Religion and Tolerance

    I was talking to a friend at school when we saw the “Jesus guy,” as she called him.  He was passing out small flyers encouraging people to embrace Christianity and be “saved.”  My friend and I have nothing against him because he was being very nice about it, but it reminded us of another more provocative man who we had seen separately on two different campuses.  This other man held a sign quoting the Bible and claiming that homosexuals, mouthy women, and basically everyone not Christian will be going to hell.  He did this right before the vote on Prop 8 (banning gay marriage in California), so of course he got a very heated reaction from the college students.  A few of my gay acquaintances even started making out in front of him to try to piss him off enough to leave the campus.  I found it funny that his only supporter was a loud religious lady, who as a mouthy woman was going to hell according to the man’s sign. 

    In my opinion, fundamentalist people of any religious denomination are some of the most hypocritical people in the world.  They take certain parts of their scripture as true while ignoring other parts and ideas.  For example, fundamentalist Christians, like the man mentioned above, use part of the Bible (I believe the quotes are mainly from the Old Testament) to condemn homosexuality, but they ignore most of the 613 commandments present in the Old Testament/Torah.  By no means am I arguing that all the commandments should be followed; they are outdated and completely inappropriate to the modern world.  I just think that all the religious scriptures should be regarded as stories that teach lessons about how to live rather than strict commandments.  This way the spirit of the religion is kept while adapting the beliefs to the modern world.  I am not religious or spiritual myself, but my favorite religious group is Reconstructionist Jews.  They keep to the Jewish culture, but they are much more tolerant of feminism and homosexuality than are the more orthodox Jewish groups. 

    I have always resented the fact that people use their religion to justify being prejudiced and judgmental.  I respect people’s personal beliefs and I don’t want to deny them of religion, but I find it hard to respect someone who discriminates against races, homosexuals, women, or any person just because of their religious scripture, which can almost always be interpreted in a more tolerant manner.  My best friend recently converted to Islam in spite of being a lesbian.  Islam is one of the most intolerant religions regarding homosexuality, but my friend came to terms with the scripture by realizing that the disapproval of gay people is based on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  In the story the men are condemned for having sex with other men, but there are arguments that those particular men were using their power to force themselves on other men, so it was this misuse of power that may be the real reason for the condemnation, and not the act of having sex.  If a religion as resolute as Islam can find a more tolerant interpretation of the text, other religions certainly can do so as well.  Cultures and societies change over time, and so do religious beliefs.  I think it is time that people stop hiding behind scripture and come to terms with the unfair discrimination and bigotry that has resulted from it.  Maybe that will make them a bit more open-minded and enlightened.