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List of World’s Worst Religious Leaders Insufficient to Explaining Global Strife

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

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Foreign Policy has compiled a list of the world’s worst religious leaders ahead of the Pope’s visit to the United States. While Benedict XVI is not on the list of the world’s most insidious religious figures, the list does leave something to the imagination in terms of context. The figures listed in this brief web entry include Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah (Shi’ite), Sri Lankan monk Athrualiye Rathana (Theravada Buddhism) and Rabbi Dov Lior (Hassidic Judaism) along with notable quotes highlighting their level of vitriol. I can agree with the basic premise of the list though I think it is irresponsible to leave it hanging on the Internet.

The leaders of religious sects, branches and outlying cults are only as despicable as the people they trick. As a former Catholic, I cannot blame Pope Benedict XVI for some of the extremes of Catholicism. I also do not blame the Pope for the past transgressions of the Catholic Church any more so than I could blame Dov Lio, Athrualiye Rathana and others for their group’s histories. There is a need for accountability by the faithful in the collective action of their religion because they act as representatives of their beliefs on a daily basis.

This list paints the totality of religious belief and faith in a bad light. I am an agnostic because I don’t think there is any point in searching for God when there are so many other things to discover. The fact that God, Allah and other deities are used in the name of war, hatred, rape, waste and human deprivation is larger than the atrocities of the leaders highlighted by Foreign Policy. If nobody believed Dov Lior and other eccentric religious leaders, these figures would recede into the night. It is time for everyone to step away from total immersion into religion and think about the dangerous effects of falling too far into atheism, religiosity and other extremes in daily life.

Posted in Foreign Policy, religion | 1 Comment »

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