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  • How Does Religion Lead?

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  • How Does Religion Lead?
  • Awake!—1972
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Awake!—1972
g72 4/22 pp. 4-5

How Does Religion Lead?

ON THE surface it appears that political rulers are leading religion. And in some instances this is the case. But why have some rulers been able to wield power at all, particularly dictators in lands claiming to be Christian?

Is it not because of the way religion has directed the people’s thinking? Religion actually has conditioned the minds of the people so that dictators can get and keep power. It has directed them to look to the political rulers to bring about the social conditions that they desire.

The religious leaders themselves, with a few exceptions, have praised and followed the political rulers. At times the clergy even enter directly into politics by telling their people which way to vote.

Therefore, when a dictator arises and promises people things they want, many will follow. But then, what if he calls for a war? The masses have been conditioned by the clergy to follow in that too.

Sometimes the political rulers go too far. They do things the clergy do not like. But then, who in the first place was responsible for the existence of such bad government? Could the Hitler government, for example, have wielded such great power if the vast majority of the clergy had not told, or allowed, their people to back him? Was the position of Nazism not strengthened by the concordat between Hitler and the Vatican?

Could Communism have come to power in Russia if the Church there had not supported wealthy landowners and other oppressive elements to the point that reaction was inevitable? Could Communism have taken hold in China had it not been for the treatment the people there received at the hands of the nations of Christendom?

Some of the more radical clergy now even recommend revolution. But in doing this, are they really changing their ways? Are they not merely directing the people to another form of selfish rule, rather than showing them the true liberation taught in God’s Word, the Bible?

Also, what about morality? What happens to church members who practice fornication, adultery and sex perversion? Are they not in most cases permitted to remain members in good standing? Is not this failure of the churches to give moral discipline and guidance a major cause of the alarming rise in venereal disease, in illegitimate births and in abortions throughout Christendom?

The situation today is exactly as it was before Israel went into exile to Babylonia, and their capital city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The Bible says of that time: “Both the prophet and the priest themselves have become polluted.”​—Jer. 23:11.

In what kind of conditions did that result? The Bible answers: “There are the pronouncing of curses and practicing of deception and murdering and stealing and committing of adultery that have broken forth, and acts of bloodshed have touched other acts of bloodshed.”​—Hos. 4:2.

The truth is that the religious clergy have not kept faith with God today, as they did not in ancient Israel. They have not taught their flocks the truths of God’s Word, nor do they obey it themselves. They have become more interested in doing what they think, instead of doing what God says they should be doing.

This is not to say that there have been no clergymen who disapproved the disgusting things done in the name of God. And honest men in government have tried to remedy matters. But the dominant spirit of compromise and selfishness, and the system that has developed over centuries of ignoring right principles, have tied the hands of those who try to reform Christendom.

Perhaps the most tragic consequences of world religion’s failure is in connection with the wars of mankind. It is enlightening to take a look at the record. For example, what is religion’s record in connection with the Vietnam war?

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