My Response to Elton, and Bill Mahr for That Matter

From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."-Elton John

This statement made by Elton on CNN has been causing quite a lot of controversy. However, he is definitely not the first to say such things. This is my rebuttal to this belief. Elton did say this in regards to all religions, so it was not directed specifically at Christianity, but since my faith was included, that is the side I will defend.

First, I wonder what a disorganized religion would look like? The preacher shows up ½ an hour late without his notes, everyone sings different hymns at the same time, and there was only one dish brought for the unannounced potluck.

But in all seriousness, the thing that I notice the most about when people make statements such as this that they are making them from a free society where Christianity has been the dominate religion. Christianity’s core laws are love God and love your neighbor. People are valuable not based on who they are or what situation they were born into, but because Jesus died for them. Which means the worst sinner and the “least of these” have tremendous value to the kingdom of God. For as far behind the times as Christianity gets accused of being, countries where the majority has freely subscribed to the Bible’s teachings have been the world leaders on human rights, racial reconciliation, humanitarian efforts, women’s rights, and ironically gay rights and the sexual revolution.

Now certainly Christianity has its sinful scars. The difficulty of religion is that it is a powerful thing, which means it has the potential for great good and great harm. Something that is powerful sets itself up for abuse. There are things that have historically happened in Christianity that have been terrible, and completely ungodly, where people have used the name of Jesus to manipulate, control, and oppress people and feed their own power lust. But there is no religion where this hasn’t happened. And even more so this occurs in powerful secular organizations. It is a human problem of the desire for power and control, not a Christian, or for that matter, religious problem.

Countries where freedom of religion (Christianity by its nature cannot be forced) is allowed to flourish allows us to choose to follow Him or some other way. We are still to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us, trusting God to be the righteous judge. He never forces us to, for control stands in the way of love, which means that we still have respect and love for those who have chosen sin, because Christ died for them as well. It is the old saying, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.”

Compare that to countries where religion is compelled or banned altogether: Communist Russia, Socialist China, Nazism. or even countries where one must be a Muslim, or Christian for that matter. The human rights record is atrocious. Because compelled or absent religion devalues humanity. Idealism, efficiency, and power become the god, so anything, or anyone, standing in the way of the attempted earthly utopia becomes expendable, which leads to genocide and oppression. The historical record of countries that have banned religious freedom speaks for itself.

It is interesting that Elton would ban the very thing that has allowed him to live as he wishes, because it is my task to love him in Christ, even if his lifestyle is sinful. Because he will have to answer to God for what he does, as will I. But it is Christianity’s respect for human dignity and individual choice that have allowed Elton to freely be gay. Banning organized religion would be major steps back in human rights, and perhaps would actually allow Christianity to flourish again as it did in the first century. Nothing grows faith like making it illegal.

-Posted to Sara Groves on random