Re-Defining Words....

Can lead to great misunderstandings.       

     There has been a great effort out there on the part of those who despise religions of any kind, though particularly institutionalized religion, to re-define what religion means, and make it into something which is to be despised and avoided at all costs.  "Religion" started wars; "religion" condones great inhumanity; "religious" people are nothing more than hypocrites; "religious" people are really the worst sinners for not practicing what they preach.  

     Much of what these people claim seems, at first glance, to make much sense.  History quite clearly shows the atrocities committed in the name of religion, and a weak reasoner quite easily comes to the conclusion that religion is the reason such things were done, and therefore religion must be done away with.  What is overlooked in such reasoning is the fact that it is people, terribly, terribly misguided people, beings with free will who do not clearly understand the teachings of their religion who commit such horrible sins.  Yes, some religions do teach violence and hatred, but Christianity has never taught hatred and violence. It is not the fault of religion that the people who purport to believe and follow do not actually internalize and live what they say they believe - it is the fault of those individuals who have acted hypocritically of their own free will.  

     Redefining religion to mean a thing made up by man for the sake of furthering man's agenda, rather than being man's attempt to respond to his Creator, something higher than himself, is a clever and detrimental attack on not only the Church and religions everywhere, but on humanity as a whole.  There is such an effort out there to separate man from everything else, even his fellow man, leaving him nothing but an island unto himself, an effort to destroy everything that man essentially is.  Man needs other men to flourish, remove him from that and he will die.  The fictitious pure state of nature proposed by Hobbes will eventually become a reality, and man will be worse off for it.  

     The war of the words is one that is worth fighting.  Kingdoms have fallen because of what people have said, and how words are understood.  Ours will be a losing battle if we are not able to maintain a proper definition of words.  We all know how it works:  Pro-choice has such pleasant connotations, where as anti-choice does not.  We all remember a certain president questioning the definition of "is".  Words have meaning, and if we lose them, we have lost the battle.