Last week I attended a symposium on Abraham, the historical and religious figure. There were three speakers-one Jewish, one Christian and one Muslim.
I was fascinated by the similarities the three religions shared, beyond all being monotheistic and worshipping Abraham’s God, but I was even more amazed with how much the three speakers stressed the idea of religious tolerance.
Everyone says that college is a liberating experience for a young person. I never believed this.
Throughout high school I felt firm in my beliefs. I was conservative. I was outwardly accepting of everyone but deep down thought I was right.
During the first semester of my freshman year, I took a philosophy class-a 150-person lecture class. One day the discussion turned into a heated argument between a Buddhist and a Christian.
Being a headstrong and opinionated person myself, I respected them both for standing up for their beliefs, but eventually they came to a stalemate. Both were set in their beliefs and obviously couldn’t sway the other.
This struck me hard. I had never been around so many people with such different backgrounds and beliefs. I finally realized something.
Personal beliefs mean everything to a spiritual person, from daily inspiration to moral guide to hope for the hereafter. A true system of beliefs comes from thorough questioning.
It is a haughty notion that someone else’s views are weaker or less important than yours. To a spiritual person, his or her beliefs are everything.
You have to ask yourself this question: “How would you like it if someone did that to you?”
If someone came up to you and tried to talk you into joining a religion that was different from yours, would you give him or her the time of day? Would his or her beliefs hold any water for you?
I realized how high-and-mighty a thought it is to want to change someone’s beliefs. I’ve been called “unChristian” for respecting other beliefs as much as my own, and for not agreeing with the idea of witnessing.
To me, “witnessing” is simply acknowledging to someone’s face that you are deeper spiritually than the person you are witnessing to, that you are right and the other person is wrong.
Thinking that someone’s beliefs are malleable solely because he or she is different is a very wrong assumption.
Rather than witness, I believe everyone should simply live by example. So many Christians discuss witnessing in church, then go out into the world and live a life of sin.
Hypocrisy does not, and should not, promote Christianity. Publicizing one’s faith is much less effective than being a moral example, which people notice and take to heart.
Ghandi said it well: “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
It’s a problem when immoral “Christians” witness to people of other religions, who are, possibly, living more moral, devout lives and who are strong in their faiths.
With a little self-examination, people would see that their own lives are far from perfect, and that they should strive to become their best, spiritually and morally, before they can try to influence some else’s life. Leave the judging to God.
Needless to say, I’ve become quite liberal since being here. I consider that a positive thing. So many people have such a negative view of liberals.
However, becoming more liberal has only led me to judge less and accept more.
This attitude has allowed me to appreciate diversity as the beautiful thing it is, and to appreciate the beliefs of everyone else. When you get past the discrepancies in different religions, the similarities are impossible to ignore.
If God is love, then surely he did not mean for us to be condescending and believe ourselves better than anyone else. Surely he would want us to love and accept everyone.
Starkville is hardly representative of the world’s religious statistics. That we are residents of the Bible Belt doesn’t give us the right to feel like the more correct majority.
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, Christians are one-third of the world’s population. Islam is one-fifth, but the fastest growing, and expected to pass Christianity within the next 80 years.
Another fifth is religions based on reincarnation, such as Hindu and Buddhism. About 14 percent of the world’s population are non-religious or anti-religious.
Taking these statistics to heart, it becomes more and more absurd that any group should think themselves better than any other group.
Numerous problems would be solved by ceasing religious intolerance, but this is as unlikely to happen as achieving world peace or ending world hunger.
So we must do what we can, which is simply to exercise religious tolerance ourselves toward others. Respect others’ beliefs-be they Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist-as you want yours respected.
It can only make things better.
Erin Clyburn is a sophomore English major. She can be reached at [email protected].