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The Mistrust and Misuse Religion Put on the People

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The Mistrust and Misuse Religion Put on the People

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Religion puts mistrust on a lot of people giving false hope and lots of broken promises. For example, some religious leaders may use the donations they get from their congregation to buy a lot of expansive stuff and try to guilt and shame them into giving money and most of the time, doing that may turn people away from the faith. Over the years, a lot of people have been turning away from the faith or religion because they start to question the values they learned over time, and when they start to question them, they get turned away. Today, in the Caribbean, a lot of young people are starting to protest against the stuff certain religions do, like for example, in Trinidad and Tobago, people were questioning about child marriages in the Hindu religion, and that if enforces paedophilia because a young child is being married off to a grown adult and there was a riot about it in the news. Then some other religions may use their power and influence to justify why their religion is superior because of the bad action of another but it’s not like all religions are good because they both have good and bad qualities. So, it’s pointless trying to shame the other because it seems very hypocritical. Another instance, is some religions using the trust and faith the people have for their religion for their own advantage like, let us say that if a donation was asked to help renovate a church, the people would donate because they believe that it will benefit them in the long run. Overtime, a donation would be made by the people but there’s no kind of progress at all being made at all. Eventually, the people would start to distrust and start to question their faith because they were being lied to. That’s why a lot of people leave their original faith and go to another one believing they will find one to put their trust into.

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Racism in religion within the Caribbean is an issue that has been happening since a long time ago and is something that needs to be addressed and fixed. In many different religions in the Caribbean, there is always a preference over skin colour and discrimination amongst others which I believed stemmed from slavery because the European colonizers were and would prefer the light skinned black slaves over the dark-skinned ones. In the olden times when the Europeans were converting the slaves they brought from Africa to Christianity, they slaves were taught that they were lower or beneath the colonizers, who were white or Caucasian. Also, just like the slaves, the indigenous people who were forced to do manual labour, were forced to be converted and both were prevented from practicing their native religion, especially the Africans who practiced many different religions.
So, overtime, this translated to the Africans incorporating the religions they brought from Africa with Christianity, therefore, creating whole new religions like Shouter Baptist. In the modern day, the indigenous people, because they were mostly killed off and led to genocide by the Europeans, the religion they originally practiced is rarely no longer worshipped. Mainly, the Europeans converted the indigenous people and the African slaves to Christianity because they believed that the religion, they were practicing was paganism. So, you could say that most the new religions that are practiced in the Caribbean, are derived from Christianity.
Also, Christianity in the Caribbean and anywhere in the world enforces that it is the only religion you should follow, and the other religions like Hinduism, where they worship multiple gods is pagan and should not be practiced and that it is inferior. So therefore, it perpetuates that those who practice Hinduism are not following God’s way. In Trinidad, some Catholic priests may try to imply that you shouldn’t eat food from Hindu people because the they do certain prayers to their various gods to bless it and it may give you a bad feeling when eating it. So, it shows that the priests are teaching you to be xenophobic and racist to the East Indian population who are mainly Hindus because they feel that their religion is superior. Also, it implies that something is wrong with them, which in fact they are not.

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In the Caribbean, especially with religion, there’s a lot of hypocrisy surrounding around it. For example, in Christianity, if you have sex and get pregnant, it is a sin since its fornication but you can’t have an abortion because apparently it is a graver sin to kill an unborn child and you must keep the baby. So, what should the pregnant person do in this kind of situation to deal with this? Either way she will be ostracized and shamed if she enters a church because obviously people will talk and gossip and, eventually everyone will know her business. If she decided to abort the baby, but that would be highly unlikely since in the Caribbean, countries like Trinidad and Tobago, where abortion is illegal. So, she would have to find another way do it, where she would have to find  a doctor who does illegal abortions, it would be expensive, so only if you’re a person with a lot of money would be the only kind of person with access to that. Doing either may be a sin but it shows that the church is just tying to uphold this moral code and by making you feel guilty and ashamed of yourself by forcing you to keep the baby and not have the option to have an abortion. Another instance, is when there’s a case of sexual abuse within the church and it usually ending being covered up or forgotten. This has been an ongoing issue that keeps on happening again and again and no one seems to be trying fix it. Even when someone tries to do something, someone in higher power will try to silence and shame them or the person will simply be scared because they don’t want to be ostracized. It all seems very hypocritical because the churches in the Caribbean generally preaches about no sex before marriage or anything sexual for the matter, no practice of homosexuality and things like stealing, and in turns out to be doing the same exact things they were preaching against an to persuade other people not to do. This is mostly prevalent in Catholic churches where the priests sexually abuse little children and get away with it all the time and as I said before, it is usually swept under the rug because the church doesn’t want a bad name for themselves. Other religions are similarly the same, like for example, in Hinduism, there are sometimes child marriages between a grown adult and a young child, which promotes paedophilia and there are several cases like this in Trinidad and Tobago where Hinduism is one of the religions practiced mostly by the East Indian population in the country.

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Today, in the modern world, religious intolerance might not be as prevalent as it was back then, it is still there but some people also in today’s world suffer consequences for not adhering to the rules and customs of their religion. Like for example, in some religions, you could get killed, kicked out by your parents for simply being gay or anything that goes against your religion because the bible or the church says so, that it is an unforgivable sin and an abomination.
In some countries, where homosexuality is illegal, which include stuff like gay marriage or any kind of public display of homosexuality. This mostly applies to almost any country in the Caribbean where it is illegal, which in turn causes a lot of discrimination and rampant homophobia to a lot of affected people which sometimes, will cause acts of violence against them. I would say that in the Caribbean, where Christianity is the main religion, it wouldn’t be surprising to find a lot of homophobia especially in countries like Jamaica, where the term “batty man” means or implies that someone is gay is usually said and used frequently.
In my opinion, it would seem that all this hate is ingrained into our minds and is learned repeatedly because no one is born being homophobic, just like how no one is born racist. It is how you were raised is how you come to learn that kind of thought process and, it can only be unlearned if you are open-mined and willing to grow past that kind of behaviour. Also, it is not only in our homes where it is enforced, it is mainly the church that teaches us that it morally wrong and something not to do.

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Religious intolerance is defined as when a group, may it be religious or non-religious, specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds.

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Religious intolerance goes way back to the 15th century when the Europeans, mainly the Spaniards first came to the Caribbean and colonized the indigenous people, also known as the Tainos and Kalinagos. The indigenous people were forced to be converted to Roman Catholicism by the Spaniards. While later on, other Europeans brought their own religions along with them when they came to the Caribbean, like the French and Irish migrants who brought Catholicism like the Spaniards, the British brought their Protestant religion and, the Dutch brought both Catholicism and Dutch Reform beliefs.
The region's religions became even more mixed when the islands were colonized and conquered by different nations, as they often were throughout the Caribbean's early history. But religious diversity exists even on the islands that rarely or never changed hands. Slavery and indentured servitude brought many people with many different faiths to the islands. The biggest challenge and support to Christianity was slavery. Slaves from Africa brought their own religious and spiritual practices with them, some of which combined with Catholic practices and became entirely new religions, while some spiritual beliefs simply occurred out of sight of the white masters.  Many of the Caribbean-born slaves were indoctrinated into Christianity meaning that they were forced to be converted out of their own free will.
In fact, the end of slavery helped encourage some religious diversity in the islands. East Indian immigrants brought their own beliefs and practices to the region. Almost one quarter of the population of Trinidad and Tobago is Hindu - one of the highest concentrations of Hindu people in the world. Small populations of Jews and Muslims also live in the Caribbean. In more recent years, Caribbean natives have even formed their own religion. Rastafarianism is Christianity with a distinctly Caribbean style. This pro-African religion uses the Bible as its base text but takes a decidedly different reading than that of more traditional Christian sects. Like many things Jamaican, it also stands out for political and social causes.