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Does Religion lessen or amplify racial divisions?

A rather personal definition of religion could describe it as the "flowing sap of the tree of existence"; someone can also define religion as the main engine, source of energy, or moral foundation of any human being that accepts and believes in the transcendent. Religion could incorporate all of these characteristics altogether, because it is a natural inner need that one of searching for ultimate answers in order to justify the origin, the present, and the future, of all the earthly creatures and things. In other words, humanity - almost in its entirety - invests and commits to explore, discover, and attempt to explain the mysteries of life, survival and death. This recurrently happens independently of the geographic location, ethnicity, race, or cultural background; hence, although one may think all this devoted energy should be channeled towards the same direction given that is a common pursuit of the same objective, this is surprisingly not the case. As matter of fact, although human history documents the basic search for the same answers throughout the centuries, individuals wind up espousing the most disparate and variegated dogmas, almost to confirm the theory that "the greatest gift that has been given to humanity is truly the freedom of choice". Because of this explicit freedom, different religions and cults coexist, and at times seem to concurrently conflict and tolerate each other, or unite and divide each other under and in the name of, the same theological principles. This living and remarkable paradox is the essence of this essay, through which we will try to establish if religion is an instrument of unification or division of the peoples of our planet, and what is the role that it plays relative to race.

Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy whose origin is dated back to 500 ca. BCE, defines Universe - among other things - as an equilibrium, based on a combination of "any entity and its exact opposite"; in other words, the concept of "life" would not exist without that one of "death", just as much as "union" would not exist without "division". This approach seems to epitomize the impact that religion has on the social and political fabric of any community. Ironically, by belonging to a religious affiliation one can concurrently experience a great sense of unity with the other members of the congregation, and another one of division with anyone who does not belong and share the same beliefs. The very same idea of union and division is noticeable in the concept of race and ethnicity, which appears to be an intertwined complement of religion itself.

Many writers, authors and scholars, have captured the diverse historical characteristics of different religious stances, emphasizing how both good and bad outcomes may derive; several examples are in fact available in ancient and modern literature. One of stories that more embodies the sense of unity, is the chapter "I am on My Way, Praise God: Mrs. Hamer's Fight for Freedom", a story of faith and civil rights, by Charles Marsh. The story of Fannie Lou Hamer, who dedicated her life to the affirmation of the civil rights for African Americans in the sixties, is a perfect example of how strong beliefs and an exemplary faith can positively impinge on people's lives. Her fight aimed to achieve emancipation, equality, and the right to vote, was truly an inspiring one. She conquered the hearts and minds of the Americans with her speech at the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1964, although a slick initiative on behalf of President Johnson attempted to obscure the airing of it. She and her companions succeeded in the unthinkable enterprise to reach equalitarian treatment for African Americans, and this powerful righteous wave of change culminated with the creation of the Civil Rights Act, passed by the Johnson administration; this would not have possible if God was not in it. She believed that God had passed over to her the Christian scepter to guide this new revolution, in the name of Jesus. Her story is a clear synonym of unity. Thousands of people animated by the foundation of a potent religious message, stood up for the rights of African Americans. Surprisingly, this common endeavor motivated also youngsters and adults of the majority of the Northern White America, demonstrating against any predictable odd, that a just religious message is capable of unifying masses across the board, independently of ethnicity, race, and different cultural background. The same strong message turned out to be successful in building bridges of understanding, devise strategies of intent, and eventually fulfilling the dreams and the vision of the first American forefathers, of a Just and Equalitarian America.

However, in the summer of the same year, a contrasting message was spreading in the southern states of the Nation. Sam Bowers, in the name of the same God's will, unified several thousands of white people in the effort to oppose the arrival of racial equality. He declared himself a "warrior priest", or better, the "High-Priest of the Anti-Civil Rights Movement", and gave birth to the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi. His intent was to nullify every tentative of incorporation of the Blacks into the fabric of the southern social and civic structure, which according to him, would have undermined their "traditional way of life". In fact, the equilibrium of the southern way of life, was based primarily on the exploitation of the African Americans, whom although now free from slavery, were still living a sullen reality of submission and subjugation to the white supremacists.

Ironically, both Fannie Lou Hamer and Sam Bowers claim to act after having received the ultimate call from God, and are both very proficient in recruiting thousands of proselytes who promptly join their side. On the other hand, although aspiring to the same divine splendor of enlightenment, they lie at the opposite ends to the spectrum. One fights for Good, and one for Evil. Hence, the question spontaneously arises: how could religion or any faith-based initiative elicit concurrently both congregation and segregation? Could it be due to the aforementioned postulate, where the concept of "union" would not exist without that one of "division"? Or does the choice of "belonging" - to a group, or a community - automatically equal to dissociating from "those who do not belong"? And if this is true, does this equation apply as well to racial and/or ethnic differences?

Nevertheless, independently of the answers to those questions, we may clearly infer from both stories that race and religion are in strict correlation. Curiously though, in the first story a religious vision gives the incipit because it emphasizes the importance of the divine and supreme message, but it gets somewhat posed aside along the way. To be more specific, the real mission eventually becomes the achievement of Equal Civil Rights, and the pursuit of the ideals that made the United States the phenomenal country that it is. Following in fact, the religious content of the initiative remains in a way confined within the boundaries of those belonging to the African American race, while it fades away from the rank of "main priority" when the message reaches different races across the board. Instead, in the story of Bowers, religion and pure theological analysis persist and aliment the foundation of the racist ideology, the gluing agent that according to him should preserve the contamination of the pure white race.

Yet, another historical episode attesting the correlation between religion and race is without any doubts the genocide that recently took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where religious persecution mutated into "ethnic cleansing", horrifying and shocking the entire world. The reports of mass rapes, killings, abuses, torture, violence and imprisonments in concentration camps, brought to life again the dreadful memories of World War II, along with Adolph Hitler's insane but strategically sound vision of race supremacy. These appalling events triggered the simplest of all questions: why something as horrible as this is happening again? This time though, almost as if the world had not witnessed enough filth throughout the centuries of human history, religious differences surprisingly appeared to become the main justification to support the Serb and Croatian racist nationalism that led to the obliteration of the Muslim populations. In fact, in the name of their respective Catholicism and Orthodox Church, Serbs and Croatians carried out a systematic annihilation of the Muslim heritage, not in a remote location at the antipodes of earth, but in the center of Europe and in plain sight to the rest of the civilized western world. Here the "religion & race rationale" surely functioned in concert as instruments of segregation. Ironically though, the mere fact of belonging to a specific ethnicity or race was concurrently capable of creating a strong sentiment of nationalism and unity, which turned out to be an effective gain in favor of the political propaganda of each one of those parties.

Overall, religion maybe does not unify nor segregate, nor was it ever even meant to facilitate or amplify the "racialization" of the peoples of our planet; as a matter of fact, both Islam and Christianity in their original and pure essential message, do not aim to separate but rather to unite. Jesus came to unite all in a sole body and in communion with God and the Holy Ghost, but mankind has re-interpreted this message, possibly for political or sociological reasons. The existence of factors such as race and religion should not be a hurdle among the peoples, but a bridge. As God considers us all His children and invites us to acknowledge and respect the differences among all men, we could infer that all the norms and the guidelines dictated by any religious movement are socially constructed, to somewhat satisfy or fulfill some "hidden agenda". As and example, according to the pre-civil war slavery apologists and their interpretation of the biblical scriptures, God created various and distinct races with the sole purpose of keeping them segregated from one another. In their mind, blacks and whites had to be divided because this was" the only way to abide by God's original intendment". However, if we remained focused on the role of religion particularly in the United States, we could not neglect to notice that faith does not address the fundamental divisions that are in place in this extremely "racialized" society, but in contrasts, it accentuates them. As pointed out by Michael Emerson in his book "Divided by Faith", religion serves a "moral force in freeing people and bringing them together, but is does not succeed across racial lines". This ends up giving birth to one of the largest dogmatic contradictions of our time.

Incidentally, another example of religion as a divisive factor could be observed in a recent homily presented by the new Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Catholic Church. He exhorts all Christians to abstain from using their intellect in order to avoid the risk of remaining trapped in "ideological post-illuminist mazes", and modern relativism. He claims that an intellectual approach is not compatible with the quintessential message of Christ, and as such, it should not be espoused. Nonetheless, it is likely that his extreme stance could cause further segregation among Christians themselves, and hence it is somewhat challengeable in this phase of human history. In fact, we can observe that humanity has never been so divided as in these last decades, and it is questionable that this position might be fruitful in the years to come.

In essence however, it appears that religion might succeed in lessening divisions among peoples, whether racial and/or based on faith, if only our spiritual and political leaders would cease considering the political implications of their message and start acting finally for the common good. Contrary to the Pope's recent exhortation, religious people and groups should instead probably acquire a deeper sense of consciousness, and live religion as an opportunity for "understanding", not "refusing to understand".

In conclusion, on the basis that Race and Religion are often intertwined, a more effective inclination on behalf of religious individuals to ponder with their own intellect should be propagated and encouraged. All, should be able to exert their God-given power of discernment instead of accepting to be passively imbibed of any dogmatic or moral notion dispensed to them - whether purely right or wrong - without individually analyzing its content with their own heart and mind. If all this should occur, there is a substantial and congruous hope that religious and racial problems might become more controllable, or at least less divisive. In other words, humankind will not evolve if segregation continues to exist and to be enforced. Spiritual and political leaders must work side by side across faiths and races to promote unity and cohesiveness; the destiny of the human race and the preservation of our specie are seriously at stake, and there might be no more room for errors.