Religious in the New World

Is anything more abused today than religion?

In today's world, people are using their religious traditions to try to hold back the forces of change -- often the very forces that have to succeed if we are to have a sustainable and egalitarian future. Of course, people have always used religion to serve their interests in the here-and-now. Those on top have seen it as a bulwark for the social order which benefits them. Those on the bottom have used it either to give themselves a refuge from the pain of the unjust world, or to avenge themselves on their oppressors. Nothing much has changed there. Indeed, to hear religious conservatives talk, you can't help thinking that the main purpose of their deity is to ensure the eventual punishment of all the people they cannot seem to defeat in the modern world.

Of course, religion is no more immune to the changes that are remaking the world than any other part of human culture.

As the ease of communications increases, no community can effectively shut out alternative beliefs and values. (This page, and the sites it is linked to, can be reached from any computer on earth.) Without a monopoly on what members of their communities can see and hear, traditional religious authorities have no hope of keeping people convinced that they have a monopoly on the truth. People won't give up their basic beliefs and values -- and shouldn't -- but they will always have to take account of the fact that there are other ways of looking at things. The future does not look bright for traditions which insist that they have the only truth.
At the same time, the international community becomes less and less tolerant of abuses of religious minorities. Terrible things which once could happen out of the world's sight are now carried on television screens all over the planet and are tracked relentlessly by human rights organizations.
But most important, the social changes forced by economic reorganization are spreading to all corners of the world. People have moved in from the countryside and started to dream middle-class economic dreams. The role of women is changing everywhere, and attempts to hold them back are increasingly futile -- and, unfortunately, increasingly violent, as the current situation in Afghanistan illustrates. Young people are challenging adult authority everywhere, as well. Religious traditions will have to change to accommodate the new world.

And that is why we have a page of religious links.

Here are a few links to get you started. We especially need suggestions for resources on religious traditions other than the Christian and the secular.

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