If You Aren't With Us, You're Against Us

God is love, not hate.

I get so tired of people telling me, "You are such a nice person, I'm so sorry you are going to Hell."  I hear it from both my Christian and my Muslim friends.  My Hindu friends are pretty chill as is the one Buddhist I know. Southern New Mexico has a scarcity of people of the Jewish faith, so I am uncertain as to what their opinion regarding my immortal soul might be. Nonetheless, I would venture to guess they expect to find me in Hades as well.  Monotheists definitely seem to have some exclusivity issues. They think that they've cornered the market on salvation.  They use their righteous certainty to deny the validity of anyone else's beliefs, basically shouting,  "If you aren't with us, you're against us."  I despise that exclusive attitude and it constitutes the primary reason I reject following or practicing any mainstream religion.

Don't get me wrong, I am what a person would call a believer.  I have a devout faith that God exists and I believe in only one god who judges right from wrong.  I am in essence an ethical monotheist, much like a Jew, Christian, or Muslim, but I classify myself as a spiritual deist.  I respect the right of every one to decide for him or herself the best path for understanding or gaining knowledge of God.  I don't adhere to any particular dogma or doctrine because I truly believe that all religions are basically a means to an end--discovering and developing a relationship with the Creator.

It frustrates me to see people use their faith as yet one more way in which to create and strengthen the us-them paradigms that chronically plague society as a whole.  People consistently highlight differences between one another from the smallest, superficial qualities to the large, encompassing ones, like religion.  Race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, appearance, sexual orientation, lifestyle choices all act as barriers to truly seeing others as we see ourselves, to recognizing the divinity that exists and connects all of humankind.  Out of all these classifications, however, I think religion is probably the most divisive social institution ever created by Man.  Throughout the ages, wars have been fought over faith.  God has been invoked to justify the killing of millions of people.  People have been segregated, separated, treated inhumanely, massacred, marginalized, displaced, and decimated all because people believe they have God on their side and anyone else is a servant of Satan.  Again, a classic, "If you aren't with us, you are against us."

I don't understand why people can't accept the idea that just because others believe differently regarding their relationship with God that they aren't wrong.  Different beliefs don't automatically mean bad beliefs.  It's not a black-white scenario....humanity is full of a thousand shades of gray.  We all have the same end-game in mind, securing a better afterlife.  How we choose to get there should be a personal journey that best meets our own, specific needs.  If people truly followed the examples of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, or Vishnu, they would be respectful of the beliefs of those different from themselves as well as very aware of the connection between all human beings. They wouldn't disparage or hurt or condemn.  They would act out of love for their fellow man.  They would acknowledge that we are all God's children.  They would respect the differences and embrace the similarities.  I hold out hope that one day that people will not only realize this, but live their lives in such a way that there is no more us and them--only we.