Question For Caitlin Johnstone
Dear Caitlin,
According to a 2017 Pew Pol, 63% of people believe in God. In your writing, you often express contempt for many religions/religious concepts. This contempt is not necessarily ill founded, it often makes sense, as religions have been weaponized, used for power, and used for purposes that run counter to the good of their constituents as well as encouraging or at least tolerating activities that go against the principles of their founders.
Any clear minded analysis of the words of Jesus Christ, for example, paint an unambiguous ethics: dedication to peace and love for others are central to his message. This along with Jesus Christ's clear admonitions against usury and the love of money, and it becomes quite clear that what goes by the name of Christianity today is a far cry from what this man initially preached. Furthermore, using "Christianity" to conquer populations, which happened often historically, is obviously quite contrary to what was initially intended.
This argument holds for Islam as well of course. I and many others who have actually taken the time to study Islam with an open mind will argue that that religion is also very much one of peace, but it too has been hijacked and weaponized and is now being used in so many terrible ways which run contrary to its founding principles.
You have written about a similar phenomenon happening to Feminism in your article, "This Is Everything That Is Wrong With Mainstream Feminism". In that article you included a tweet where you say, "Anywhere you see a healthy impulse arising in society, you will see attempts to twist it into the service of power, and this is very much the case with feminism."
So here's my first question. Would you qualify Jesus Christ's attempt to bring a message of peace and love as a "healthy impulse" for society? If so, then is it unreasonable to assume that religion is also equally susceptible to being twisted into the service of power?
My real question however is about unifying people versus alienating them. As you are well aware, an oft used tactic against us, the people, is to divide us in order to conquer us. They keep us fighting amongst ourselves about so many minor things, and this keeps us distracted from the bigger crimes being perpetrated. I often times wonder if our movement could grow more if we were more accepting of people who believe in God. Especially those who are truly dedicated to such principles of peace and love. My Question is, is it necessarily helpful to alienate all those who believe in God, or would it be better to focus on the way that modern religion has been undermined to the point that it no longer follows the healthy impulse it once had?
There is, after all, no definitive answer about whether or not there is a God. Unless someone has met God first hand, there is no way to know for certain what the truth is about this matter. Why go out on a limb to alienate all these people who, for their own reasons, have decided they believe that the earth was created? Why not build a coalition dedicated to peace, and let the whole God thing go? Does it really matter?
I mean, we can consider the situation in either way. There could be a group of psychopaths who are ruling the world. Psychopaths who lie to us and deceive us in order to maintain their positions of power, but who really go around the world stealing, killing and destroying. These psychopaths do so because, more than anything, they love power. We could also say, on the other hand, that there is a group of people who have joined together, and they have given their lives in service of Satan. In return they have received earthly riches and power. These people lie to us and deceive us in order to keep us unaware of their evil, but really they are going around the world stealing, killing, and destroying.
Each of these narratives encapsulate the crux of the problem equally well. Shouldn't we recognize that all of us are on the same side in this fight? We are all fighting for peace on earth, we are all fighting for love of our fellow human, we are all fighting because we love life and this beautiful planet we are living on. We are all on the same team, so why not start acting like we are on the same time?
Imagine, 63% of people believe in God. Why not try to join up with all them? If we did that, maybe the elites would really start getting scared...
Cover photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash.