By Reverend Dr. Russell B. Hilliard

Religion is a dangerous thing. (That should get your attention! Not exactly something you’d expect a preacher to say, is it?) Like any powerful force — such as fire or money or technology or sex — it can be used for good or ill.

At its best, religion calls forth the highest and noblest in people; it creates strong families and moral individuals; it redeems people from sin and degradation; it uplifts communities; it unites people to God and one another. At its worst, it creates fear and/or self-righteousness; it beats people either up or down; it leads to wars and persecutions; it divides rather than unites the peoples of the world.

In my own Christian tradition, there are, regrettably, many examples of what I would call “bad” religion: the numerous persecutions of Jews over the centuries; the killing of both Protestants and Catholics for being “heretics” in the 16th century; the “holy” wars waged by Christians against Muslims in the Crusades (not unlike the religiously-sanctioned wars being waged against us today by radical Muslims); the enslavement of Africans and the genocide of Native Americans by white Christians; the subjugation of women and the exclusion of homosexuals.