Curing the Disease and Not the Symptoms

This morning, I had the opportunity to read an interesting diary entry on Booman Tribune called Good Christians. The focus of this entry was to show how fundamentalism within religious groups is threatening to destroy the foundational principles upon which the United States was built. I can agree that religious extremists are ruling the day; however, the issue is more than fighting back to opposite these religious groups, in my opinion. The real issue arises when the discussion turns to dealing with the waves of “religious extremists” in a manner that is constructive and meaningful. The anger and frustration that is produced may not solve the problem, but only empower the extremists – otherwise know as “fighting fire with fire!” What is the end result? In most cases, tempers flare, name calling is the “tool du jour” and everyone ends up standing in their own corner of the room with arms folded, lips pouting and no real resolutions come to the surface. (The vision of two little kids standing in separate corners of a room glaring at each other comes to mind!)

The question is this: “What is the root cause for this push to impose a specific religious thought or dogma upon individuals who may or may not believe in that specific religious thought or dogma?” It is an answer that I believe needs to be determined before any meaningful progress can be made. To begin to see the answer, I believe that we have to stop trying to fix the “symptoms” of the problem. Anger is a result of emotional reaction to being pushed. But, anger, in and of itself, may not be the root cause. Individual religious beliefs vary greatly since we are all unique and have different life experiences. Many of the religious extremists feel current laws, policies, and rules do not reflect the religious foundation that “they believe” formed the United States. Feeling betrayed these extremists determined that political strength would be the only way to regain and change laws they see as “ungodly.” Having gained political status, the extremists have begun to pass new legislation to “right the wrongs” and “bring America back to God.”

These actions have brought opposition groups to the surface. These groups see the changes as “forcing a certain brand of religious dogma” upon their lives and it must be stopped to ensure individuals can live based on their set of beliefs. It is natural reaction to expect and no one should be surprised. As rhetoric grows on each side, anger begins to show with increasing intensity. Each side believes they are right and the other side is
“out to lunch.” The end results are no communication, understanding, or comprehension of the concerns being addressed. This produces a stalemate between the two factions. No real answers are known and finger pointing abounds.

So, what is the real disease? My opinion is it comes down to one simple phrase: lack of respect. There is such a drive to win, the goal has been forgotten. All of the hot button issues have one thing in common, a lack of respect towards the individual affected by the specific issue. There is no room to allow the individual to make a choice and live with the consequences of that choice. Forced compliance to a religious dogma demises the reason for belief in that dogma. Most religious concepts are based on belief, or faith in that concept. To impose that belief on others create tension and rebellion. Throughout known history, societies that imposed a specific belief system eventually were consumed and destroyed by opposing factions that did not see the belief system as applicable to their lives.

The next question would be: “Can we, as a society, have the patience to find the disease and follow the prescription for the cure?” That, I can not answer because patience is not I personally learned the easy way and human beings tend to want things resolve immediately. It is interesting to see that we, as adults, continue to revert back to our childhood when we can not get what we want. We see this kind of behavior in our kids and work hard to teach them that they just have to wait. However, applying it to our adult lives proves to be more difficult at times. This might be part of the disease as well. A lack of respect; the inability to find the disease; have the patience to follow the prescription to resolve the disease.

Each day I think about the issues we faces and wonder what can I do personally, to find the real and meaningful solutions to each issues. I believe that regardless of the issue at hand, if we can not identify the disease in clear and easy to understand terms, our ability to discover and follow the prescription to cure the disease will not produce the desired results. This is very important since our society and way of life will depend on finding that root cause (disease) sooner, rather than later.