Elton John has hit the news recently with a comment that religion should be banned. - Elton John and the Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears discuss what it means to be a gay star, just what constitutes a gay sense of humour - and why everyone is welcome in their world. -
says a headline in the Guardian Unlimited -
Prior to the banning religion statement Elton John had said:
I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. But there are so many Christian people I know who are gay and love their religion ...
Italics = prying1 who wonders at the contradiction in this statement???
Elton John's words about banning religion in context:
... We should all be together. I've got this really naive idea of what life should be like - it's an idealistic idea but it's completely integrated. We can't keep thinking of gay people as being ostracised; we can't keep thinking of Muslim people as being [ostracised] because of the fundamentalism that occurs in Islam. Muslim people have to do something about speaking up about it. - This I agree with - We can't judge a book by its cover.
From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.
The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave; why aren't they coming together? I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts: instead of more violence why isn't there a [meeting of religious leaders]. It's all got to be dialogue - that's the only way. Get everybody from each religion together and say 'Listen, this can't go on. Why do we have all this hatred?'
~~~~~
His opening lines about being naive are proven in his last paragraph about the leaders of each religion having a conclave. "It's all got to be dialogue... "
There are no LEADERS of each religion except the Catholic Church and maybe the Dali Lama. In the Muslum religion there is a myriad of local Imams and such but which of them are considered THE LEADERS of the Muslum religion? All of them by their local congregations.
Christianity has so many branches and disagreements on such little issues that it would be impossible to gather them together and decide who is in and who is out. Many of those that the Main Stream Media calls "Christian Leaders" are rejected as such by the majority of Christians... Tony Campolo and Hillary Clinton come to mind...
Hindoo and Buddhist religions are pretty much the same way by what I gather.
Then, if and when, they get to the meeting who is going to lead it?
Elton?
I think not.
The meeting would be filled with a bunch of people pointing fingers and claiming the others are wrong. Plus you have the problem of definitions of words. For example the Muslums and Mormans and Jehovah's Witnesses and Hindoos and Buddhists and Catholics and Protestants all have a different definition of the word 'salvation' and even the need for it...
No Elton. A Holy Conclave would not work. You are as you said, "naive"...
As far as the religion is filled with hate towards gays aspect of your statements, Christianity as I know it simply disagrees with the gay lifestyle. Because a person (religious or not) says, "I do not think that the word 'Marraige' should be redefined to denote a relationship between two men or two women", or "I do not think the gay lifestyle is a viable one", they are tagged as hate filled.
Often times by those that are filled with hate towards religion...
~~~~~~
Think about it. To ban religion would really cause troubles in this world.
~~~~~~
I think it would be easier to ban toupees than it would be to ban religion.
~~~~~
Technorati Tags -
Elton John -
Religion -
Homosexuality -
|