THE TIE THAT BINDS

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The question was “How does religion bind people together, and how does it separate people?” I begin my answer in a way sure to aggravate some, for I take religion in the most general sense, and I don’t start by talking about God. I’ll explain why in a bit. How does religion bind people together? By reminding us of our common humanity. It tells me whenever I see another person, be it a stranger, friend, or enemy, I am seeing myself, for there is more that we human beings have in common that we have differentiating ourselves. I exist in relationship to other people.

I start with a common humanity because it allows me to talk with both religious and non-religious persons. If I start by talking about aspects of life confined to religious worldviews, I immediately divide humanity into religious and non religious groups. If we have nothing in common, we cannot even talk with one another. But if I can get a non-religious person to recognize that we share a commonality as human beings, we have a place to enter dialogue.

Most religions, however, hold to some kind of transcendent reality underlying everything. Whether that reality is God or the Tao or Atman or Buddha-nature, most religions acknowledge that there is more to the universe, more to life, than what appears on the surface. We human beings are connected in someway to that transcendence. It makes us not just “things” in the world, but “beings” in the world.

For the monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baha'i, that transcendent reality is God. We are created by God. As the Jewish and Christian Scripture says, we are created “in the image of God.” This again emphasizes our common humanity, but grounds it in a God who is actively at work in the world including in and with and through us. Christians believe that God’s love for us is so great that he became flesh like us in Jesus Christ. He shared our human nature so that we might participate in him. We Christians believe: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God loved the world, the whole shebang, everybody. That boundless love of God binds us together.

How does religion separate people? First is the reality that every religion has its own worldview, its own way of seeing things, its own set of beliefs, its own set of values. I used to have a hard time convincing students that all religions were NOT basically the same. They aren’t. I don’t think it does any good to pretend that all religions are the same because we could very well lose the essence of a religion in the process of reducing religion to what is the same in all religions. Do Christians want to give up belief in God because Buddhists do not believe in God? Of course not.

The differences among religions unavoidably produce a degree of separation among people, but that separation need not be destructive. The differences become destructive only when we cease to recognize our common humanity. When we act as if some people are less human because they do not share our religious views, the differences turn us against each other with tragic consequences. We need only look at the frequent religious wars to see what happens when people demonize people who have different beliefs.

I don’t think it’s wrong to try to persuade other people of the truth of our own beliefs. There is something terribly wrong, however, when we try to force those beliefs on people. Inquisitions converted people at the point of a sword, but were they real conversions? Some people in our own country today seem to have an urgent need to force their beliefs on others. Some try to force others to listen to prayers or see words from scripture carved on monuments. By gosh we are going to make people say “one nation under God” whether they believe in God or not.

To me, resorting to force means we have no confidence in the God. To substitute human power for God’s power undermines the very nature of the Christian faith which calls on us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

In the end, I can't speak for all religions on the question of binding and separating. I can’t even speak for my own segment of the Christian faith. My personal view is expressed in the wonderful old hymn by John Fawcett.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

We share each other’s woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

May the glorious hope revive your courage on the way. May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne






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