A religious leader’s first mission should be to provide the truth

Tue Mar 03, 2015

Editor: The large number of religions and the greater number of denominations are enough to leave anyone confused. I simply cannot understand why there are so many denominations within a religion.{{more}} They are all reading the same book, yet cannot come to an agreement on what is the truth. The only point of agreement is the one claimed to be inspired by God.

The leaders of the different denominations within a religion need to come together and agree upon one doctrine. In the Christian religion there are differences on issues like the celebration of the Sabbath, the payment of tithes and even where persons go when they die. These may appear insignificant, but they do affect the ability of a religion to compete with other religions. We may further go on to say that there is no need for competition among the religions and they all could co-exist. This may be so, but if the objective is to save souls, as they all claim, the first mission should be to provide the truth.

Religion offers some persons power, wealth and the opportunity to exploit others. Though all persons are not the same, it is necessary to scrutinize anyone coming in the name of God, just as you would scrutinize anyone coming in the name of politics.

I do not believe in any religion, since I do believe that your religion must come from your own relationship with God. No one can take his experience and give it to me and that should become my experience. We all are different, but the same God would give all the same message.

It is unfortunate that many persons use the name of God to achieve their personal objectives, which are often devious in nature. The problem is that we have developed an addiction for religion and do no pay attention to the messenger behind the message. We often hear the statement that we must pay attention to the message and not the messenger, but both are important, for the messenger often affects the credibility of the message.

Everyone would claim that his or her teaching is the correct one. If this is the case, I would like us to have public discussions on the Bible in order to determine which is correct. You may ask, what good will this serve. My answer to this is that it may save some persons who cannot make ends meet 10 per cent of their income.

Mystic