What’s wrong with religions today?

Joan of Arc

The lead article in the op-ed page of today’s Deepika (a Malayalam newspaper which is the mouthpiece of the Catholic Church in Kerala) is a slap in the face of a Catholic nun who dared to question the Church particularly on the Bishop Mulakkal case. The writer questions the nun’s virtues instead of looking at the evils she questioned. Many of the allegations made by the writer against the nun may be true. She might have broken her religious vows of poverty and obedience. But are her sins even comparable to what the Bishop did and what many priests of the Church have been doing for years and years?

The nun can be questioned for her transgressions. My personal view is that she has no right to stay on in her religious congregation since she seems to have lost faith in its ways. She should quit her religious vocation and raise her finger against the Church, particularly because she seems to be going against the rules and regulations of that profession. That does not, however, justify the Deepika writer’s views at all.

The writer is doing a terrible disservice to the Church by making the nun look like a medieval witch. The Catholic Church burnt about 40,000 women labelling them witches during the medieval period. The Church’s history reeks of blood and fire for most part of it. Too many people were burnt alive. Too many were incarcerated. Too many were shamed. All for the honour of the Church. Tragically, in most cases the victims were right! Even the Church had to admit that eventually. Saint Joan of Arc, for example.

The Church never allows serious dissent. It expects blind faith and blind obedience from the faithful. Anyone who dares to question is exposing him-/herself to grievous dangers. The Church can be worse than the deadliest mafia when it comes to dealing with dissenters. It may not take action directly and openly. It has its own clandestine ways of eliminating perceived enemies.

The Church is not about spirituality, in short; it is about asserting itself, its power, among the believers. This is a cancer that has gripped most dominant religions today. There is little, if any, spirituality about them. Each one of them is waging a war, however clandestine some of the wars may be, to extend its authority over more people, to conquer more lands and souls for its God.

The world goes on accumulating evil upon evil in spite of the rising number of religions and religious sects. That is because none of these religions or sects is about spirituality. They are all about power, power in its various manifestations. Unless religions become genuinely spiritual, which is quite unlikely given the history of religions hitherto, they are not going to make the world any better a place. In fact, they will make it worse and worse. Writers like the Deepika one will continue to be the stooges of such religions.