Why a Congregation for Religious Tolerance?

Why  a Congregation for Religious Tolerance?  I touched on this question as my first post, back in June.  It seems to be a recurring question from readers requesting a bit more depth, so here it is.  I will try not to restate too much of the first post as I also hate it when I feel someone is patronizing.  My feeling is, if I didn't explain it well enough the first time, restating it the same way again is going to accomplish what?  So, I will try to approach it from a slightly different angle and see if this helps clarify my reasoning. 

I have been disenchanted with organized religion for years.  Lately, I have become tired of Christians constantly sitting in judgment of me, and those like me, who believe there might be another path.  These “Christians” show little of the charity one would expect toward those of “little faith,” yet they hold up the Bible quoting chapter and verse, just prior to turning their back on you and walking away.

The ministers and priests flood our airwaves with the gospel, just prior to hitting us up for that blessed donation so they might continue their ministry, and pay for their palatial mansions, limousines, and “Crystal Cathedrals,” all the while pledging their intent to do for the poor, the needy, and the godless.  Really?  Let’s take a quick look at just one of those faithful ministries.

Robert H. Schuler, affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, collects $18 million to build his congregation’s “Crystal Cathedral.”  Upon bankruptcy, they are $43 Million in debt.  The Cathedral is sold to the Catholic Church for $57 million.  The Catholics are working to open it in 2015 with $100 million in renovations.  $161 million spent on a house of worship.  The poor are still hungry, and the congregation is no closer to God than they were prior to following this “minister” into a bottomless pit of debt.  The Catholics will make this property pay for itself, no doubt, and the poor will still be hungry.

I will never ask for your money.  You know better than I how to take care of those around you in need.  Let's start at home and work our way outward.

If you can pound your Bible, quote scripture, waggle your finger in my face, and think for one minute that this egotistical, pious, belligerence was what Christ taught, that this was God’s will, who is the ignorant one?  Who of us is in line to drink the Kool-Aid?  When righteous, religious leadership speaks, don’t the faithful fall to their knees and drink it all in without blinking an eye?  Reverend Jim Jones took this to it's extreme in Jonestown when, in 1978, 909 members of his Peoples Temple cult, including 300 children, drank his poisoned Kool-Aid, dying for the greater glory.  Before they died, Jones felt it prudent to also kill a congressman and five aids visiting Jonestown, on a fact finding tour.  

The world lost 909 souls, one congressman and four of his staff, Kool-Aid got a bad rap, and the poor are still hungry.

Most religions and spiritual philosophies throughout the world expound the ideas of tolerance, forgiveness, love, and morality.  Yet, we have historically waged war in the name of God at the drop of a hat, in order to gain territory and fill the coffers.  On a good day we insist on bad mouthing each other's belief systems, decrying the use of Christmas decorations, and the name of God on public places.

We try to out do each other in the size and beauty of our places of worship with the likes of the Blue Mosque, St. Peter's, St. Basil's, Hagia Sophia, Wat Pho, and the Crystal Cathedral.  And throughout all of this, the poor continue to go hungry while the religious leaders, in the name of their deity, feed off their ignorance. 

Is it any wonder most of us have become numb or disenchanted with God and religion?  Isn't there a better way?

But, how many more "better ways" do we need?  Everybody thinks their way is the only way.  I say, that's fine.  Believe in your way, just don't judge me for believing differently.  It comes down to acceptance and tolerance.  It is all about our ability to agree to disagree.  Our desire to have meaningful, peaceful dialogue about our differences, our similarities, and our faiths.

If people of faith, people of peace and love, cannot have this kind of dialogue, what chance do we have to survive?  If we as religious and spiritual leaders can't have this kind of dialogue, what chance do we have of ministering our congregations down the peaceful path of our philosophy or prophets?  If the congregations cannot be educated about each other's "true" beliefs, learn to be tolerant of them, enjoy the diversity and colorful majesty of those other beliefs, how will they ever learn to accept each other, and live with each other, in peace?

 Why the Congregation for Religious Tolerance?  I just wanted a place to rest.  I figure many of us need a place where we can take a moment and just focus on our own path for a while.  Maybe we can learn from each other.  Maybe we can help each other understand.  Maybe, if we can find peace for just a moment, we can find love, and then understanding, and then acceptance.  We don't have to always agree.  If we agreed all the time what would we ever talk about?  But, maybe we could learn to disagree in peace.  It is not necessary for me to agree with you in order to love you.

 As I said in my Mission Statement and Philosophy: 

The Congregation for Religious Tolerance promotes the idea of religious and spiritual tolerance through education, understanding, fairness and compassion, conversation and debate, while allowing everyone to peacefully follow their own spiritual beliefs without oppression or discrimination.

Tolerance may not necessarily extend beyond religious beliefs to include some religious actions -- particularly those that harm or harass others.  Religious and spiritual tolerance is a fundamental right in a democracy.  It is incumbent upon all of us, at the end of the day, to protect those that cannot protect themselves and to stand up for the peaceful rights of others.

Maybe we can all be a congregation of religious and spiritual people that can agree to disagree on faith, and then, maybe, we can focus on making the world a better place.  Maybe we can finally focus an feeding the poor which will ultimately make a better world for all of us.  We just have to learn to keep our eye on that ball, and quit playing so many games at the same time.  When  it comes to peace, we are lousy at multi-tasking. 

 We are only given one path to travel.  I vote we try to converge our paths and travel together for once.  How colorful and interesting would that be? 

"I love our cultural diversity of food, art, and spiritual faith.  I have known the peace between divergent cultures brought together through hospitality and a meal.  I have laughed with my “enemy,” and cried at their losses, have disagreed with my ally, and raised a glass with all of them at the end of the day.  I have seen us all come together in times of need and despair.  I have to believe that, through all of this, there was a common faith among us that we are better than our disagreements and that, in the end, we are really just one family, trying to get along.  Most of the time we seem to fail, but when we succeed...how glorious is that!"