My Race And Religion Does Not Matter, And Neither Do Yours
By: Benny Lim
Tags: Blue Insights, Equality, Colour, Religion, Race

A couple of years ago, I read a news article about how a group of religious fanatics was so adamant that certain eateries should not operate in the country where I currently reside.

Their reasoning was because the food that the eateries were selling were not ‘kosher’ for them. In other words, it was unclean for just their group. For others, it was fine but because they are the majority in my country, they demanded that the other ‘minority’ groups follow and submit to their demand.

Without question, it was sickening for me.

I live in a multiracial country. We have 3 of what we call the ‘main’ ethnicities, followed by the ‘others.’ In total, my country is easily home to over 20 different ethnicities. And these 20 groups probably have over 10 different faiths and beliefs.

Of course, the main ethnicity is also the ones with the biggest number of a certain faith. I don’t wanna be naming names right now but you can more or less figure it out that whenever a country has a majority race, that race’s particular religion will also be the biggest one in the country.

Needless to say, when you have a large number of anything and they are the majority, you will have certain groups that will want to step over the ‘little’ guys.

It’s sad and pathetic.

It got to a point where anything the others do, will be scrutinized and criticized by these groups because it will be different from their ideologies and understandings.

However, I’m happy that there are a lot of those in that race and religion who are more understanding and open to accepting differences.

Time and time again, I read about how extremist groups of the main faiths in the world are bashing and carrying out acts of terrorism against other religions, in the name of their own religion.

Like, honestly?

Do you really think that God — the Almighty, the all-powerful, the creator of the heavens, the universe and every single thing ever known to have existed, to need you, a tiny, puny, insignificant human being to kill another human being in His name?

How delusional can you be?

And that’s just the problem. The delusion that your religion is better than the other religions out there.

I was brought up with that delusion. I was taught that my religion, the faith that I was born in was THE religion. It was the ONLY religion that mattered. It was the ONLY religion that was right, true and proper. That MY God was THE God and all other gods of other faiths were pagan gods.

And it wasn’t just me.

Speaking to my friends of other faiths, they were brought up the exact same way as well. The exact same things, the exact same words, just fitted to their faith, to their God.

That caused a little rift between us, even though we tried our hardest not to. Of course, me being the minority in the country and most of my friends were the majority, they said things that were not only hurtful but also very disrespectful and provoking against my beliefs and my faith.

I couldn’t say much because if I were to say the same things about their beliefs, I would have been put in jail.

So, I just bit my tongue and ignored them. Thankfully, those snide remarks didn’t come out as often as it did from other people.

But as I grew older, studied my religion a bit more in-depth, as well as the other religions of the world, I realized that they’re all just the same. Same teachings, just slight differences here and there. Some even have the same prophets, just slightly different names. Same historical events that happened, just slightly different outcomes.

And it made me come to a realization that the only thing we have that is different is the colour of our skins, which is also the results of the continent that we live in. Over the years, our body adapts and the pigmentation of our skins change to adapt to our surroundings.

In reality, we’re all just the same.

Even our faiths and beliefs.

If you believe in God, your religion is merely a pathway to Him. God is your destination and your religion is the highway to where He is. Think of it like God is a shopping mall. That’s where you want to go. And to get to that shopping mall, there are 3 different highways that you can use. At the end of the day, you will still reach the shopping mall.

God is the shopping mall, the religions are different highways.

Regardless of which highway you use, you’ll get there. Regardless of which religion you believe in, you will get to God in the end.

When you think about it that way, your religion really shouldn’t matter to anyone else but yourself. That’s why my religion, my faith, my beliefs do not matter and neither should yours.

In the end, it is between myself and God.

If you’re not one to believe in religion, then believe that the universe is fair and that there is such a thing as karma.

Religions have torn the world apart for way too long. I’m sure God never intended for His ‘teachings’ to be used to tear each other apart. If anything, I’m sure He intended it for everyone to get along, to love one another as their own.

Isn’t that the main teaching of every major religion out there?

To love without reservation?

We’ve all suffered too much because of the divide that religions have brought upon us.

It’s about time that religions are used for the good of ALL, regardless of which religion, someone subscribes to or even if they do not subscribe to any religion at all.

Because that’s what I truly believe God intended His teachings and His words to be for.