While surfing the web today, as I often do, I came across a comment that has been eating at me ever since. It was a review on one of those on-line business guru sites. The site itself was pretty typical- almost completely forgettable on it's own, as it is so much like so many others that I have seen- but this comment really bothered me.
The commenter claimed to be someone who had been using the system for a few months now with incredible results- as I said, typical of this type of site- but what bothered me was that the poster said that one of the things that they most loved about the company was the fact that it was a Christian company because “it makes it so much easier for people to trust” them.
I have no problem with people who believe in Christianity- much of my extended family is Christian and between us the only effect that their faith being different from mine has on our relationship is that we have agreed to disagree. We simply do not discuss religion aside from the
occasional insider jokes, which due to my religious upbringing I still get and laugh along with like everyone else. My problem with the statement made in this comment comes not from a problem with Christianity, but from the implication that if you're not christian, then you are not trustworthy. That type of attitude really pisses me off.
Trust based on professed religious belief is, at best naive. Trust is earned by a perception that we "know" what someone else will do. It's supposed to be based on our observations of a series of choices which altogether help to ID the personal code of whomever we are trying to under-
stand. This personal Code, which literally refers to the belief structure in our heads that we guide our choices by, is the very definition of morality and while it can be and often is influenced by religion, Morality and Religion are NOT THE SAME THING!
There is nothing that I have ever experienced, or read, or otherwise learned that has led me to the belief that any one religion is more or less “Morally Upstanding” than any other. They all have “black sheep” and other skeletons in their folds. Nor am I trying to suggest that those without religion are ultimately better. What I am saying is that I resent the idea that that if I am, say, Muslim or Jewish, than I am somehow less trustworthy than a devoted Southern Baptist or a confirmed Roman Catholic just because I don’t accept the idea that Jesus was the savior that was prophesied in the ancient times described in the early books of the Bible, the Torah and the Koran.
The reasoning behind this offensive comment, I know, is that if people share religious beliefs, then their morality will also be similar, but the reality of life is that just because someone says they are of a particular faith doesn’t mean that they actually practice the precepts of that faith and even if they do, there may be other factors that can cause their moral code to be very different from someone else in that same religion. Let’s look at some “religious” people throughout history:
Roman Catholics are one of my personal favorite examples. When people think of this religion, there are a few names that almost always come up, like Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa who are both well known for their good works throughout the world. But the same people who would brag about these examples of “shining morality” would rather that people not realize that Adolf Hitler was also a devote Catholic who was actually supported by Pope Pius XII despite the fact that the pope was well aware of the Nazi agenda. Was Pius any less Catholic than John Paul? No. But their life experiences caused their moral codes to differ greatly.
Another example that people like to gloss over is all of the priests, ministers, and other religious figures who have been caught sexually abusing members of their “flocks” over the years. Are they any less religious than their more … chaste.... brethren? In some cases yes, but many times they are just as otherwise upstanding as anyone else in their respective clergy.
What about the “Christian” groups that bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors and other medical staff that work in these clinics? Are they justified because they’re religion says that abortion is wrong? or does killing those people and destroying those facilities make them just as “Godless” as those that they seek to punish?
Here’s another pet peeve group of mine- those “Christian” groups that protest around Planned Parenthood facilities. Every time that I see them around the Planned Parenthood building in my hometown with their signs depicting aborted fetuses and decrying the Planned Parenthood company for “killing babies” I have to wonder how many of those protesters have ever even walked into one of those facilities to see what it is like. My guess is that at least 95% of them have never even knowingly spoken to anyone that works for that company, though I would not be at all surprised if many of them actually attended the same churches. Despite what these protesting groups would have us believe, Planned Parenthood does not encourage everyone who comes through their door to have an abortion- in fact abortion is the absolute last resort in their books.
The truth is that Planned Parenthood’s foremost mantra is education BEFORE pregnancy. Many of the people that they see everyday come to them to learn how to be responsible about their sexuality and for assistance in not only preventing pregnancy but also planning for when they ARE ready to have children. Their programs for sex education are far more complete than what is often taught in most schools and stresses abstinence as the best option for preventing pregnancy with preventative measures like condoms and birth control pills as SECONDARY lines of defense against unwanted pregnancies. Abortion is only mentioned as a last resort AFTER discussing other solutions to unwanted pregnancy such as adoption.
My life partner and I were both raised in deeply religious households, but when we reached adulthood, we both came to the realization that neither of us truly believed in God. We renounced the religions that we were born into and joined the growing number of people in our world who are professed atheists. When we “accidentally” got pregnant with our oldest child, I suppose we could have looked to abortion as an option, but despite the fact that we were not in the best financial situation at the time, we really did not consider abortion to be a viable option for us- not because we feared punishment from some omnipotent God, but because, despite the fact that it had happened earlier than we had originally planned, we had always wanted to have children and we saw this as an opportunity rather than a problem to be solved. Does that mean that somehow we are better than say a 16 year old rape victim that chooses to abort a fetus because of the traumatic experience that caused the pregnancy? I don’t think so. But neither does our lack of belief in an all powerful super being make us bad people.
Just because I am an Atheist doesn’t mean that I am a bad person. I still follow the laws in my community and help my neighbors and do some charity work when I can. I’m generally dependable, loyal (sometimes to a fault), and honest. I teach my kids to be honest and friendly and to play fairly with their friends. I just don’t attend church- mostly because I do not believe in what the church I was raised in teaches and have yet to find another church that teaches anything I believe to be truer. I believe that to continue to attend a church that you do not actually believe in is hypocritical and I refuse to do so “just to keep up appearances” which seems to be what many people do these days. How does that make me less worthy of trust?
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