You’d think in 2016 the idea that anybody having their basic human rights taken away from them on the grounds of an out dated manuscript would be absurd, but alas, here we are. The influence of religion on politics goes without saying, after all, it was the foundation to initial central law enforcement and arguably the springboard to discrimination in the first place, period, since it was decided by a group of wealthy, privileged white men. But why, so many thousands of year’s later, are we still so adamant to follow the ruling of books that were written for a time that is so far behind us?
Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with religion, I myself have my own beliefs about God, being raised as a Christian then later converting to Judaism. I attended a Church of England pre-school and take the occasional trip to my place of worship every so often. It’s safe to say religion has played a key role in my up bringing and has definitely impacted my way of looking at life and the world. However, I still manage to separate my choice of religious beliefs and logically develop rational political opinions that suit the day and age that I am currently living in. It’s unfortunate that not everyone can say the same. But to truly understand where this religious dictation comes from, we have to go from the beginning, or from early on if you will. The bible states in Genesis 3:16 “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children,” this was due to Eve (supposedly the first woman of creation) giving into temptation and taking a bite of ‘forbidden fruit’ in the garden of Eden, ergo sentencing her to a life of punishment. Immediately this suggests that women are the weaker sex and men are superior, which was taken quite literally by a number of fundamentalists. This elementary idea was quickly manipulated by hundreds of male figures of authority through time, resulting in the theme of sexism that we know and love today, amazing.
But why stop there? A lot of people (shout out to straight America) love to refer to bible verse Romans 1:26-28 “men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error,” it doesn’t take a genius to work out how easily that can be interpreted. Heterosexuality: okay, homosexuality: not okay. The idea that homosexuality is unnatural (due to the incapability to produce offspring) has been recycled by many religious groups, not only Christianity. This has always been a slightly abstract concept for me though. I think we can all agree that at the end of the day -religion is all about interpretation. It’s extremely subjective and open to discussion/conception. So if you individually are interpreting certain religious verses as anti-homosexuality then I’m going to guess you were probably homophobic in the first place. There is no legitimate reason to follow the bible (or any holy scripture for that matter) word for word, so if that’s the choice you are making it’s probably because you had toxic ideology already anyway. Let’s remember that these verses were not written by God himself, rather they are just mere interpretations themselves from very mortal human beings –you don’t have to agree with all of them. Four score and seven years ago we believed that the earth was flat, then we discovered this is not the case and updated our fatigued information, so why is this so hard to do with religion, where is the sense in following a book that was written for a completely different society, time and place?
You may be reading this and think these are very basic, easily graspable ideas –and they are, I agree- but somehow, in 2016, not everybody has updated with the times yet. At this very moment, we have a potential presidential candidate (he who shall not be named) who is manipulating the narrow minds and dangerous mentalities of simple, easily influenced people to oppress and harass certain groups of people –and it’s working!
Worshipping God and minding your own business is very therapeutic and I strongly encourage everyone to find their own version of God, something to work hard and strive for, that could be your family, or your partner. However, we must take it upon ourselves to separate our faith from our peers, what is best for every human being on this earth? Let’s remember the most important verse in the Holy Bible (and accountable in the Quran) and apply it to our every day lives, “love thy neighbour.”
