The
death of religion (Written by Dominique
Green)
There are a number of reasons that
leads one to turn towards religion, but none are more important than
the sense of purpose and direction that religion tends to give ones
life. Embraced by us in our stages of immaturity; it supplants our ingrained
views, and replaces them with a form of values that cultivates our hearts
and cleanses our minds until they are both at one with the divine intervention
found within our spirit.
Therefore, religion is something
that was meant to allow us to grow. Grow into people who not only are
capable of shunning the temptations of evil, but could also stand on
the front lines and fight against it; to stop its possible spreading;
minimize its destructive impact. Give a chance to the lives of countless
others who are made to be its innocent victims.
Religion was never meant to be a
weapon. A tool to be used against the people. After all, it was concluded
that the act, not the man or woman who carried it out, was the evil.
Nevertheless, in this clay and age,
people and so-called leaders, take excerpts from the holy scriptures
and quote certain surahs to build barriers that create division and
justify their attack on people when there is a difference of opinion
that could alter the entire course of religion.
Nowhere is this clearer than the
present controversial debate surrounding the issue of capital punishment
-- which debate allows us to sec firsthand how both sides of the struggle
have relied so extensively on religious text to tear down the other
while building up their very own movements. Propagandizing the morality
of their position by saying such things as "an eye for an eye" or "God
possesses the only right to give and take life". Followers are placed
in the uncomfortable position of either being branded as a hypocrite
for claiming the right to take life and making themselves superior to
God and other people, or labeled as an enemy combatant for fighting
to save the life of someone whose death, they believe, can only be a
just compensate for the victim's life.
If religion as a whole is meant to
make us better people, the last thing on earth that we are supposed
to be fighting each other about is a theory that gives us the right
to take someone's life and appear as God's superior, or the concept
of why life should be spared that would anoint us as saviors to the
people. Isn't the issue that should be up for debate and questioning
not what to do with the people but how to deal with the evil that forces
the people to carry it out?
It should not be hard after taking
one long look at the lives that make up our nation's death row to simply
stumble across the answer. What you will find is a collection of people
who either needed help or weren't given a chance. People who were brought
up in a "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" society that pretty much
told them if they couldn't find their way then they had to create their
own. This bred and continues to breed the very conditions that have
now allowed evil to take root and subsist. These conditions devour one
person, one family and one community at a time; spreading at such an
alarming rate, Dot only bas it gained the attention of the religions
community, but for a solution, it bas also called it to arms.
Unfortunately the sector of the religions
community that has allied itself with the pro-death penalty movement
has opted to take the easy way out. Instead of focusing on each criminal
act and utilizing their vast resources to provide remedies, they've
elected to kill each person who commits criminal acts, in the hopes
that having blood shed in a retributory manner will work as a form of
deterrence. Sadly what is overlooked from such a hypothesis is that
in order for death to be considered as a method of deterrence, each
prisoner whose actions they seek to deter, must be like them. They must
come from stable families and be part of close knit communities. They
must be people who commit crimes because they have nothing else to do.
They must be people who laugh together, talk together, work together,
and church together. Because then, and only then, could a message about
someone being sentenced to death have the desired effects of sending
shockwaves throughout their communities.
When you look at our nation's death
row, however, this is not the case. What you find is young men and women
who come from impoverished communities, who are raised in dysfunctional
households, who are forced into lives of crime -- not for fun -- but
as a means to survive. So not only does the message of deterrence sought
to be conveyed by proponents of the death penalty fall on deaf ears,
but that message will never be allowed to even come close to being effective.
The only thing it will do is make matters worse. This is evidenced by
the fact, for instance, that in recent years people who once walked
into convenient stores, attempted to stick them up, and fled in panic
if some unforeseen event occurred that caused their gun to go off and
they accidently killed someone -- are now the same people who walk into
banks, deliberately murder everyone, and try to remove any and all incriminating
evidence so that they can get away with it. Realizing that if a mistake
happens and they get caught they are going to die anyway, the death
penalty has done nothing to deter crime; it has done the exact opposite
by causing the number of people killed during the commission of crimes
to skyrocket. You don't need a degree to analyze this data or read the
stats to see this as fact. All you need do is ask some of the people
who comprise our nation's death row. But then again, you probably wouldn't
want to do that, because if you did you'd be in for more than just a
surprise. Especially, when you discover that many of those who've been
condemned aren't monsters, but people who are in fact no different than
you. People who once believed, prayed, had faith, and shared your values
but found themselves shunned, turned on, castigated, and hated by the
very people who helped create an environment that made them who they
are. So while most have turned their backs on God for believing that
they've been let down, and others have grown to despise religion and
see it only as a tool used against them, I would simply like to ask
you a question:
"How can a person with a good
heart and clear conscience decide that they have a right to take
someone else's life, when they do nothing to alleviate the very
conditions which places one in the position of being condemned?"
People in the fight to oppose the
death penalty have had good intentions, but unfortunately even they
aren't offering much as a means for solution. They are just saying "instead
of killing everybody, lets put them away for the rest of their life".
But this does nothing to salve the problem. Because while they may be
fighting to allow each person to live, the conditions that created such
an environment will still be a major source of procreation for their
communities. So there will still be kids growing up in dysfunctional
households; there will still be children with nowhere to go who turn
to the violence of the streets; there will still be youths joining gangs
to have families and to try to understand the meaning of love; there
will still be the opportunity for youngest to find escape from the harshness
of reality by either cooking and peddling or, chopping up and smoking
dope; pedophilic prostitution, auto-theft; petty crime will still be
looked upon as a means for survival; and nothing will change as one
generation after the next begins to fill the prison industrial complex
to its capacity. That fact if nothing else will stoke victims' rights
advocates and families of lest loved ones (if the death penalty is abolished)
to begin causing an uproar all over again. If criminal aren't learning
from, their past activities, the rights advocates and the families who
have lost loved ones will feel that they are being denied justice; and
they will begin demanding punishments they believe are capable of teaching
people lessons stiff enough that others will not want to repeat their
actions. Inevitably this will lead us right back into debates about
the death penalty before it is re-implemented and the fight to have
it abolished is repeated all over again.
At some point religious leaders must
step up and begin intervening, because the loved one of murder victims
need to understand that justice is not about exacting revenge - but
allowing the person who has hurt them to earn their forgiveness. That
is what religion is supposed to be about. Forgiveness. I1's not an execution
manual teaching us how to kill. It is, instead, a blueprint for human
understanding that can teach us, among other things, how to heal and
forgive; how to prevent the pain from spreading, affecting and destroying
the lives of others. But that cannot be done if insistence is placed
on locking prisoners up for life or having them executed, since for
as long as those who have committed the act remains alive, so does the
memory of their victim -- in the eyes of society.
If today's religious leaders took
the time to console the loved ones of victims and teach them how to
heal themselves through the powers to forgive; if the loved ones of
murder victims could talk to those who've caused them their pain and
be provided with closure from the answers they were given; if the church
and victims' loved ones would work together with those who've been incarcerated
or condemned, to devise remedies that built -- not destroy -- families
and communities -- the need for the death penalty will decrease and
slowly fade from existence. Because love (unconditional love) spreads
faster than any degree of hate. Through the power of that love forgiveness
will be found and we will learn to see ourselves as each others family
and community. However, as long as death is the religion that binds
us, we will remain divided, and conditioned to hate. And that hate will
ultimately destroy us all. One person, one family, and one community
at a time.