There’s a common theme among some of the loudest voices in the world’s major religions.
That if you don’t accept my beliefs, you’re headed to hell.
If you violate a handful of select rules I deem the most important, you’re bad.
In some cases, the theme is used to put others down. To ridicule them. To pass laws that harm others. In parts of the world, this paradigm is used to abuse and kill people.
But there’s something else these extremists have in common.
They all manipulate religion to promote a narrow brand of their religion while ignoring far more pressing items those same religions demand of people.
Let’s be specific.
Self-described religious Christians seem obsessed with the LGBQT+ community, fighting for years to prevent gay people from marrying. Extremist Christians for years banned interracial dating and have been behind most of America’s anti-Black policies from slavery to Jim Crow to today’s anti-diversity obsession.
Some Christians so reject religions like Islam that they put energy into making sure Muslims can’t come to America. Stay away, they say!
Christians have persecuted and slaughtered Jews for centuries. Christian nationalist extremists have been at the forefront of banning books, ironically that discuss slavery which Christians supported in the past. Charleston, South Carolina self-described Christians, we all recall, shouted “Jews will not replace us.”
Muslim extremists fully reject any semblance of Western society, and the most extreme among them will murder even other Muslims who won’t submit to their strict code. These extremists believe if they blow themselves up killing infidels, they’ll be greeted with joy in heaven and celebrated here on Earth.
Their self-stated goal is to take over the West and end Democracy. Yarmulke-wearing Jews can’t even walk the streets of some European cities now, lest they be attacked by Muslim extremists. From 1974 to 2024, Islamic extremists committed over 65,000 attacks, killing nearly a quarter million people, mostly Muslims. My 16 year-old son was screamed at, “F**K Jews,” while simply riding bikes near Amsterdam several years ago.
Jews have their extremist as well. Some are so hyper-focused on issues that impact only them that they don’t care about who else falls in the process. Support Israel, and who cares what you do to others, some believe. Many of these extremists live in insular communities that put zero energy into helping any outsiders.
Extremist Jews in the West Bank support violence and deportation of Palestinians on biblical Jewish land. Some have raided Palestinian family homes and burned down olive groves.
Hindu and Buddhists extremists likewise resort to violence to combat their naysayers.
These extremists are but a tiny fraction of their religions’ adherents. But they’re loud and impactful, and they cause significant harm.
They all have one other important thing in common.
They all ignore far bigger religious edicts about respecting others. About loving others. About working for justice and fairness. About helping those most in need. About welcoming strangers.
We can start with the Hebrew Bible. The Torah, to Jews. It’s the precursor to the New Testament and later the Koran.
In Leviticus 19:17–18, the Hebrew Bible commands Jews to “Love Your Fellow Like You Love Yourself.”
ואהבת לרעך כמוך
But even if you find yourself fighting about who your “fellow” is or “what does it mean to love,” in Genesis, 1:27–28, it also states that every person is created in the image of God.
“So, God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”
“Every” isn’t up for interpretation.
It means that “every” person has a piece of godliness in them. Who among us has the chutzpah to harm God?
The New Testament, the Christian Bible, is full of love and kindness edicts and parrot what they learned from the Jewish Torah:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus was all about kindness and compassion:
“He has come to proclaim good news to the poor, to free captives, to restore the sight of the blind, and to set the oppressed free.” (Luke 4:18–19)
Islam considers the givers of those love-based laws, Moses and Jesus, prophets. Islam further demands: “This is the sum of duty, do naught unto others what you would not have them to do to you.” Islam focus heavily on treating neighbors kindly. Hadith 13 states: “None of you will believe until you love your brother what you love for yourself.” The most frequently used Arabic root word in the Koran is “love” — ḥā bā bā (ح ب ب).
Hinduism contains an entire five levels of love, including compassion and generosity.
So it’s strange to me that these holy commands of love and justice across religions get thrown in the trash in favor of selective judgments humans feel the need to mete out in God’s name.
Most parents know that the nicest thing another person can do for them is to be kind and loving to their children. When someone visits, a parent delights far more in gifts brought for their kids than they do in gifts for themselves. A parent is overjoyed when someone helps their child, far more than when someone helps them.
It’s the same with God.
When we as humans do right by God’s children, i.e. all of us, he delights far more in those acts of loving kindness than when we do something for God.
Of course we should pray and thank God.
But if we’re so hyper-focused on singing God’s praises while we’re obsessed with harming his children, we’ve missed the mark.
So the next time we think about hitting someone over the head or wiping out an entire city on behalf of God, let’s instead do right by his children.
If God wants to punish his own kids, he can do that on his own.
Our job isn’t to be the termites on our human Ark. It’s to take care of it and our fellow human beings.