Religion: Private refuge or public presence!
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
October 27, 2003
PRIVATE refuge or public presence! This is the topic of many an essay analyzing the relevance of religion in the shaping and evolution of society.
Discussion on the relevance of religion couldn't come sooner for Guyanese. We're at that time of year when the country's three major religions - Islam, Hinduism and Christianity - are celebrating or observing significant festivals in their annual calendars.
Hindus celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights, on Saturday; Moslems have begun observing the Holy Month of Ramadan; and Christmas, the season that heralds the celebration of Jesus' birth to underline His intimate identity with the human race, commences November 15.
Just last week the Bah'ai's commemorated the establishment of their religion in the then British Guiana in 1953, when a Mr. Malcolm King began teaching the faith here.
We estimate that although Guyana is a secular society, more than half of its inhabitants embrace one of the faiths that dominate religious life in the country.
As we pointed out in an earlier editorial, "secular" has a number of nuances. University of California at Berkeley sociologist Earl Raab says the term can denote anything from greater freedom of doctrinal interpretation for the individual believer to the outright denial that a sacred order exists at all. Generally, however, "secular" is used to describe a movement, of whatever intensity, toward worldly concerns.
Scholars generally teach that religious beliefs "can be the core of meaning for individuals. They can motivate a spiritual life, including prayer and worship, as well as sustain a moral life. Also, religion provides answers to ultimate questions about the existence of God, about joy and suffering, and about life after death."
It's no wonder then that religion plays such a dominant role in people's lives.
For us in Guyana, what should that mean?
When President Jagdeo calls on religious leaders to play a more pro-active role in the nation's development thrust, he isn't asking religion to cross the line that separates church and state. He is simply acknowledging the big part religion can play as a member or component of civil society in helping Guyanese realize their search for meaning as the primary motivation in their lives.
Karl Marx once said (in The German Ideology) that "as individuals express their lives, so they are."
Herein lies the President's challenge to religion. If, as philosopher Viktor Frankl puts it, "a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness, but rather in search of a reason to become happy," then we expect the country's religions to set agendas to reverse the trends of drug abuse, violence, crime and immorality - scourges that threaten to eat into the sinews of our society.
Hindus, Moslems and Christians must work singularly and in concert to get their adherents to change the way we live: to replace hatred with love, discrimination with equality of opportunity, antagonism with support, confrontation with cooperation, and subversion with building together.
Instead of focusing solely on development, much of the country's resources have to be spent trying to rid society of the hindrances to development.
Numbers say more than words. The Times of London reported on June 14, 2002 that a crime is committed every five seconds in England and Wales. Another British study found that a third of pupils aged 14 and 15 committed acts of vandalism in the past year and more than a quarter admitted to shoplifting. And London's Daily Express concluded that 70 percent of all property crime is committed to supporting drug addiction.
Comparative data may not be available in any one place or time in Guyana. But it's good to note that the country's religions are working alongside secular, non-governmental organizations to provide "corrective" counseling to young people.
We believe that our religious leaders are cognizant of the many challenges they face and that they are using this season of celebration and observances to recommit to meeting these challenges.