I have to admit when it comes to practicing my Catholic faith I am kind of in only half way.  The faith part is something I subscribe to, but over the years my beliefs in a lot of Catholic dogma have hit a wall.  But I would have to suspect anyone, maybe even a few people with a heathenish bend, had to be impressed with Pope Francis’s sincere, pious demeanor and words of wisdom he offered during his visit to the United States.  It had to make any Catholic, practicing or not, extremely proud.  I for one was surprisingly inspired, to the point I feel the need to blog about it and I’m not exactly sure why.  I am sort of out of my element when it comes to anything in the realm of religion and in my hands I know this topic will approach tedium.  Feel free to escape out at anytime.  But I would think the majority of people who listened at length to any of the Pope’s speeches had to be moved in some similar way.

The basic message of the hour long address to congress was let’s learn to get along with each other, help each other out while we are at it, and understand, accept and tolerate our differences.   The words “hope, healing, peace and courage” were ones he linked together early in his speech, my guess is to identify what he hoped his later words would project and resonate as he spoke.  It was a “Do unto others” speech, and everything he spoke about basically circled back to that biblical precept.

Most recent popes have expressed the same principles in some fashion, though maybe not as thoroughly and eloquently.  They are typical principles of most traditional religions.  That’s why I have such a hard time getting my head around Islam.  I know the majority of Muslims are decent people, and I am pretty sure that religion in no way advocates terrorism.  But even considering the Sunni-Shiite factionalism,  I don’t get how their religious leaders can continue to sit idly by while the Muslim world disintegrates, or even to espouse  vehemently hateful positions towards other people.  Maybe I’ve missed something lately, but the only words spoken by an ayatollah that make the news seem to be those promoting death and destruction to quite a big swath of fellow human beings.  These are religious leaders for Pete’s sake.  They should have a visible presence that encourages conciliation.   I know many religions have had their crusades in the past, but come on!  It’s the 21st century.  If the retracting Muslim world ever wants to progress, their laws and institutions will need a serious upgrade to become more inclusive.   And that starts with ideas that conform more to modern thought and practices, and avert those that proliferate hate with antiquated, vitriolic rhetoric.

It seems apparent that Islam is a religion that incorporates matters of the state into its beliefs much more than other religions.  And from what I understand, many of islam’s strict rules it’s clerics espouse stress the importance of maintaining their staid traditions, one of which I think is to lead a life free from  modern secular trappings.  I say nothing wrong with that.  Basically I hate computers and cell phones and my best days are spent in contemplation and reflection.  OK.  And watching football.  You got me.  Back off!  It’s not like I’m going to convert or anything.  But most institutions, even religious ones, have tweaked their traditions to conform with changing times.  Look at the Catholic Church.  Surely there have to be some Islamic clerics that could speak out against the outrageous inhumanity of terrorists who at the very least identify with their religion.  I realize the risk involved.  No doubt there is a good possibility such a cleric could become targeted.  I imagine that is one of the things Pope Francis thought about when he included the word “courage” in the introductory part of his message to congress.

I can’t claim I know much about Islam.  Heck, Iv’e lost tract of many of the rules and regs of my own religion.   I am however relatively positive that beheading innocent people in the name of religion is a damnable act in all religions in our current civilized world.  And I could be wrong, but I have to believe most progressive Islamic clerics, if there is such a thing,  would agree with that.  Like I said, most Muslims are decent, God fearing people.  But Islam’s leaders need to speak up if you ask me, like Pope Francis does.  Not doing so, or even worse, using religion to promote views for self interest or material gain, is hypocritical,  medieval thinking.  If religion is such a big deal in a culture, it’s leaders should step up and motivate those that practice their particular faith to practice it in a manner that reflects true religious sentiments- especially that sentiment about “Doing unto others.”  Then maybe, if religion is truly a big deal, we will all learn to get along with each other.