Misdirection

You’ve been duped, this article has nothing to do with being Gay or being Christian. Instead these will stand as proxies for a much broader question. That being, can one claim to be an adherent of a religion while being in direct contravention of one or more of its rules or principles. Spoiler alert, I think you can, as I shall now explain.

Literalism

There are no literalists in religion, practically everyone in common experience subscribes to an interpretation of religious teachings as it best suits them. Most who do subscribe to literal interpretations are often ostracized for being fundamentalist or extremist especially when their beliefs impose harm on others. The fundamentalist might argue that teachings of their religious text is not ambiguous and does not require interpretation, right or wrong they do seem to form the minorities of their respective religion. The rest branch out into innumerable denominations each with its own special interpretation of that text. These denominations as I’ve observed tend to strongly condemn one another, with liberals and fundamentalist accusing the other of being outright wrong and condemned to hell as sinners. I’ve found that those tending towards the more liberal spectrum of faith do so in open disapproval of certain teachings, as I shall now explain.

Whose Line Is It Anyway

Everyone has Cart Blanche to mold God as they see fit, many theistic feminists I know admit that both religious text and organized religion itself shows extreme prejudice towards women. Many reconcile this by just choosing to ignore those bits of the Bible or Quran, going as far as saying that that is not the God they’ve come to know. I’ve seen every possible variation of this argument when people are faced with religious ideals that are in contradiction to their moral standards or that of modern society’s. These are evident in how our society deals with matters of gender, sexual preference, children’s rights, war, ethnicity and basic human rights. Our present social constructs are far more superior to those posed in any religious text. But this cop-out in my opinion is not necessarily a bad thing, I think it could very well be the last saving grace for organized religion as I shall once again explain.

Religion Can Be Good

Over the centuries we have been gradually chipping away at the principles of faith. In my previous article I outline how South Africa is becoming increasingly critical of fundamentalist and abusive actions perpetrated under the banner of faith. With this trend it’s not inconceivable to imagine that religion will one day be free of things like bigotry, misogyny and homophobia to name but a few. Religious liberalism has taken hold, and I believe that it could be very successful in stripping faith and turning into what will become just more socially acceptable club.