Pope Pops the Fundamentalists!

 Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext to perpetuate mass killings.
.                                                          Pope Francis 

Pope Francis today [1/12/15] denounced religious fundamentalism. He stated it was this that inspired the Paris massacres and the ongoing Mideast conflicts. Pope Francis said the attackers "were enslaved by deviant forms of religion that used God as a mere ideological pretext to perpetuate mass killings". He then called for an end to "fundamentalist terrorism" in the Mideast and for Muslim leaders in particular to condemn "extremist interpretations" of their faith that seek to justify such violence.

The leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church has stepped up his call for Muslim political, religious and intellectual leaders to vocally insist that Islam doesn't condone such violence.

I so welcome this news and the admonition from Pope Francis. How refreshing it is to have a Pope who is a humanitarian. He understands the meaning of the word religion in its best sense. To aide in my understanding I read the definition of the word 'religion' over three times in my dictionary. Not once does it mention anything about hatred or killing for God. It seems to me that most religions have as their base the ideas of a power greater than humans and, far as I can discern, this includes the power of love and goodwill toward all humans. So why is religion being used to perpetuate mass killings? 

Throughout history someone who is power hungry and has a self-aggrandizement complex encourages/commands his men/minions to murder 'others'. 'Others' are defined as all who do not agree with whatever the megalomaniac is declaring as right. He must be followed as though he is the supreme being. "In the name of God, I will slay, starve, impoverish, convert, exploit you." This is currently going on and Francis rightly "denounced the "abominable" kidnapping and enslavement of young girls by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria and the slaughter of "unspeakable brutality" of more than 100 children by the Taliban in Pakistan". 

Time for active non-violence. Time to stand up and call out, time to protest. Time to call it what it is: a perversion of religion; it is murder and the most egregious violation of human rights. When power is perverted it always comes out as hate and creates fear.

We also need to call out [and stop propping up] the nations who are supporting these terrorists, supplying them with funds and arms to carry out their atrocities. I shudder to think that it is possibly from our own arms manufacturing that some of these weapons are coming. 

A sincere appreciation must go out to the world's leaders who are brave enough to stand up to the terrorist and say, 'no more'. We need a massive amount of brave, caring leaders as well as brave, ordinary citizens to come forth at this important hour and pledge their allegiance to goodness and love. This a call to non-violent action.

Remember:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate is not driven out by hate, only love can do that.                   Martin Luther King

susansmagicfeather copyright 2015 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved