The favorable face of politics has usually been rich older white male protestant lacking diversity and limiting the progression of all the rest of the population.
The Right-winged Christians and other extreme religious people have denied the civil rights of the minority, whether it was the enslavement of a race or the continued denied marital rights of the LGBT community.
So many wars have been started (the holy wars), lives have been taken (those of the LGBT community who have been killed or have committed suicide from religious fueled gay-bashing), and the future progression of knowledge has been stifled (by those who jailed Galileo for his realization that the earth revolved around the sun, and creationists who teach children that the theory of evolution is a lie).
And I don’t like how everyone has missed the whole point of religion. It’s about relating our humanity to spirituality and to following moral values that establishes one should be treated like you would like to be treated. Religion is about finding peace, loving one another, and being better living beings in the process, but no one ever practices religion in this way. Instead, they use religion as a weapon to build higher barriers and to keep anyone who is different from them away. I mean—who cares if she’s black and he’s white, or if that guy is gay and she’s straight. We’re all people and we should treat each other like people regardless of what any one religion has told you.
Jazzed About Stuff 
Perhaps the reason everyone misses the whole point of religion is that religion has traditionally had a different mission than the excellent one you describe. I absolutely agree with you on what religion should be, but I disagree that religion tries (primarily) to keep different people away. Religion is used primarily to indoctrinate and control the largest group of people possible; the alienation of others is a secondary, useful tool.
It is much easier to control the crayon box if you convince all the crayons that the world’s problems stem from those devilish “magic” markers.
LikeLike
I think that the attempt to control the largest group possible and the alienation of others goes hand in hand. People love to join together in hatred over a common enemy, like those “magic” markers, haha.
That actually would have been another great point to have mentioned in this post.
LikeLike
Appreciated you posting this 🙂
LikeLike