The reason I bridle when it seems that being against religion, or religious influence is bandied about (particularly in “intellectual” circles) as a normatively good thing, is that it ignores that the Western historical experience with “religion” (a conveniently vague term) is not uniform. The bigger issue is that in other parts of the world, it was “religion” that served as the safeguard of society from colonialism, and I don’t mean “colonialism” as a term to describe the intangible cultural imperialism, but the colonialism of textbooks. It was this force that so strongly fought against Western colonialism, and to attempt to minimize the importance of religion, particularly in circles where anti-imperialism is the centerpiece of the discourse, is distressing, because we create this space where we pretend that normative values that have some theology at the center are somehow more capable of abuse than others. This fiction ensures that other normative values, like nationalism, get to occupy a space of impunity within ourselves and our consciousness. We seek to reduce the role of religion in public life, a goal that sounds ostensibly positive and progressive, but we never ask ourselves: what values have become the centerpiece of our public life? Where do they come from? How do we have such strong definitions of “morality” absent religion, a morality that can command us to scream at others, to use violence upon others, or to even justify those actions upon others, and yet delude ourselves into believing that this morality that emerges “sans religion” is any less capable of the egregious abuse we derided “religion” for in the first place? We speak of our national essences, unaware that these cultural formations are byproducts of recent history, and are blind to the unyielding and unquestioning commitment to ideals that are as uncompromising as those “religious” values that are described with such broad strokes and such condemnation. Perhaps humanity is simply uncomfortable with itself, that once it faces its nature, once it forgets the actual content of scripture (another conversation entirely—the distinct lack of knowledge of scripture within the public that still yields pontification on “religion”), it no longer understands why God is such a truly Revolutionary Force, and why any ideational structure, featuring “a divine” or not, as long as it is a reflection of humanity, it will reflect our ugliness.
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