How will it end?

This is something I jotted down after reading headline after headline of all the horrors perpetuated in the name of religion. I sometimes think this world is way too crazy to make any sense of it. When people take their religious beliefs too seriously, the very purpose of religion gets defeated. Isn’t religion supposed to enlighten us and set us free, why do people then make the fatal mistake of letting it enslave them and turn them into raving fanatics? Religion is supposed to propagate hope, peace, forgiveness, brotherhood, love and joy. Any religion that does not strive to uphold these basic human qualities cannot be good. The power of our religion should reflect in our thoughts, words and deeds. Faith should be strong enough to move mountains, not dumb enough to erect barriers and dig graves. Loads of ideas and theories are bound to come tumbling out of the myriad races that populate this planet; one cannot go around waging wars and denouncing every single ideology. The spine chilling barbarity with which persecutions are carried out makes one wonder whether some portal to the depths of hell suddenly opened up. In April 2014, more than 200 school girls were kidnapped by the Boko Haram (an Islamist terrorist organisation which has recently pledged allegiance to the ISIS, another terrorist organization that is wreaking untold havoc in Iraq), and so far they haven’t been rescued. It’s going to be a year and they are still held captive, it’s a difficult fact to accept. It’s even more disturbing to know that the rest of the world looks on helplessly…

I don’t know how this is going to end… but I’ll stop for now with this quote:

Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me how much you love all his children. Before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through compassion for your neighbours. In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give. – Cory Booker

Note: Wrote this for my church magazine…