Because of religion, people should love one another instead of
separating from each other.
SEPARATION
Mai said while crying:
“I’m sorry. My parents are determined that if you don’t follow our religion, they won’t allow me to marry you. I’m a girl, I can’t disregard them to live with you. Also, you can’t leave your religion to follow mine either. Maybe our fates can’t be joined together. I wish you happiness with someone better than me (sob)...”
Đạt held Mai’s hands but did not know what to say. After a while, he uttered:
“Can you try convincing your parents again that I’ll come into your religion while keeping my own? So I’ll have two religions.”
“Are you joking? Everyone can only come into one religion.”
“I think all religions are good. They all teach people to do good.”
“But all religion’s doctrines are very different. The superiors won’t let you have both at the same time.”
“Nowadays, the government allows people to have dual citizenship. Having dual religious identity may be fun.”
“You must be crazy. Religion is not something you can follow just for fun. Now you say having two religions is ok, so later on, is it ok to have two wives as well?”
Đạt laughed:
“Oh no, only one wife. But people can take two religions simultaneously. There is no law prohibiting that. Our Constitution allows us to have freedom of religion. Believing in one or more religions should be fine.”
“Yeah, the Constitution doesn’t prohibit us from following many religions, but my parents do. The important thing is what they want, not what the Constitution does.”
“Such a headache! Later on, I think you should ask your future boyfriend what his religion is before falling in love with him.”
Mai gave Đạt a good whack on the head:
“You suppose that it’s easy to love someone, don’t you?”
“Oh, I have an idea. I can pretend to follow your religion, then after we’re married, I will go back to my own.”
“My oh my, do you intend to cheat even the Gods?...”
Đạt scratched his ears:
“But why is it so hard?”
Every religion teaches us to love one another, except people in other religions. It’s such a weird thing.
Most religious doctrines teach people to be good-natured and to worship the Gods. There’s a contrary point in that: the notion of Gods is so high, even higher than the notion of a country. But in real life, country is the highest notion. Country is the common living place of its citizens, strongly bonded with each other in history, law, society, economy, politics, benefits, etc. However, in religious faith, the country is nothing and not even worth mentioning. Only those who are moral and wise can realize how utterly important a country is to its people, hence we must love our country, alongside our religious belief.
A country is an entity covering all other subjects, a strong bond linking its people. It’s much stronger than international relationships. The cooperation between countries is an agreement, while the bond between people within a country is an obligation. That’s why a country always needs the unity of all religions, all classes, all ethnic groups, and all people to protect itself from threat and danger. But this ideal of unity is undermined by the notion of religion. It’s a fact that when people believe in their religion, they usually belittle their love for the country. That’s because religions continuously fill their believers’ minds with the notion of Gods who are much more powerful, much more important than a country. It’s only a faith, but it has the power to steal patriotism from people.
Only those with wisdom can truly see their nation as their living environment, their love, their protection, and then balance their patriotism with faith in religion. The faith in religion should be conceded to patriotism, so that people in that country can unite together.
Whatever your religion is, it’s still a part of your country. Whoever you are, you’re still a citizen of this country. Everyone must fulfill their duty to unite in the love for this country. Don’t let anyone divide the nation by their own faith. Good religions should encourage believers to love their own country because that’s the responsibility and morality of every citizen. A citizen will never be considered moral if they don’t love their own country. And making them unethical would be the religion’s fault. Every religion must teach their followers how to love the country. Every religion is a part of the country.
Because of religion, people should love one another instead of separating from each other.
Written by:
Janna
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