Dangerous Paths of ‘faith’

Violence, war, and terror are of course horrible, but fear, hatred, and insecurity are at their roots.

Intense tragedy of the much exalted ‘new world’ is the crisis of self and identity. In a personal way we are challenged on the very worth and meaning of human existence; sense of belonging and purposefulness of life is threatened. It also scattered the structures of traditional religions and cultures. 

Self preservation is a powerful motive to fight the challenges, but when it becomes the purpose itself it can turn hostile and arrogant. Discovering an identity and gaining a sense of meaning in life is the search of many youth today. Unfortunately our systems do not facilitate persons in their quest for identity within the worth of one’s human self. So they tend to bind themselves with religious, political or national ideologies.

The ‘New World’ also challenged the traditions and structures of religion. So from their side the new culture, especially of the industrial world was an apparent threat to many traditional cultures. Every tradition has struggled to survive or face the perceived decline of faith. Instead of understanding the human condition amidst this new situation, religions took a different turn in becoming identity providers at the cost of their essence that was needed to be cultivated. There were also formation of many movements for this preservation mode to be intensified. Morality is to safeguard the conduct of persons and community. When the moral law, which has a culture at its origin, becomes an ideology, its strict following marks the identity of being faithful to religion. 

Movements for esteemed individual right and freedom also became new faiths. Secularism and atheism had their own ideologies to stand for. Often, they remained more in hostility to the systems they opposed than cultivating the values they stood for. So their values were always in opposition to something rather than aiming at the integral development of human person and community.

In both these phases the danger begins when they love to cultivate a sense of insecurity and victimhood. It is well reinforced with the personal and professional crisis of today. It is this crisis that make many to give up their profession, and chose commitment to religion (of course there are people who are really motivated in an in-depth experience). Often the religion becomes their new profession and brand identity. The emphasis they make on others is highly demanding and it often hurts others. For them, they are the only true, authentic and faithful believers. They meticulously practice religion, and show arrogance to the ‘failure’ of others in practicing faith.

Cultivation of sense of victimhood and fear alarms anyone to safeguard against any potential danger. It can also make people suspicious even when we are in a peaceful situation. We are taught to generalise these threats spatially (everywhere), and temporally (throughout the ages) though they may have occurred in different contexts. Those look for advantage will also fill hostility and revenge along with the sense of being a victim. 

There is also wrong identification of the ‘enemy’ when we continue the generalisation. “The church is against the secular world,” “the secular society and atheists always want to damage the church,” “they all have a terrorist attitude” etc are baseless, and we are making separating walls for ourselves.

Who is the trickster? It may be difficult to recognise. If we once again look at the matter of self preservation, the struggle to survive is always a struggle to win. Here it may me a craze to rule. It is ‘me’ that is involved though I may have no power to rule at all. When the ideology dominates over, it is my own victory, and we look forward to that day. The slavish mentality to an empire continues to be in an un-reflected submission to an ideology, even religion. The emperor, my hero rules and there I too rule. One emperor, one nation, one culture, one faith ... all have this craze to dominate. 

The emperor’s conquest, the colonial domination has not gone away. They have come back in corporate economic powers. They well use the religious, political struggles for their benefit becoming supporters and defenders often controlling governments. Who invest control the governments that ‘fight’ for establishing peace? Who aims at domination of a region that is accused of terror? 

Politics, being the system of governance, moulds on power. Often their soft target is intimate ‘faith’ of people. They do manipulate the crisis and turn it on their advantage. In US and the middle east it may be religious beliefs, in Europe it may be a cry for freedom and rights, in Asia it may be ethnicity, language, nation, and culture. The above mentioned process of cultivating fear of destruction, hostility and revenge would be well designed to achieve their purpose. Today the possession of power is to run business, extract resources and evacuate people by using made up reasons. They do create unrest so that they can still convince the people of the nearing threats.

Check at the roots of radical groups or movements asking the true faith and fidelity, there is a businessman, a trader. The innocents trust their commitments, make sacrifices, live for the faith in their innocence, and die if asked. Their innocent sacrifices, believed to be in the name of God or principles, go for the whims and fancies of these traders at the head. Tragedy of it is either the governments benefit from such religious businessmen or the religious structures. So they rarely look into what happens to the innocents and their personal life fulfilment after having gone behind such movements. In the name of preserving our traditions and fighting for our rights they follow piety, gather on streets as they are told, vote as they are directed. The innocent sacrifices come to nothing after the desired purposes are met. There the innocents become the real victims.
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Personal (identity) crisis or life satisfaction added with professional crisis seeking for an identity in religion results religious fanaticism.

Abandoning their profession and responsibilities receives magnified interpretations to be 'great sacrifice.' They begin to defend their adaptation of religion, and the rigidity is forced upon the community where one tries to be a hero. There one receives social recognition, become an honored hero, not bossed over by anyone.
Religion becomes an identity supplier at the cost of many who suffer under the rigidity of such 'ideal' heroes. Those innocents do everything in the name of faith, and the heroes do their business.________________________
See also Humanity ... Spiritualities, that we may not all perish