PAPER PULPIT: Organized religion makes progress living up to ideals – Gadsden Times

Dr. George Robinson| Special to The Times

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people. Revolutionaries used this phrase to condemn churches for making people tolerate oppression while hoping for a better life after death. Revolutionaries offered utopia, but they built nations with oppression, imprisonment and slaughter.

The United States of Americawas founded on freedom. This freedom is built on the ideas that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Government secures these rights and governs by consent of the governed. Pursuit of happiness is acting on personal conviction while respecting it in others, which guarantees it for all.

Our fledgling nation revolted against the most powerful nation on earth without destroying it. Our American experiment proves our founding ideals work.

Religion is the revelation of a power higher than humanity and validates these rights. It empowers, soothes and is the source of gratitude. We appeal to this higher power at birth, death, morning, evening, fasting, feasting, holidays, tragedies, starting sessions in Congress and on our money. Religion is part of American lifeof human life.

Is America perfect? No human endeavor is perfect, and the sins of the fathers influence the third and fourth generations. America is making progress living up to its ideals. The same goes for organized religion.

Slavery and racism are atrocities against the innocent and riddle human history. War, persecution, famine, poverty, economic failure and pandemics consume the innocent. Freedom of speech reveals humanitys mistakes. American ideals do not cause these problems. They are the best tools and guides to solve them. Benevolence and forgiveness are essential.

Does religion neglect lifes problems? The organized religions I know help us in life as much as hereafter because the two are connected. Churches give charity on a personal level while teaching self-reliance. They network to provide humanitarian aid globally.

Charity provides essential food, clothing and shelter,making education possible. Education begins in the family.(Proverbs 22:6) Vocational training or higher education deliver a good life. Religion promotes learning and wisdom(Proverbs 9:9-10), while it cautions against being too smart in your own conceits.(Romans 12:16)

It is no accident that our nation isNo. 1the world for charity per capita. Americans gave $450 billion in 2019;70% came from individuals.(Barrons) The South gave the highest percentage.(Philanthropy Roundtable)

The economics of religion teach that we must work to eat (by the sweat of your brow), for the sake of dignity. We reap what we sow. While it isOKto have a barn filled with the fruits of Gods earth, God is offended when we tear down the barn to build bigger ones instead of aiding those lacking the essentials of life.(Luke 12:16-21)

Religion ministers to the soul,which science and government cannot heal. Religion offers certain truths which we recognizeand the truth makes us free.

George Terry Robinson, MD, serves in the Gadsden Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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PAPER PULPIT: Organized religion makes progress living up to ideals - Gadsden Times