
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040476
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE MEASURE OF RELIGION'S SUCCESS

I NOTED with interest two commentary articles on religion by the Rev. Nelson Harris (March 31) and Robert Turner Jr., sociologist and artist (April 12), in the Roanoke Times & World-News.

Harris reminded us that religion is not by nature good or evil. Rather, it derives its good or evil from the choices of the people who practice it.

Turner takes the issue a step further and questions whether religion is unavoidably designed to breed prejudice, bigotry and hatred. He concludes that it is not necessarily the religions themselves that breed these. Instead, he reasons, it is the cultural "conventions of particular times and places" that cause things to go "sour."

At the heart of both writers' understanding of religion is the assumption that it is something identifiably separate from other human activity and to which humans attach their sometimes well-meaning, but often self-serving values, thereby contaminating religion.

But the nature of religion is ultimately human in origin and fulfillment. Its purpose is to establish a system of meaning by which humans can justify their existence and provide motivation for living. It is neither good nor evil, per se, and only succeeds or fails. Success is measured to the extent to which it serves the well-being of humanity; failure, when it no longer serves that well-being.

In this time of human history, any religion that promotes exclusivity, racism, hatred, superiority and the disregard for the fragility of our planetary ecosystem no longer serves the well-being of humanity. It has failed. Religion that affirms and promotes the unity of humankind, the diversity of its expression and the sacred nature of our relationship with all of creation can only offer a healthier justification for our existence and further motivate our activity as humans.

If there is any absolute, common thread to be found in successful, healthy religion, it must be the experience of love that, perhaps, is the ultimate purpose of religion: to bring love into the world so that the world may be softened and be an even better place for life to continue its incredible evolution.

REV. KIRK BALLIN\ ROANOKE

by CNB