek to politicize and weaponize an institution.
6
Excellent op-ed, Timothy Egan!
You are spot on when you say: "Faith is not that complicated. Religion always is."
My observation is that organized religion has more to do with the right words than the right actions, and that, in my opinion, is why so many are no longer associated with a religious domination. It is also the major reason this Catholic of almost 80 years no longer donates to the Church when a bishop appeals for financial support. My wife and I primarily direct our charitable contributions to Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charties, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society--three organizations that do the works of mercy, like Siser Norma does, and manifest faith in their good work rather than engage in "pious irrelevancies and sanctimonous trivialities," as MLK noted in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail.
4
Everyday I give thanks for my sixth grade nun who allowed the idea that leaving the church was an okay action. Thanks again.
14
Why do people hate religion? Because people give religion a bad name. If the evidence of God is in the works of man, then there is little to believe in. Religion as a vehicle to political power and office is not faith. But thank you for bringing to the front those who do perform good works in the name of good news.
7
It is way past time to take away the tax benefits and protections from the churches that engage in political debate and candidate advocacy/denigration. It is also financially irresponsible to enable individuals to benefit by receiving tax deductions that fund this divisiveness. Let those who espouse hate and discord pay for it with their own money.
22
Rational thinkers are understandably skeptical about religious myths involving invisible, imaginary friends.
Hatred is not their prime reaction, it is pity mixed with sadness.
It is ironic that so much of evil in the world is done in the name of organized religions. It far outweighs their occasional humanitarian acts. The global “body count“ of religions is horrific.
It is possible to be a good moral person without the framework of
imaginary beings.
8
All that is mentioned here is familiar and why I have remained very distant from organized religion all of my adult life. Raised the right way, I don't believe I need the a church to instruct me on how others should be treated, etc. Organized religion just seems to be another tool of the males to keep control by whatever means possible.
8
I think it’s quite clear that religion is a tool to reinforce people’s beliefs about themselves; about how they see the world. It can be benign, an actual force for good. or if people have reactionary and/or intolerant attitudes it can be used to support those views.
Religion is used as a tool to give people cover. Take for example masterpiece bake shop. His religion didn’t tell him it to serve gays. HE doesn’t want to serve gays and he uses his religion for cover.
7
@Jonathan Sanders 100 percent correct - he used his 'religion' as cover for being a bigot.
1
I have utmost respect for those who give selflessly in any guise. I have no beef with the author or the Christians who walk the walk. Thank you for your service and compassion. BUT. Aside from grotesque hypocrisy, many of us have problems with religion telling us obviously made up fairy tales as truth. Moral symbolism, maybe. As pretend truth, it holds us back. Way back.
8
In my own preaching as a pastor, I make this distinction between religion and faith -- religion is how we justify ourselves before God, and faith is how God justifies US by His mercy and grace.
3
I attended catholic schools until entering nursing college; that was in the seventies and women’s rights, including birth control and the right to choose were important issues of the time. My mother was divorced: my father abused her physically. Because of this, she was denied communion. I worked during my high school summers as a counselor at a Catholic, youth camp where it was discovered that the priest, Robert Vonnehmann, was abusing all of the young boys there. The vileness and hypocrisy were too much for me: I walked away in 1996 and have never looked back. All organized religions are the same, save for the Quakers.
After moving to Charlottesville, I was lucky enough to ride my horse cross country with a group of like minded people. It was there, in the woods and fields, that I found my true church.
15
Thank you for the thoughtful column, Mr. Egan. It does the heart well to be reminded that there are sincere, kindhearted people of faith who bend their lives to the service of others.
War-like Christians, Pharisee-like evangelicals, and the whole Jesus-Wants-You-To-Be-Rich gaggle of Christian militants in this country are not only an embarrassment to the Jesus of the Bible but they are actively poisoning American civic life, dividing the country, and undermining long held values. People, as the saying goes, with enough religion to learn to hate, but unfortunately not enough to learn how to love.
It's heartening to be reminded that there are still people of faith determined to humble themselves in the service of others, following the example of Jesus. Unfortunately, this seems to be a minority not only in our country but within Christianity itself.
8
I love all the comments proving Egan's point and probably not even realizing it! Thanks for the laugh.
4
"Faith," according to psychologist N. Branden, "is the commitment of one's consciousness to beliefs for which one has no sensory evidence or rational proof." A person doesn't "commit" his consciousness to inhumane beliefs unless he feels inhumane. Feeling precedes belief and precedes religious indoctrination. These hypocrites could listen to a billion sermons and glance at Jesus on the cross a billion times, but their heart was twisted long before that.
3
‘Christians support following the law. That’s why abortion clinics are not blown up every day.” Well thank you Christians!
Immigration is legal, seeking amnesty is legal, abortion is legal, same sex marriage is legal, divorce is legal, being gay or transgender is legal.
Thank you Christians for your support in following these laws.
3
I recently saw a post on social media that explains it very well-
“I can’t do that because it’s against my religion” = OK
“You can’t do that because it’s against my religion” = NOT OK
I get along quite well with those religious people who live primarily by the first sentiment and I am not fine with those who behave primarily by the second. I personally gave up on religion the day I was confirmed as a Methodist and approximately 50 years later I see that decision as a gleam of wisdom in an otherwise dim adolescence. It allowed me to be wary of other’s professed beliefs until I could witness their actual behavior and freed me from being obliged to people or organizations I would otherwise not support simply from a need to belong. One of the great things about the United States is that my government, in its most core guiding document, is prohibited from forcing me to live otherwise.
8
exactly
they use religon to have control and power over others
just another wannbe dictator
1
I love the bumper sticker Good without God and there are so many of us starting to feel that way. So many religions have their laws, and as far as mercy goes I'm not so sure. I thought that just the one law: Love thy neighbor as yourself shouldn't that be enough?
14
Growing up I remember a term used to describe people like Trump, Pence et al: Sanctimonious Humbugs! Yep! there are a whole lot of those in the Trump Admin and his religious supporters.
10
Trump's Christian followers seem to have missed this passage in Bible study: "Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,
I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’…"
19
Slam dunk! Your essay is a keeper.
9
"They hate religion because, at a moment to stand up and be counted on the right side of history, religion is used as moral cover for despicable behavior. This is not new to our age. Hitler got a pass from the Vatican until very late in the war."
And there we have it -- another tacit comparison of Trump to Hitler. Well done. If you want to make sure that Trump gets re-elected in 2020, then by all means keep up this sort of overheated, poorly thought out rhetoric. The ideas and arguments in this column are far too flimsy to withstand scrutiny. The reasons why an increasing number of young Americans are leaving organized religion are many and varied. The number of religious leaders who are actual, outright "frauds" is dwarfed by the number of priests and pastors and imams and rabbis who provide spiritual and moral guidance to their congregations. The left is utterly intolerant when it comes to Christianity and to religion generally.
1
No, we just refuse to let one (of many) set of primitive stories control our lives.
If you want a slightly better historical analogy to DT than Hitler, read "The Pope and Mussolini".
4
I don't hate religion, I just hate its use as a cudgel. Man created god as a tool for controlling men for fun and profit. Once you accept that fact, then you understand 'no god, know peace'.
15
I’ve turned my back on organized religion when right wing Christians started interjecting themselves into our political life. I know there are “good” Christians who actually walk the walk, but I see far too much hypocrisy. Conservative Christians are the worst.
16
Perhaps the evangelicals are tired of this life and seek the End Times when the Man of Lawlessness takes power and moves us all to that day when the blessed get raised up and the rest suffer and die.
I can't think of any other honest reason why a person of faith in Jesus would support trump and his cruel and destructive policies.
8
It is not possible to follow the teachings of Jesus and be a Trump supporter. Jesus taught that the devils is a liar and the father of lies. Trump has told more than 10 thousand lies and counting.
Jesus came to make believers choose. Trump supporters have made their choice.
14
Intelligent, compassionate people don't care for organized religion because religion is divisive and regressive. Many folks do very good things based on their faith, but their faith also sows intrenched xenophobia. Can a good, faithful Christian honesty have compassion and empathy for a good, faithful Muslim when he/she knows that Muslim's life and faith is denied by God? The Christian merely shrugs and says the Muslim is saved if, of course, they abandon the religion of their family, their heritage, their culture, their beloved, and become Christian (and this exact mindset is true for the Muslim). A religious person will never truly see this as a hurtful dichotomy, set in place by their "all loving" god.
5
People hate religion because it is a holdover from an animal past. A god created in our image to render our best survivalist impulses of pro-social behavior and collaboration sacrosanct in the face of animalistic, tribal instincts. Dogma invented and embellished in the storytelling, is now leaned upon as validation for bigotry to the extent it can be masked by piety. It is an outdated and idiotic cultural tool that needs to be obliterated. Religion serves no purpose in the 21st century.
As for those of faith who devote their lives to apparently selfless work: the world is doubtless better for the efforts of those most in-tune with our pro-social instincts rooted in a deeply ingrained realization that we -- the greatest apes -- are strongest together. How much better might the world be, though, if we stopped framing that realization as something external? If we stopped asking the god we created what we should do? If people stopped sitting around waiting for superman? If we took responsibility for BEING god and superman? For BEING the good we dream of?
Religion is sheer idiocy and fear of death. It is nothing more, and it is damaging to pretend otherwise. Citing the best examples of the pious is citing the best examples of HUMANITY. God has nothing to do with it, even if "god" is their professed motivation. Our best and our worst are still just us. Religion ought not to be evaluated by what PEOPLE do. It can and should be seen as the cancer it is. And eradicated, accordingly.
8
Well said. Alas, religion as the biggest story of the "Story Telling Hominid", it appears that self same hominid will make him/herself extinct before the religion story fades. The story perhaps bought some time via cooperation against Neanderthals (as discussed by Harari and others) but evidently at very high later cost. Interesting stuff, from an extraterrestrial anthropologist perspective.
1
Intelligent, compassionate people don't care for organized religion because religion is divisive and regressive. Many folks do very good things based on their faith, but their faith also sows intrenched xenophobia. Can a good, faithful Christian honesty have compassion and empathy for a good, faithful Muslim when he/she knows that Muslim's life and faith is denied by God? The Christian merely shrugs and says the Muslim is saved if, of course, they abandon the religion of their family, their heritage, their culture, their beloved, and become Christian (and this exact mindset is true for the Muslim). A religious person will never truly see this as a hurtful dichotomy, set in place by their "all loving" god.
1
At last. Thank you.
5
Intelligent, compassionate people don't care for organized religion because religion is divisive and regressive. Many folks do very good things based on their faith, but their faith also sows intrenched xenophobia. Can a good, faithful Christian honesty have compassion and empathy for a good, faithful Muslim when he/she knows that Muslim's life and faith is denied by God? The Christian merely shrugs and says the Muslim is saved if, of course, they abandon the religion of their family, their heritage, their culture, their beloved, and become Christian (and this exact mindset is true for the Muslim). A religious person will never truly see this as a hurtful dichotomy, set in place by their "all loving" god.
1
Here's an immutable truth on an end-of-summer morning and every day:
Organized religion is the scourge of mankind. Orthodoxy and fundamentalism are the plague. Professional religionists are the worst of all. Fact is, man created god(s) not just to explain but to subjugate and justify horrid behavior. Ethics matter not prayer. Vocal piety is the epitome of fake news. To summarize, Ultra Christian Republicanism is the true heresy. Where's Torquemada when he's really needed? A cleansing inquisition is required.
End tax exemptions for religious institutions and watch them get real religion real quick. Religion should be like Netflix: You want it, pay for it. With worldly goods, just like every other man-made commodity.
12
Intelligent, compassionate people don't care for organized religion because religion is divisive and regressive. Many folks do very good things based on their faith, but their faith also sows intrenched xenophobia. Can a good, faithful Christian honesty have compassion and empathy for a good, faithful Muslim when he/she knows that Muslim's life and faith is denied by God? The Christian merely shrugs and says the Muslim is saved if, of course, they abandon the religion of their family, their heritage, their culture, their beloved, and become Christian (and this exact mindset is true for the Muslim). A religious person will never truly see this as a hurtful dichotomy, set in place by their "all loving" god.
7
Bravo.
I was a child in a WASP family full of prayerful bigots. I developed a nose for hypocrisy from the time I was in kindergarten. I deeply admire people of faith who have real ethics and care for the poor and the planet, but the rest of the Bible-thumpers are just delusional, if not outright liars in my opinion.
Jesus would weep.
11
Amen, and well said, Mr. Egan. Religion is a human-made concoction, ergo faulty to a fault, and soon and inevitably a bastion of corruption - political, economic and moral.
Spirituality, oppositely, provides a pole-star in deciding what to do with life. And base motives find no sustenance.
5
"Faith is not that complicated. Religion always is."..a sham.
Mankind is capable of great good (Sister Pimentel) and great harm (the Trumps). We can place faith in mankind's innate potential for good, we can strive to do good and promote good, and we don't need religion to lead, herd or threaten us with damnation.
Religions are man made. They are man's attempt to give meaning to life, especially to sacrifice, with the idea that there is rhyme and reason to pain and suffering, and an afterlife of reward for sacrifice and suffering - if you only follow certain beliefs and rules, including intolerance of other religions, nonbelievers, especially non-conformers.
Religions are founded on mystical revelations which only prophets are privileged to receive. The rules THEY make up are mostly commonsense (Ten Commandments) but can be boiled down to the golden rule: treat others as you would like them to treat you. Even atheists, who see mankind's innate potential for goodness, abide by that rule. No one needs religion to teach them not to cheat or inflict suffering on others. No one wants to be treated that way.
America has a proliferation of religious charlatans (Mike Pence), the world has religious terrorists. History documents religions are too often at the center of doing great harm to mankind. No need for examples.
Faith is where you place it not where religion proselytizes you to place it. Don't let religion blind you to man's innate goodness and the golden rule. Have faith.
7
@JABarry YES!!! I live by the Golden Rule.. the only thing that really stuck out to me as a child - treat others as you would like to be treated... and I am an atheist.
1
You don’t need religion or faith to have compassion and help your fellow human. It comes from your own heart not god.
8
Religion is complicated because it’s a man made institution to control groups of people! We really don’t need it. We just need to embrace the values that support survival and well being for everyone. That’s the rub, because nature is survival of the fittest. Human beings have evolved over time and not all are equal in terms of intellect and consciousness. We have a great political structure that seeks a balance between individual freedom and collective protection. Right now, we have a President who lacks intellect and consciousness and behaves like a bull in a china shop. Religion is just another tool to fool people into supporting leaders who care only about themselves. It’s time to rebalance. Religion needs to go.
4
Does the term religion have any meaning outside of western cultures?
2
Evangelicals use religion as a cover to do the devil's work.
How many people have been killed in the name of religion?
More than you can count.
8
Lenin: Religion is the opium of the masses.
Seneca: When asked if he believed that God was real he said, The rich believe it false, the poor think it's true, and the leaders find it useful.
I am sick of TV Regions scammers living in 10 million dollar houses tax fee
I am sick of Camp Pastors being arrested for pedophilia.
I am sick of Lying Vatican officials doing what they can to deter the abuse their EMPLOYEES have caused.
I am sick of the entire Evangelical Empire of Corruption that supports the Criminal Trump.
I was raised Catholic and went to 16 years of Catholic Education.
IT IS A BUSINESS NOT A FAITH.
15
I am an agnostic but I don't hate religion or individuals who are religious [Although I will confess to being pretty frustrated with latter at times. :) ]
But I am frequently disgusted with organized religions and their teaching which, generally, discourage critical thinking, support authoritarianism, and encourage hatred of people who are of other faiths or are atheist or agnostic.
The Catholic church murdered tens of thousands during the inquisitions, and is responsible for tens of thousands of cases of child sexual abuse in modern times. Puritanical Christians used to hang Quakers in colonial times because they were the wrong flavor of Protestant. We got Trump in the White House because evangelical Christians seem to think a corrupt NY billionaire who boasts of assaulting woman is a gift from God. The policies of Israel (the only Jewish State) towards the Palestinians are pretty ugly. The way that Buddhists have behaved towards Hindus in Sri Lanka and Burma are also extremely ugly. And, as the Islamic world...
The Golden Rule or "Do as you would be done by" is a primary tenet of most religions... And the tenet least followed by religious people.
8
So, I thought I was going to read an article about true Christian faith and how it was demonstrated. Instead, a Trump/Pence bashing. I should have known...it's the Times.
2
@SinNombre
It's actually about the ABSENCE of true Christian faith in today's America.
Do you really want to follow Christ? Do the OPPOSITE of what trump/pence say/do.
4
Well, hang out with Kanye enough, and you might start feeling like you're the second coming too.
3
Sister Pimentel is doing “good” either by cherry-picking religion or in spite of religion. The reason that Christianity and Islam provide the theoretical basis for so many bad actors is that they are based on very big lies and include a “drink the Kool Aid test” for membership. And that creates a very fertile environment for every fraud and perversion. Yes, many people do good in the name of religion, and religion is co-morbid with many positive attributes but at its heart it is a fraud.
4
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
10
Religion =/= Christianity, much less some particular flavor thereof. So tired of seeing headlines like this.
There are some good people who are religious. There are vile people who are religious. The fact that one believes in magical sky gods doesn't make one good or bad. It just means a person will believe almost anything, especially if brainwashed from birth. There is a huge disconnect between those claiming to be adherents to Christ and the actual behavior which is decidedly Old Testament.
6
Great article but you ignore the ultimate hypocrisy of today's christian republicans, the fact that one can't be rich and also get into Heaven. Jesus was clear on this and spoke about this repeatedly. No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
4
Pulitzer Prize Award.
Thanks Timothy Egan!
6
I'm looking forward to the day when Christian mythology goes the way of Greek and Roman mythology.
16
Comment on the title: "Why People Hate Religion".
People, I believe, do not hate religion anymore than I hate my neighbor's four cats. I just don't want them in my backyard.
7
A true rendering of hypocrisy writ large. These so-called 'christians' revel in the their angry old testament god while the the Word and example of the Risen Christ escapes them completely.
3
Why does anybody need to believe in a fictitious deity in order to live a compassionate and caring life? Harnessing people’s belief in an angry God has consistently been used to get them to do horrible things. Why don’t we leave off the God part and just teach our children to be kind because it’s the best way to be?
Monte Ladner
6
Honest and well said.
4
Great story. I rarely read such liberal use of stereotyping. Well done. Intellectually dishonest but hey, that wasn’t the goal.
2
"Religion is like wearing lifts in your shoes. If it makes you feel good that's fine. Just don't ask me to wear your shoes." - George Carlin.
16
I have stood next to some of them in a pew and listened to them sing the hymn “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, this you do unto me” as they walk up to receive communion, and wondered if they even heard themselves. Needless to say, I don’t spend much time in “the pews” anymore. What part of Christ’s message which was simply “love one another”, don’t they get?
5
I wonder if religious belief can exist in the individual or if, by it's own illogic, can only thrive in a community of like-minded people
"Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar'a and to God..." Doesn't that pertain to following the rules of immigration as far as allowing legals and NOT Illegals?
1
I'm sorry, but every time a religious individual cites Yeshua as having 'never denigrated homosexuality', they are cherry-picking verses that fit their mental image of him. In truth, he spoke about 'sexual immorality', a phrase used several times throughout the old and new testaments to encompass adultery, fornication, incest, and homosexuality, and affirmed the definition of marriage as being 'between a man and a woman'.
A better position to take is 'we should probably not trust the Bible, or any text, as an absolute moral code, because we are, inevitably, going to encounter some abjectly immoral practices'.
1
There is nothing Christian about the Evangelicals.
12
As the Evangelicals used to say, "What would Jesus do?" Simple answer. To be Christian is to act in the guidance of Jesus Christ. The Evangelical Right is now a cult of hypocrites. May eternal damnation be their deserved reward.
4
This is amazing
1
Chris, in his sermon on the mount: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6: 24. So how can a true Christian worship Donald, the chosen one? Didn't the Commandments (not the ten "suggestions") condemn worship of false gods?
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others." Matthew 6:5
4
Excellently written op-ed.
2
Jesus saved his harshest words for religious hypocrites. It's a lesson that seems lost on far too many claiming to be faithful.
6
Check out the Hidden Brain NPR podcast titled “Creating God”. It offers some interesting perspectives on how religion evolved in human cultures.
5
Praise the Lord and pass the basket. It is so sad that Christianity has evolved to such a sad state. No surprise though...remember the KKK would attend church and would make it a family affair to conduct lynchings. With the advent of mega-churches it has become much more business-centric focusing on profits and growth under the pretense of true religion. The mega-church is the Walmart of religion.....hyping the ‘good news” and at the same time destroying the local church depriving the local church of already shrinking congregations, funds, thus diminishing local cohesion and sense of community. Bottomline: polls are showing a shift in our youths and millennials away from religion more toward agnosticism and atheism. Maybe...just maybe..it’s a good thing. If Jesus were alive today...he would be vilified as a “Liberal” by the very religious leaders who worship Trump as their messiah.
4
Trump and his Evangelical - as well as Catholic Followers have corrupted the Spiritual Branding of 'Christianity' - the word is now synonymous with White, Entitled, Supremacy - they USE Jesus and God as their tools to create and control people, communities, states and countries by way of FEAR.
A new name has to be created - A name that truly welcomes all people, of all races, heritages, genders, faiths -
The Christian branding is a fraud - sheltering Lonely people who need a place to justify their promotion of Hate - as they convince themselves they are doing and saying everything out of Love.
Total Hypocrisy - everyone needs to vote to wipe all these representatives out of office all levels out - federal, state, local - vote them out of all their churches - vote to have them fired - vote to dismantle all these 'snake oil' organizations.
3
This goes for Mormons too, who love Trump just as much as the Evangelicals.
5
The author, like many, is not against religion, or rather, faith - as evidenced on his praise of Sister Pimentel and others who really do God’s work. But organized religion, a human construct, is something else, as corrupt as any other powerful organization, and mostly unanswerable to no one.
On a personal note, sadly, I have seen a close friend, trying to minister to the poor, and being inclusive, eventually fall victim to ‘they’ versus ‘us’, excluding others (including women) because he felt he needed to follow strict teachings. Another, a minister, who could not continue a conversation because he saw I had different ideas about spirituality. Both only maintained interest in an exchange as long as there was the possibility of ‘conversion’, not because there is another human being.
2
Fair question: Why do people hate religion? I can speak only for myself, but hatred is at least nuanced.
There is a great deal in religion that is admirable, and those of us who don't believe are wrong to suggest otherwise. Great religions teach principles of kindness and generosity, so that those in whom such impulses require a nudge can refer to authority. Belief in fables is a comfort to many, and crucial to some. Religious art and music enrich our lives.
What religions do that evoke negative feelings (I avoid the monstrous word "hatred") is to allow evasion of responsibility for what we do. Adherents of many religions (I will be reminded of exceptions) avoid personal decisions by appealing to high authority. Some religions thinly disguise bigotry, intolerance, nativism, cruelty, and violence.
Men are "taught" by some religions to treat women poorly and to interfere in what should be their decisions. Many religions disrespect each other, and abhor nonbelievers. Many reject knowledge acquired experimentally, empirically, by reasoning, by means other than scripture.
I could continue at greater length, but these words will not change anyone's mind, nor would I wish them to. I envy the devout in their ability to find comfort in their belief systems. I wish only that they were more tolerant of others.
2
There have been two "Great Awakenings" of Fundamentalist religion in the United States. We are now in the middle of the third. Each time before, it ended with revulsion by the larger secular society and a banishment from public life into the outer darkness. Saddle up your mule, Zeb, time for your 50 years in the Wilderness.
5
-Pence is the chief bootlicker to a president who now sees himself in messianic terms, a president who tweets a description of himself as “the second coming of God.”
Don T is not the second coming of God. He is the first. VP Pence just happens to realize this objective fact.
I deeply hope this is sarcasm.....
3
Without the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the scientific and humanistic revolutions we in the West would almost certainly be living in a Taliban/ISIS type Christian dystopia – as the Bible, the “word of God”, actually calls for.
Christianity didn’t become decent, didn’t stop burning heretics and endorsing slavery on its own. As philosopher Sam Harris says: ”That door doesn’t open outwards,” – it was kicked in by the Reformation, the Enlightenment, etc.
Or, as Christopher Hitchens said: "Religion poisons everything." D.A., J.D., N.Y.C
5
It’s simple why I despise religions.
Religions, all of them, Buddhist and Sikh, Muslim and Mormon, have taken heaven off the earth and placed it an ethereal sky above me. I have to pay dues, usually money, to gain entrance to this unearthly heaven.
Religions use fear of death to scare me into believing the words of their good books. Strangely, I sinned the second I was born. For god's sake, they frightened me from birth.
Religions claim the finite life I live is false, that I should yearn for an eternal life, to live forever, that the dust to dust existence I live is sad and inglorious. But, who’d would want to live “forever?”
Religions claim Christ like virtues but, in real life, often act like devils. They are out for themselves. That is why so many religions hate other religions. Their way is the right way.
Religions espouse the Golden Rule but mainly do good only for their own tribes. Ask a Southern Baptist what he thinks of a Mormon, ask a Hindu in Delhi what he she thinks of a Muslim. Ask Jerry Falwell what he thinks of a lesbian.
Oh, to ponder what our earthly lives would have been like if we had had no religions, if we’d kept heaven on earth and not subordinated it to groups of treacly pious men (always men!) who are the only one who have the code that will allow us entrance to some misty unreachable realm high above.
Ah, heaven on earth, now that’s something I can believe in.
6
Thank You... Spot on analysis.. The hypocrisy of people who fancy themselves as devout Christians yet act like devout barbarians literally takes ones breath away. Our baser instincts seem to prevail in a significant number of us no matter how many hallelujahs are blurted out.
4
Bad headline, given that a majority of Americans is religious. It would behoove the NYT to put a lot more thought and care into headlines if they hope to ever escape the taint of being elitist. Headlines are all that many people see. I am a fan of Egan, and of the NYT, but this headline will earn scorn from many and undo the credibility of dozens of the past articles by Egan. You need to prioritize the wording of headlines MORE than those of the article. The NYT does not get this.
1
@CitizenJ
I don't have any problem with the headline.
2
Great headline! Because, NO NO NO! Appeasing people who are hypocrites and who are willingly (nay, gleefully), in bed with vicious sexists, racists and white supremacists is NOT the answer. Who cares what such people think; their opinions are demonstratively unworthy. They don’t want to hear that they are immoral hypocrites? Tough.
2
Several years ago the Bishop of the Harrisburg Pennsylvania diocese forbade wrestling teams from Catholic high schools from competing against any team that had girls on it. His state and his diocese had been the site of egregious clerical sexual abuse of young boys and girls and he’s worried about a Catholic boy possibly touching a girl’s body in a sporting event.
I feel sorry for good people with religious impulses who believe they have to be obedient to the leadership of the corrupt and hypocritical men that run these degraded institutions.
3
The church of the inhumane perplexes human dignity. Love thy neighbor has no place in firing gay employees. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, lying is something that has become acceptable? Thou shall not have any strange God’s before me, the worship of Trump as their God savior as they step over sick and dying refugees is absolutely unGod like. Thou shall not covet they neighbors wife, does not apply to these evangelists. Thou shall not steal? Imagine being a refugee, escaping violence, mayhem, murder, hunger and lifelong poverty only to be viewed as an unwelcome alien or criminal. I am appalled that this is 2019 and this is how our neighbors are being treated.
4
Amen, Timothy, amen.
3
This is a cross-road (no pun intended) for any person of religion.
Last week Trump decided to yank the law that protects children on the border: They are to be reduced to Gitmo-status, no law to protect them for any reason. They are to be detained forever.
Then came the news that members of the military service cannot count on their children being classified as US citizens.
And, then came the news of the "33 Days" warning to any non-citizen receiving last-chance-to -live medical care: Be out of this country within 33 days or you will be thrown out.
No, the President and Vice-President do not care if you die.
Yes, the Pres and V-Pres understand fully that removing you from said medical care means EXACTLY that you will die - have a nice trip.
Busy week, yes?
This is the week of the Evangelical's "Come To Jesus Moment".
For decades they have howled about abortion - the killing of "innocent babies". But a fetus is not a "baby".
It is a clump of cells.
"Babies" are the ones in different cells, the dog cages of the border.
"Babies" are the Fourth Stage cancer children that Trump/Pence want - nay! DEMAND! - to be thrown out to die.
This is the week that marks who each American is.
A person of religion - any religion - does not kill children.
Not their own, not anyone's.
Pence is not "Christian".
Trump is not "Christian".
Evangelicals are not "Christians".
Christians do not kill dying children.
It is that simple.
Choose. Time has run out for for hypocrites.
15
Thanks. I really needed to her about Sister Pimental.
2
I will forever be in George Carlin's camp on this subject.
10
No. I hate religion because it is supernatural superstitions that we are supposed to “respect” in politics. I do not.
6
To say “God condemns homosexuality” is to believe, ridiculously, that the Bible, a document written by men (all male, probably) is God’s word. Baloney. It’s just hope that avers that a divine being directs men to write, not their own thoughts, but the thoughts of God. Again I say with history and scriptural scholarship supporting me: baloney. Get real. The Bible is, was, and will always be words of men. Live with it and stop using the words of people like you and me as divine words. You aren’t divine, nor were the writers of the Bible. The Bible is as divine as your grocery list, and often more fallible and less trustworthy. Amen.
7
You've nailed it.
2
I dislike, not hate, religion because it is so phony. Phony beliefs, phony god and phony in practice. See pence, falwell and millions more.
4
It is simple and you are wrong. The third peg of Catholic teaching is social justice. And when I look back it just doesn't add up. Most especially when it come to economic disadvantage. Blame the Jesus seminar, traditional religions, secularism.
I think you're messed up. Why? You exploit the most vulnerable and then when things don't go your way you distance yourself. That is messed up, Tim.
I'm not waiting for me ship to come in and I understand the cargo-cult mentality.
1
@Misty Martin: As another commenter said in reply to your post, Jesus says not a word about homosexuality; re-read the Gospels to see for yourself. Christians' very beliefs should preclude the use of the "Old Testament", but since you use it to condemn homosexuality, then I'll use it too: go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 16, verses 49-50. There you will see that homosexuality had nothing - not. one. thing. - to do with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I'm sure you won't take my word for it, so please do go there and read it; it's clear even in the KJV translation.
3
These Christians are a political group not a religious one.
6
When a religion tells you that God prefers the wealthy to the poor, that God hates many types of people that are not like you and that God prefers your religion to all others, that is not a religion. It's a cult. If you find yourself in one of these false houses and they are asking you for money and getting political, it's time to find another religion.
15
End of days believers consider Trump anointed because he's hastening us toward the ultimate destruction of the world so Christ can come a second time.
I don't know how you reason with that.
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Hypocrisy is one of the lowest of personal failures
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How can any Christian see the conditions on the border and not have Mathew 25:40 come to mind: ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
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There will be a backlash against evangelicals who support President Bone Spur, just like there has been a backlash against the morally bankrupt catholic church.
In fact the catholic church hierarchy and the republican party are like two peas in a pod....totally unfit to lead and totally without morals.
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‘Therefore by their fruits you will know them’.
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Exactly right
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Magical thinking/superstition and money/power. Whatever could go wrong?
Not all religions are christian. It is the 4 misogynist and violent Abrahamics that gave religion a bad name. The jews and islam stole from the oldest faiths: hindism and buddism. Then, the christians and catholic offshoots made everything about war and political power.
That this stuff is still around and infecting not just 7.6 billion humans but destroying the planet in the process is an indication how truly limited humans are as a species.
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I have never confused religion with God. The two really have nothing to do with each other, except that religions use the word “God” a lot.
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When you place nasty partisan party politics above your religion, your religion is obviously rotten and means nothing. By making bargains with the sordid, seamy and unsavory likes of Donald Trump, evangelical Christians have kicked out what was left of the rickety, termite infested foundation of their religion. Watch it now decompose apace like wet fall leaves.
Hasn't that lesson been taught and learned from time immemorial? Do not mix politics (especially of the coarse, bankrupt GOP partisan party variety or the European kingly-princely variety) with religion. It is not only a terrible long-term bet, but a prescription for disaster.
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Indeed I am a prisoner of hope, hope that we can abandon supernaturalism and realize that all good is done in the material world, that this life is all we have. Religious belief is the most pernicious aspect of human society and is the foundation for most manipulative charlatans, e.g. Trump/Pence.
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The hypocrisy that pervades religion is about on par with the hypocrisy that pervades many Americans' ideas about freedom, equality, justice, and democracy.
To them, under the American Constitution Freedom of religion means the freedom to be a bigot and exploit others in the name of religion.
But I don't blame the hierarchy of either religion or government for any of this; I blame the tens of millions of people who willfully, ignorantly, and hatefully follow them. On a people who keep calling on others to take responsibility its time for those people to take responsibility for their own hypocrisy.
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Such an unfortunate article! Coming from a country where Christians are being targeted and killed in some parts, just for existing(Nigeria) It’s quite sad that this writer chooses to bash organized religion specifically Christianity! Unfortunately all institutions on earth are somewhat flawed, be it education, Heath, governance and of course religion, not because of the tenets or teachings but because they are used by the powerful for their selfish ends... there’s nothing wrong with being Catholic or Protestant or Muslim, it becomes problematic when some factions use it to create confusion and anarchy. God bless you all
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What’s especially galling is that, through tax-exempt status, my government is forcing me to support the evangelical charlatans I so detest.
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Faith is not religion. Religion is not Faith. Thank you for writing this. You have succinctly laid out where we are at now with the white evangelical christian of European decent. They have been forced into the delusional thinking that their god designated America as theirs and theirs alone. And Trump is their puppet, brought to office on their shoulders, doing their bidding in the hopes he becomes their god.
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Religious extremism is the scourge of humanity. But maybe if the 'holy texts' of the main religions themselves did not praise murder and genocide, intolerance and vengeance, the 'extremist' elements in society would never show their ugly faces.
As John Lennon so succinctly wrote; "Imagine ...."
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I hate that Trump is destroying the world of legitimate faith based help through his hypocrisy.
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I hate religion because it makes people do stupid, crazy, immoral and hateful things, based upon nothing. There is not one single shred of proof that any of it is in the least bit true, and yet, it has caused more misery that could have been avoided than anything else in recorded history. It *is* tribal, and divisive and co-opts good people to do bad things. It takes credit for the best of what we are, yet is all to willing to punish anyone for thought crimes, or silly "laws" that have no bearing on anything (being clean-shaven; wearing mixed fabrics, etc.). It is a danger to us, and now that we are on the cusp of seriously abandoning the concept, those who are afraid of world without it are fighting tooth and nail to keep it (and themselves) in place. We have outgrown the idea of religion - it needs to be put aside.
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Thanks for telling it like it is. I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and send a donation to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
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thank you Tim. I would implore all to read the bible and understand that it was the leaders of organized religion in his day - priests, saducees and pharisees- that killed Jesus. Those leaders and followers are the same ones who call themselves evangelical. it's a meaningless term, they are not Christian or christ-like in any way and if Jesus was alive today, they would kill him too
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Mark Twain: “religion began when the original con MAN met the fool. “
Enough said.
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Perhaps more accurate to ask why people hate the church, rather than religion.
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This Deist thinks kindly of you religious folks. God, whatever she, he, or it may be, left us a lovely world. She/He/It is on a multi-billion-year coffee break. The destiny of the planet and all its inhabitants is ours now, to wreck or save.
So stop fighting and get busy.
Give thanks for what you've received, and stop asking God for stuff. The evidence suggests that God does not intervene, even to save good folks from evil. That's our job; I came to this conclusion after studying the Holocaust.
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Beautiful. Some of the folks I most admire -- and who actually out do many of my liberal, non-religious friends who talk more about social justice than do it -- are Christians quietly going about their work. No obsession with, we hate gays, women are baby killers, we're victims of the War on Christmas (as if God needs their help) or we demand the 10 Commandments on court house lawns.
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Religious people, having already believed one great big lie, are just suckers for the next lie, and the next, and the next.
And of course Trump, and before him the GOP, and before them the Church, are happy to oblige, ad infinitum.
American politics is what you get when people take lies as gospel, lock themselves into defending dogmatic positions, will not entertain open or fact-based analysis and criticism, and then refuse to compromise.
The religious right should be praying that rational atheists and humanists can save them from their own religious stupor and fact-denying idiocy.
Sadly, one gets the distinct impression that it will take a very big disaster to reset the fact-averse stupidity - Brexit is not big enough; Another world war might; Climate change has the scale but is too slow to materialise.
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The good works described require no religious chicanery, the righteous and the charlatans own the same false superstitions.
I was sexually harassed and abused by a Catholic priest as a teenager working in a rectory. I was preyed upon because I did not have an intact family, had no parental guidance and was dirt poor. I have left the church, practice no religion, and am borderline agnostic. I despise conservative Christianity in all forms especially the pious adherents.
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I am never surprised at the crushing ignorance of NYT reporters and commentators when it comes to religion. It seems religion is always reduced to either a self help system or a behavioral modification therapy.
Of course, countless books and speakers have written and spoken about the internal and theological consistency of different belief systems, but this seems to be a bridge too far for commentators like Egan.
20 centuries of a faith system seems to be too much for Egan to investigate in his shallow and silly dismissal of millions of people and their faith. No wonder Trump won.
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@Charles
I am reminded of Ghandi's response when asked
" What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea."
Just replace "Western civilization" with "true Christianity".
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"They hate religion because, at a moment to stand up and be counted on the right side of history, religion is used as moral cover for despicable behavior."
Others of us hate it because it is just transparent pack of lies, engineered to give certain men control over the lives of other men, and especially, women. Its great that some adherents are truly charitable, but they do so in the belief they will receive rewards in an afterlife. People should do good out of simple human empathy, without being driven by fear of divine retribution if they don't.
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Your column is so right on. I could not think of a better term than "rotting core" to describe how I feel about the evangelical community, whose complete hypocrisy is expressed to perfection by Ralph Reed's quote. It isn't just the young who are leaving in droves. You can be of any age to finally say, in your heart and soul, that enough is enough. I can't think of a sadder representation of the time in which we live than when those who judge others based on biblical morality, are led by someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word.
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I was raised Catholic and was brainwashed at Catholic schools, but by age sixteen I was beginning to question the dogma, especially the constant drivel about this religion being the only true belief, the pinnacle. At the same time, every other religion believes their dogma is the only true belief. So it’s obvious that someone is wrong. I’ve come to understand that religion itself is basically a means of power and control. Catholics ban birth control and abortion mainly so that more ‘faithful’ are born since there is power in numbers. Evangelicals beliefs must concur with this as well. All religion as it is mostly practiced is a sham, a means of power and control, and far too often, an excuse for hatred of the “other.” No wonder so many people are leaving the churches, the synagogues, the mosques. Killing or hating others over disparate beliefs is the antithesis of what any belief system should be. Spirituality and living a decent life with true concern and caring for others is separate from the usually restrictive beliefs of any religion. We humans should’ve evolved past the need for clinging to beliefs that cause so much harm. Let’s all wake up!
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Right-wing populism struggles to govern effectively, but it clearly has a durable political appeal ".
Hate and fear has always had durable political appeal. The fact that it is the tool of today's Christians is what should trouble actual Christians.
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Yes, religion and religious people fail often, but I bet that you surveyed people who were jailed this past week, disproportionately few were in a church or synagogue over the weekend. People can hate ethical monotheism all they want, but without Christianity, there would still be slavery in the west, without Judaism, there would be no concept of equal justice under the law, and without both of them, we'd be still be sacrificing children if not sexually exploiting them. The hardest things about ethical monotheism are that it forces people to confront the fleetingness of their days, and that standards exist that are larger than human.
@O'Brien
"[W]ithout Christianity, there would still be slavery in the west . . . ."
Say what? While that SOME Christians finally decided to oppose slavery (17 or 18 centuries after the time of Jesus), OTHER Christians -- with full Biblical support -- believed that slavery was divinely sanctioned. Indeed, not one single sentence in the Bible says that slavery is wrong. Not one. To the contrary, in Leviticus 25:44-46, GOD HIMSELF specifically states that "You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you . . . . You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance." Similarly, Jesus never, ever suggested that slavery was wrong. In fact, Jesus taught that: “Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives” (Matt. 24:46). In another parable, Jesus tells us that a slave who fails to perform his duties should rightly expect to be beaten by his master (Luke 12:43-48). Consistent with the teaching of Jesus in Matt. 24:46, slaves are repeatedly admonished in the epistles to remain loyal to their masters and to serve them well and eagerly. See, for example, Ephesians 6:5-8.
The reality is that Christianity became a force in opposition to slavery only after SOME Christians decided to actually IGNORE the passages of the Bible that explicitly or implicitly endorse slavery, and to instead rely on more generalized provisions advocating kindness and charity.
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