I’m a corporation
whose business is to convince you to buy as much expensive coffee as frequently
as possible. My religion is profit.
The confederate flag
hanging in my truck’s rear window makes a statement about my rugged independence
and it inspires pride or discomfort in those who see it as they are challenged
to consider where they stand in the face of my public display of pride. My
religion is independence.
Racial diversity is a
core value to me. I go to meetings and ask challenging questions of others in
hopes of helping them to more highly value what I value. My religion is racial
diversity.
My three kids are each
in four different activities after school and I spend my life running around getting
them to their different activities. In telling you this I’m challenging you to
introspection about whether you are a good mom or not. My religion is busy
mom-ism.
I’ve started a
non-profit to help fund a women’s sewing cooperative in Africa and I’m trying
to convince you to also value this endeavor and show your commitment by
donating money to my non-profit. My religion is help-the-poor-ism.
The magazine I work
for usually has pictures of young, thin beautiful white women on the cover and
tries to manipulate its readers’ insecurities so they will buy things that help
them feel better about themselves. My religion is vanity.
I follow a man named Jesus who I believe is the Son of God. I
believe Jesus knows me completely and loves me unconditionally. I try to honor
the poor, serve my wife, defend the defenseless, run a business with integrity,
and be a good dad because that’s who I am but also in hopes it might encourage
you to seek this same all-knowing and unconditional love. My religion is Christianity.
Religion is a system of
beliefs or values. We all have them. Religion involves worship which simply
means giving significant time and attention to something we value. We all do
it. And we are all always trying to "impose" our views on others if
impose means trying to convince others we're right and by implication they're
not. We do it consciously or subconsciously, overtly or inadvertently but we
are all always doing it. It's at best hypocritical and irrational and at worst
discriminatory and malicious to criticize me for trying to "impose"
my religious views on you while by so doing you are simultaneously trying to
"impose" your religious views on me.
We all aspire to live holistically whether we realize it or
not. To be fulfilled, to be fully human, we need to be who we are regardless of
the context and regardless of the consequences. So please go ahead and continue
to be your authentic self and integrate your values into all of what you do in
your personal, work, social, business and political lives. Advocate strongly
for what you value and I’ll do the same. And if your values are attractive to
me, I’ll likely start to take some of them on as my own and hopefully
vice-versa. If not, then I’ll reject them, but I’ll endeavor to dialogue and to
not be offended because I may value some things differently from how you value
them.
