Race,Religion & Politics - Religion

In my blog of July 4th I referred to a op-ed column highlighting the fact that if Elena Kagan was nominated, the Supreme Court bench of the United States would consist of six Catholics and three Jews. What it did not mention was that it also had Hispanics and blacks, perhaps proving the point, at least in the United States, race was becoming less of an issue, but religion still is.

Interestingly enough,this is also true in the higher echelons of the Christian Church hierarchy as the number of Catholics, and non – Catholic Christian denominations in Africa and other emerging markets gradually start to outnumber those in the West. You are now beginning to see the diversity of races in the College of Cardinals at the Vatican and it is a matter of time before you have a black or brown Pope.

I do not claim to be well read or very knowledgeable about religion, but from a layman’s perspective , apart from Hinduism & Buddhism, the three other major religions Judaism, Christianity ,and Islam classified as Abrahamic, are all monotheistic, the belief that there is one God or Supreme Being. Yet preachers from the later two religion over the centuries have chosen to convince their flock that the path they preach is the only right path and all other roads lead to hell and perdition.

The Indians brought Hinduism and Buddhism to Asia, the Arab traders, the Mongol invaders, the Turks brought Islam to Asia, India and parts of Europe. The Europeans brought Christianity to most parts of the world as conquerors.

An observation worth noting is that while Christianity and Islam seem to have followers among all races, white, black, brown and yellow, the religions which originated from the East, Hinduism and Buddhism tend to be predominantly among the Asians (brown or yellow) – expect for a relatively small number of people in the West who have adopted Buddhism or Hinduism. Why is that the case?

The answer perhaps is that the diversity resulted from the forced conversion by the Christian and Muslim adventurers / invaders whether they were in Asia, the America’s or elsewhere. The adventurers were followed by the priests or where the rulers were religious insisted on the segments of the population being converted whether it was the Mongols (or Moghuls as they got to be known) in the sub-continent, the Spaniards or the Portuguese in South America and the British and the various European colonial rulers in Africa and the rest of the world. The religions from the East did not insist on forced conversion.

The Europeans brought Christianity to the countries which they colonized. They built huge edifices in the form of Cathedrals and Churches wherever they went. The migrants to the West are now bringing their religion deep into the European cities and instead of forcible conversion which happened in the past, there is no such attempt, yet when ever a new temple or mosque is built in the cities in the West, it causes unease. But with the minorities gradually increasing in numbers this too shall pass.

After all at one stage even in the United States, Catholics and Jews were treated with unease. Now the above mentioned headline from the New York Times says it all.

It is a matter of time; this will be true for Hindu's, Buddhist's and Muslims. In case anyone has forgotten, President John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic President of the United States of America, elected in 1961, almost 175 years after America gained its independence. This despite the opening lines of its Constitution reading We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

Obviously things have changed since then. In two of its most conservative states, Americans have elected (one already a Governor, the other potentially could be) two people whose parents were of Punjabi origin, but who converted to Christianity at an early stage, then hopefully the time is not too far away when the United States will again lead the way by electing a President who is a Jew, Hindu or Muslim.