same: do not kill, do not steal, do unto others, as you would have them do to you, honor your parents. Thus, we owe our social civility to religion because it has lain down in our hearts the basic rule of law, which is another foundation of government; every law and every constitution is based on these simple beliefs. Several important social breakthroughs have been championed by religious leaders: such as Martin Luther King Jr. (a Baptist reverend), leading the fight for black civil rights, the fruits of which benefited all minorities; Mahatma Gandhi’s successful fight for Indian independence from the British, wielding only the Hindu principle of ahimsa (civil disobedience). An even better example is that of Mother Theresa, Albanian by birth, who, despite her strong Christian affiliation, was able to successfully take care of millions of Hindu India’s poor. Above all, religion has the capability to unit a people; unfortunately, as there are so many religions; it ends up dividing people. So what indeed accounts for the religious violence that has so characterized our dispensation? What aspect of religion could make a Palestinian youth jubilant holding high hands covered with the blood of an Israeli soldier? Put simply, it is religion plus politics. Religion has the potential to do a world of good, but when it gets tangled in politics, it becomes another matter. In the days of old, there was often no real clear distinction between religion and government, and this accounts for the numerous religious wars and religious repression that was rampant at the time. These also set the groundwork for most of the religious conflicts we have today, in that it caused imbalances of religious groups everywhere. Religion, page 3During the Middle Ages, religion was often an inherent part of government. This is reflected in the Four Crusades, the Holy Roman Empire (headed by the Pope who wielded enormous power) the primary waves of Islamic Ji...
