It is sadly ironic,
How the majority of wars,
Fought since the beginning of time,
Have been over religion.
There were the so called Holy Wars,
Of the medieval era.
In the not so distant past,
Of the 20th Century,
There was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
Not to mention
World War II,
Which wasn’t strictly about religion,
But weren’t the Jews,
Still among the most persecuted?
We could claim,
That it is all in the past,
And mankind has evolved since the 1940s,
But that would be a lie.
Because while there may be more subtleties involved now,
The War in Iraq,
While rightly fought over terrorism,
Has launched a cold war,
Between Christians and Muslims,
Because even though,
The terrorists who caused 9/11,
Were Muslim extremists,
Equal in view of the vast majority of Muslims,
To what the Westboro Baptist Church is to most Christians,
It does not stop,
People from being mistrustful,
Of those of Middle Eastern descent.
Is it any wonder,
Why I am agnostic?
It may be rather narrow minded,
And perhaps I am generalizing far too much,
But at its heart,
Religion is a personal belief,
Constructed to give people,
Something to believe in,
And a hand to hold,
When they need the extra help.
It is supposed to help people,
Make sense of an utterly chaotic world,
Which they were pushed into,
Without warning,
Or a set of rules to guide them.
And while I understand the need,
To believe in a higher power,
To have a reason for existing,
To hope there is something
Far greater than,
A mundane job,
And a rather unfulfilling life,
I have never understood,
The need to condemn others,
For believing in things,
That are different than what I believe.
In high school,
My best friends consisted of
Protestants and Methodists,
Jews and Catholics,
Muslims and Baptists.
We were all close,
Only arguing over,
Which version of the Doctor
Was truly the best,
Respecting each other’s beliefs,
And even trying to understand
The practices of other religions.
It never occurred to us,
That our Muslim friend should be mistrusted,
Or that since I was raised,
In a family considered Baptist,
My sister should not date,
The twerpy looking Unitarian boy.
But as I became more aware,
Of the world around me,
I noticed,
With growing disgust,
That too many people
Were using their religions,
As an excuse,
To pass judgement on others.
The President has a strange name,
Therefore,
He must be Muslim,
And cannot be leader of the United States.
Your premarital rape,
Was unprotected,
And the resulting pregnancy,
Has a soul,
Therefore,
You cannot get an abortion.
You are a man,
Who loves another man,
And because someone believes that to be wrong,
You cannot get married.
You’re Muslim,
Therefore you are a terrorist,
Subjected to surprise searches at airport security,
In the name of freedom.
If you are Jewish,
You have to go to school over Hanukkah,
But deities forbid,
Christians go to school over Christmas.
America’s Constitution,
Boasts the separation of church and state,
But while that looks good on paper,
Marriage equality only exists,
In a handful of states,
And a woman’s right to choose,
Is still heavily contested.
I wonder,
When it became acceptable,
To impose one set of beliefs,
On an entire nation,
When most of our forefathers,
Came here to escape such things.
I also question,
What business is it,
Of the rest of the world’s,
To dictate who I can marry,
Or why anyone who looks vaguely Middle Eastern,
Is regarded with hatred and suspicion.
So when the topic of religion is raised,
And I am asked what I identify as,
I say agnostic.
People groan,
And accuse me of being a cop out.
I look at them in bafflement,
Unable to understand,
How their belief in a specific,
All powerful god,
Is perfectly acceptable,
But when I choose,
To accept that there is something out there,
Yet not lab what it is,
I am in the wrong.
I will never claim
That my way is better or worse,
Nor will I ever,
Look down on someone for what they believe.
Because it is my belief,
That you are free to believe what you will,
But you also,
Have to allow others the same courtesy.
It is not your decision,
To dictate how others should live,
So live and let live,
And believe in what you will. ,
Rachelle Manning 