Lead Us Not Into Temptation

as a haven that many choose to reside in for a sense of purpose, security, and community. The tale of what lies beyond and why humans wander this Earth has evolved over time through storytelling and inherited literature. Empires rose and fell, and as a result, philosophies traveled the globe--integrating into the regional culture. The clash of competing civilizations reflects nothing but greed for power, for as many religious scholars will tell you, the parallelisms between religions across the world are simply uncanny. There is no inherent dark side of religion, merely a suppressed wickedness lurking beneath the table. The yearning for power opens the door to other vices, sins that corrupt the foundation at its core. The deadliest threat to religion is its capability to turn against the nature of its creation and divide the people it means to guide.

By the creed that established Islam, Christianity, even Buddhism, etc., there is an obligation to recruit followers in an effort to establish dominance that prioritizes political favor as well. Unfortunately, it has often been executed in the shadow of death. It is difficult to fathom the words that fill our history books, words that reveal the crusades and executions of thousands in the name of religion. A relevant quote by dystopian author Margaret Atwood reads, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.” The parallelisms spill into the modern era; the United States heavily mimics the way the Church embedded itself into European rule. Immigrants moved across the Atlantic for a new life and found themselves planting sisterly roots. As exemplified in the United States, laws are pushed forward to favor the beliefs upheld by those in power--old, religiously guided, Caucasian men. We see blatant enmeshment

Religion exists of Church and State. Merely from what we know of, we are still blind to what happens behind closed doors. The thunderstorms beneath the umbrella of religion don’t stop there. Instant access to vast information has exposed the crimes that have occurred within the Catholic Church for decades. 216,000 is the estimated number of victims that have been sexually assaulted by the French Catholic Church since 1950 alone, a situation of unignorable gravity. A repeated line across various media outlets is that the release of the inquiry came as a shock but not as a surprise. Nonetheless, to unfold the truth, revealing the extent of suffering is nothing short of heart-shattering. Discovering the hypocrisy and systematic covering of crimes causes one to reconsider how religion has ordered us to critique ourselves. The cruel mockery is that religious organizations denounce homosexuality, restricting followers from fulfilling their true identity when members are known to act on their homosexuality. In a myriad of texts, the realm of religion has condemned sexual activity between members of the same sex. Contrast to religious doctrine, homosexuality is not a crime. What is immensely staggering is the suffering such rules have caused when members of religious organizations are known to act on their homosexuality. Further exacerbating transgressions, members strip the youth of their innocence when committing heinous crimes of pedophilia. Nowadays, we have the power to hold those accountable for their wrongdoings. The power of the public is exemplified in Pope Francis’s confession that the French inquiry induced a moment of great shame. It is an interesting proclamation, given that religion often brings shame to its members for their mistakes. Safety within the

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faith you grew up on, the religion you identify with due to familial or cultural relations cannot be found in an environment that rejects your persona or others. The ungodly and inevitable dark side of organized religion is its ability to divide humankind—if we let it.

We have the power to change the illusion and remove the pedestal to which we hold all religions. Understanding the flaws of religion will enable us to let it be merely a guide and the reason to unite humanity, not aside from, but because of our differences.