Separation of Church and State - Part 5

I apologize for not having updated for a long time, but I am volunteering for Mike Huckabee's campaign and the past month has been such a busy and dizzy month. So here it is. This is the fifth part of a long essay I wrote on the Separation of Church and State.

5. Erroneous Ideology is Dangerous to Politics

Additionally, erroneous ideology is dangerous to politics. Many people criticize Christians for believing that only their religion is right and conclude that such narrow-minded “only I’m right” philosophy destabilizes our society. They even seem to believe that such ideology eventually give rise to terrorist attacks, and think that peace can be achieved only when we throw away the “I’m right” philosophy and tolerate other people’s beliefs. However, this is a simplistic and naïve thought. The problem of the Islamic fundamentalists lies in the fact that they do not realize the truth. The terrorists responsible for 9/11 believed that by killing innocent Americans, they would have a luxurious life in paradise and 70 virgins. They preached peace and truth when in reality, it was just a reason and a way of hurting others and obtaining their way to paradise. Although it looked like they were trying to follow the truth, erroneous ideology and sinful human desire pushed them to evil means such as terrorism. What is truly dangerous here are the ideologies that allow human nature and greed to run freely; not religion. Hitler had great influence over the world and terrorized it at one time. He was a man who believed in himself and a very dangerous ideology. The same goes for Kim Il Song, the former dictator of North Korea. Timothy McVeigh, the man who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma, was actually an agnostic who didn’t want to believe in anything. Also, terrorists like Bin Laden who planned the attacks on 9/11 didn’t attack America because of any religious beliefs, but simply used Islam as justification for their actions. Thus, we must be able to differentiate between religion and people’s greed under the cover of religion, and realize that religion is not the cause of the problem but the solution to such erroneous ideology. Religion, especially Christianity, creates good ideology that will benefit all and prevent erroneous ideology from taking root. Though it may seem like religion itself influenced government and politics in the past, the problems seemingly stemming from religion actually stemmed from people who used religion to enhance their own power and take control, replacing pure religion. Reliable religion is imperative in containing flawed and dangerous ideologies. Religion gives rise to constructive and reliable ideologies and prevents dangerous ideologies from emerging. For example, if Christianity in Germany had properly carried out their duty, such an evil man like Hitler would never have emerged and even if he had, the German people would never have listened to him. Thus, since bad influence comes from dangerous and unreliable ideology, instead of trying to block or contain religious influences, people should be encouraged and provided an environment where they can listen to the teachings of a proven reliable religion.