The Impact of Religion

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading two books (well, reading one and listening to another): The Handmaid's Tale and The Giver. They are actually similar books set in a distant future. I have enjoyed them both (I have read the Giver before and loved it). The Handmaid's Tale, as far as I can tell so far, seems to be about how religious extremism could lead to a terrible future. And I agree with this. But it has made me wonder what effect these types of books have on society. Similar books, like 1984, had huge impacts on society to help us avoid a "communistic" future. So does a book like the Handmaid's Tale have too big an impact? In other words, does it affect people to avoid religion at all - instead of extremism? I fear that this is what happens in our society - and it scares people to be religious at all instead of being "too" religious. It seems to be happening in the regular world. With strange stories now of not being able to have the ten commandments on display, or use the word "God" in the pledge of allegiance, or the large discussion about 'intellingent design," it seems people are getting more and more afraid of religion. And what might happen is the creation of a further divide between the religious right and the liberal left. People will be forced to choose extremes, instead of principles, and will be judged for it.

This came up with the recent nomination of Bush's friend for supreme court justice. Since she attended church, it was assumed she was too conservative and couldn't be objective (I am not supporting her nomination here, just making a point). Soon someone will judge me as being religious or not based upon some extreme notion such as abortion or euthanasia (sp?) or evolution, and NOT upon the fact that I believe in a God or pray with my family. I will be judged both by believers and non-believers in this extreme way. It is thinking like this that make me fear the future as we divide as a world no longer in communist vs. capitalist (that battle is over), but religious vs. non-religious (moral vs. amoral?). We already see this in the issues of the middle east as Muslim countries perceive the USA as immoral and sinners. And this makes them ready to kill and sacrifice to eliminate our poison from entering their world. And we see their extremism as "illogical" and "crazy," based upon some belief in a false god, and perhaps just as easily can justify killing.

Not even looking at the scriptures, the logical next world issue would seem to be religious in nature. Even if a country like ours (USA) says that our exportation of democracy is not religious in nature, in reality it is. We are convinced in our minds due to our heritage of religion and freedom of religion that all men should have this choice. We separate it from religion in our minds, but it is seen as evangelistic to other nations. As we export democracy we also export our religion - or anti-religion. There is no way to separate it from who we are. We may say they are separate (church vs. state), but they never can truly be separated. That is why we see left vs. right being much more agnostic vs. believer.

In the end, I enjoy reading how we can take religion to an extreme and limit ourselves as humans from the experiences we need to learn in this world. But I fear that these types of books can scare people from religion - and see all religion as extreme or radical. We know that this is not true. The gospel of Christ accepts all men and women and understands the need for free will.