How is it that religion, which has the power to inspire people to behave with love and compassion, can lead others to commit acts of terrible evil?

We must make personal choice

The Rev. Rene Brown, pastor of Ninth Street Baptist Church, 847 Ohio:

Religion is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices.

A person has a choice in practicing religion. Religion in and of itself does not have power until the person practicing it chooses to allow it to control them.

Paul says in Romans 7:21, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

This basically goes back to Genesis 2:9, “And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Good and evil were present at the same time, and when Eve ate of the tree it gave her the ability to distinguish between the two.

As a believer in original sin, this act was handed down to all mankind. By us being creatures of habit, we will be true to our nature.

So whatever nature we feed the most, that will be the stronger nature. Simply put, our nature is to do evil, and practicing religion has the power to change our nature. But due to God’s free will, we still have to make a personal choice.

— Send e-mail to the Rev. Rene Brown at rbrown5175@aol.com.

Balancing mercy, righteousness

The Rev. Vicki Penner, pastor of Peace Mennonite Church, 1204 Oread Ave.:

The human endeavor of religion tries to provide meaning and direction for people’s lives. Most religions developed over many, many generations. They remain meaningful because they capture something that is true about humanity and something that is true about divinity.

Because the divine remains a mystery, most religions have lots of images of God. In Christianity, God is imagined as a devouring fire (Deuteronomy 9:3); a protective mother bear (Hosea 13:8); a gentle mother hen (Matthew 23:37); or a productive baker woman (Luke 13:21).

These images portray a judgmental, wrathful God; a nurturing, merciful God; and an industrious, protective God.

Because we are human, we tend to limit God to one or two images. It is easy to pick the image that will justify our perspective or our plans.

The truth is that we need a multitude of images for God. To live a loving and compassionate life, we need to hold in balance justice and peace, righteousness and mercy. The hard part about practicing religion is to continuously open oneself to new ideas about God.

This is especially true when we are consumed with righteous anger. When we have been wronged, it is hard to practice a religion’s teachings of mercy and forgiveness. Yet such teachings should give us pause when considering hostile acts. That space that is created by pausing allows one to consider the mercy of God and may just allow a new, more peaceful solution to emerge.

— Send e-mail to the Rev. Vicki Penner at peacemennonite@msn.com.