Enacting Religious Tolerance

Religious tolerance is often defined as accepting that other people have different religious beliefs and allowing them the right to practice their faith without discrimination. But how do we best apply these principles when one church’s dogma conflicts with another’s?

While religion often dominates regional concepts of right and wrong, the only way to insure that all faiths - and those of no faith - reside on equal footing is within a secular society where the rights of the individual are secure, and when the people accept that the rule of law must always come before religious conviction. In this way we best meet the needs of everyone and elicit the cooperation required to solve the global problems facing us today.

The determination of what constitutes correct conduct toward others - specifically the protection of individual rights - stems from justice derived from a philosophical, not religious, approach to law. Codified into Bills of Rights these documents have been adopted by many countries, and in 1948 the United Nations, as ways to protect people from the pitfalls of straight majority rule – whether religious based or not.

Never perfect in their original form, Bills of Rights require periodic review to insure they remain inclusive of all members of society as we continue to evolve toward a unified planetary race. These instruments represent our best efforts at finding balance between the rights of the person and the needs of society, and they are the primary tools for creating a more just world order.

It is from the principles outlined in these documents that we can determine how the concept of religious tolerance should be practiced. While people have the ability to believe and worship as they chose, no one is required to be tolerant of beliefs, speech, or ceremony that counters the rights of others.

Religious intolerance is holding beliefs that place one group of people - because of their spiritual practice - higher than another in the eyes of their god. While someone may believe their god will punish homosexuals, acting on that belief discriminates against the group, and when tolerated by other people it magnifies the harmful effects on our society. When this happens we allow religious dogma to override our secular determination of equal rights; the lesser is allowed to take precedence over the greater, and the divisions among us are reinforced: everyone suffers.

In most cases, to fight against these ideas provides us little benefit, and adds more negative energy to the fear from which they originate. Often, our best approach is to support those beliefs that enhance relationships between people, and just not acknowledge those that do not.

Exercising religious tolerance means placing the dogma of ancient scriptures beneath a higher allegiance to a secular world order. As in the spirit of Christ’s admonition to “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s…” this is the defining criteria that separates moderates from fanatics. Our hope for eventual peace resides with a new generation being able to differentiate between the effects of these two ways of life.

The fanatics need no call to action: their legacy is our history of war, oppression, and genocide. For our progeny to make better choices the moderates within all religions - who account for the majority of believers - need to exercise greater leadership within each church’s hierarchy. For too long this group has remained subservient to those wishing to maintain the status quo: their voice must now be heard. We all bear responsibility for not only our own actions, but for the messages put forth by the religions we support.

It is not enough to simply verbalize these concepts. As long as fear, hate, and religious prejudice remain in the books used to train new believers, these ideas will hinder any efforts to create a more peaceful society. Humanities highest responsibility is crafting a better future for our children, not obeying ancient dogma that has kept us at war.

Required is a global reformation that brings our holy books current, accepts the rule of secular law, and places all religions equal under a sovereign Supreme Being. Wording, ceremony, and doctrine within the working texts of all religions that continues to fuel the fires separating us needs to be refuted, and then altered or eliminated to reflect today’s greater understanding of the inclusiveness of humanity. From this point we can inaugurate a new era of religious tolerance, but not before.