The Value of Respect

By Angela Hutchinson

Religious intolerance has been an issue since the beginning of time.  When religious sects of society think they have “the” answer, it results in alienation.  When we learn from childhood that our religion is the only way to God or to Heaven, it sets us up as judge and jury of a nation that is divided and diverse.  Compassion cannot live where judgment resides.  We lose the ability to connect with fellow human beings.

We are so diverse and our experiences are so diverse, it would be impossible to have one answer fits all, or even one God fits all.  I have had many beliefs that have transformed depending on my stage of life and my concepts of Divinity have changed depending on what I need.  We find what we need…if we could not relate to a Higher Power; it would be useless in our lives.  Things shift and they change.  That is the how the Earth works.  Seasons change, the earth moves and we are all different from moment to moment. 

Today religious fanaticism continues to wreak havoc on a vulnerable world.  So many feel defensive and at odds with those who have differing views.  Lives have been taken physically and emotionally.  Some believe they have the key to eternity, and everyone else on the planet is doomed without this key.  So they spread the message far and wide of fear and doom and these psychological distortions erupt into full blown war.  Disrespect can be subtle and it can be downright devastating.  It can be blatant and it can be cleverly disguised.  It can be your neighbor and it can be your leader.

So how do we deal with religious difference?  How do we find a peace within ourselves and within our world?

It’s simple really.  It’s just feeling a connection to that innate reverence for all beings.  It’s respecting each person and their views.  We don’t have to lose our own beliefs and our path to give someone the common decency of tolerance.  When we feel threatened by opposing views, we need to look within our selves and ask why we feel fear.  The fear is our inner emotion after all.  Are we afraid we aren’t heard?  We aren’t valued?  These are all perceptions that originate within our own psyches and really have nothing to do with the outer world.  When we no longer feel threatened, it opens the door to other people and other cultures.  We open our tightly closed arms to allow others the safety of living and believing as they choose.  It is truly the ideal of what America was founded on. 

When we can turn “the” truth into “a” truth, it opens the arms of our nation and leads us to the respect that is necessary to create peace.  We have “a” truth; there are many roads to God, just as there are many beliefs.  Tolerance offers peace and peace is knowing the Divine.  Intolerance leads to pain and suffering, which is not created by the Divine, but by our own ignorance of our innate nature.

As Jesus taught, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.”