"You will not receive salvation, eternal damnation will be your destiny for all eternity, if you do not join my religion." Such was message that rang in the ears of Harry when Lloyd tried to recruit him in his religion last Thursday. Lloyd essentially is a good person. He is considered as an elder in his religion and among his many duties and obligations are the task of indoctrinating potential new members of his religion.
Harry was quite sold to the basic tenets of Lloyd's religion, what stopped him from joining outright was the last premise uttered by Lloyd which continued to hound him over the weekend.
"If your religion is the only vehicle that assures my salvation, then what about other religions?" Harry asked himself. "What about the believers of Islam?" "What about the Jews?" "What about the Protestants?" "Are they all going to hell?" - "If your religion is the only vehicle for salvation, then the rest are wrong and are going to pay dearly" Harry remembers asking Lloyd as a parting quip over the course of their conversation.
"It is simply impossible for all religion to be right, by virtue of elimination, only one religion ought to be right and the rest are wrong" And if every religion subscribe to the mindset that they are righteous; then everyone is righteous and everyone (ironically) is a sinner. Such is simply impossible; it is like saying that only the graduates of Mapua Institute of Technology will pass the board examinations. Because in reality, board passers cuts across all sections of varying academic institutions. No one has a monopoly of board passers in any licensure examinations. And similarly, the entrance to paradise/heaven is not exclusive to a single religion. "There are worthy men and women that belong to my current religion and from other religion as well," Harry mused.
Having a mindset that only one religion will lord over other beliefs; that only one religion is superior over other faiths, breeds' intolerance. Intolerance in the long run breeds fanaticism. And being a fanatic is no different from the common terrorist that we now see from time to time in the Middle East.
The trouble is, every religion has it's own brand of fanaticism. No one is free from this phenomenon. The challenge now is how to be tolerant and look at your fellow man as an individual that is capable of doing something good that is going to benefit humanity in the long run.
To cut a long story short, Harry decided not to join the religion of Lloyd and instead became a stern advocate of tolerance for all religion. No one has an exclusive lock on salvation. "As long as your religion makes you a better person, then that religion is the right one for you," Harry finally concluded.
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What is your opinion about the president and her family?
In a lecture given by the winners of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards, the same question above was given and skillfully - the answer to the query was skirted and passed on to the moderator of the lecture by the recipient of the award.
A question of the same nature was again asked and again, the answer was tactfully evaded. When the awardee was pressed further, the lecturer simply said that "I am already old, let us give others the chance of making their own mark".
Now I don't know about the others but what was before me then was moral cowardice. If you are a winner of a certain award that is suppose to stand for anything, having a position, be it for or against a certain person, is a requisite.
Assuming the position of neutrality is not a good model for winning an award. The prestige of the award was wasted. And let us not talk about the monetary equivalent of the award, which is $ 50,000. Converted to Philippine Pesos, it amounts to 2.5 million php. Such an amount is enough to send the winner back to school to finally learn that "you don't quit when you are tired and old but rather when the objective is attained".
The fight is not yet over, in a month where the assassination of Sen. Ninoy Aquino is commemorated and the birthday of President Ramon Magsaysay is celebrated, moral cowardice must take a backseat.
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2 comments:
salvation comes in one word...
God
I agree that Religion is a great thing as long as it makes you a better person. And for me, Religion helps us to have a strong covenant with God by the teachings of God, which is convey to us by the priests. But if it doesn't help you to bring about the best in you or it just weakens your personality, so what's the use of committing yourself in your Religion. We must not just listen to their advises, we must also do it in practice.
It's really interesting to read some blogs like this because it helps me know more about the some issues in our society...
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