The editors of the religion section of Huffington Post recently put together "50 Things to Love About Religion." Not surprising the introductory paragraphs set the tone rather well. It immediately alternates between being misleading and contradictory. Notice how the title is worded? They state and then imply that the list is meant to be about religion as a whole. In other words, it is not initially suppose to be about things that are "true" of only one or two Faiths but of all of them. It also implies that it is about Religion rather than any other aspect of culture/society or humanity in general. The first sentence of the last paragraph, however, is: "What is it that you like about your faith?" It is not hard to see why a number of readers ended up contributing things that relate only to their preferred religion rather than the institution Religion. It also reflects how Christians are the dominant voice in this section.
Less than half of the list actually pertains to religion as a whole. Many are highly debatable as to whether they have that much of a connection beyond the desire of individuals and groups to make them have one. Among this grouping includes: 11. Confidence, 13. Music, 24. Hope, 26. Forgiveness, 28. Compassion, 31. Joy, 32. Unity, 33. Courage, 34. Service to Others, 42. Simplicity, 43. Tranquility, 47. Food, 49. Tradition, and 50. Hope (oops, they listed that one twice). Yes, all these can be experienced through religion but they can just as easily be found outside religion. It is also easy to argue that a few of them are hindered by Religion(s).
There are a number of others that are even easier to argue as being exaggerated or false bordering on delusional. These include: 3. No one preaches at me, 10. Freedom to question, 12. Openness to ideas, 15. Pure transparency, 18. Gender equality, 22. No dogma, 27. Hatred for none, 28. Compassion, 29. Inclusive
32. Unity (Yes, I also included this one in the list above), 40. No more guilt*, 46. Not being forced. The first one really makes me laugh consider how Christian-centric the whole post seems to be. Apparently, the readers have forgotten one the most basic principles of Evangelism (a rather large branch of Christianity) is to preach to others. I am also unaware of any Faith that handles criticism or non-conformity well. Have they not come a cross fun terms like heresy, infidel, blaspheme, apostasy, etc. I have also yet to come a cross a major world religion that has not contained massive doses of sexism. Many are still very sexist and still do not always play well with other Faiths. There are positive examples that can be said to represent these readers hope but that is all they tend to be. Unfortunately, they are exceptions not the rule. Claiming otherwise is just dishonest.
Then there are those on the list that are only associated with Christianity or are phrased in way that favors Christianity. For example, a variety of religions venerate "saints" but the phrasing of #20, Communion of saints, is used among Christian denominations. Some of the others include: 8. Jesus, 9. The Beatitudes, 21. The cross, 23. Mass, 44. The Eucharist, 48. Free wine.
There are a number of other problems with the list as it relates to what it is suppose to represent. Personally, I'd love to see them create a similar list but with more thought involved. Creating separate lists for each represented Religion and then one that is correlated and annotated, a master list of sorts. They might even include a few non-theistic groups listing what they love about Culture/Society and/or Humanity. It would require more work so I doubt HuffPo would ever bother. Still, It would be very interesting to see such comparative lists.
*Considering how dominant Christians are on HuffPo this one made me laugh for a good 5-6 minutes. What did Christ die for? What is Original Sin? Doesn't that imply that at the very least a handful of essential Christian doctrines are laced with "guilt"? And then, I can't count the number of Catholics I've met who half-joke about "Catholic Guilt."
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