Faith-baiting: Flowers are laid to respect the victims of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, for which Isis has claimed responsibility. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images
Genesis says God created man in his own image. God then goes on to give mankind dominion over the land and beasts, birds and fish, and so on. The same is true of the other Abrahamic religions, at least in that man was created by God.
Fast forward a few thousand years and God appears to have made a few rules for mankind to follow along the way. The only problem is mankind can’t seem to agree on what those rules are … and this is among the religions stemming from the God of Abraham.
Politicians today shamelessly declare their devotion for whichever God they believe will get them the most votes.
The US, a country whose constitution demands the “separation of church and state”, still has people pandering to the pontifications of godliness from those wishing to rule over them.
President Joe Biden, we have been told by numerous news outlets, displays his faith through church attendance and has attended church more often than any US president in the past 70 years.
Former president Donald Trump has made similar declarations about being the most Christian president of all time.
Enter the Middle East: In Israel and Gaza, two peoples who claim their guiding principles come from God, are murdering one another because they can’t agree to which of God’s prophets they should be listening.
It seems that killing one another is one of the rules that must be followed and religious leaders on both sides of the conflict have been accused of justifying rape, as long as the women who are raped don’t follow their chosen prophet.
Looking north, on Friday 22 March Moscow was attacked, the responsibility for which has been claimed by Islamic State. The official death at time of writing stood at 133 civilians.
We in South Africa are not removed from the trend of “faith-baiting” our own constituents.
Earlier this year, social media platform X was filled with videos of former president Jacob Zuma standing before a crowded church, leading both the parishioners and the choir in a rousing rendition of Umshini Wami (Bring me my Machine Gun) and, on Sunday this past week, President Cyril Ramphosa attended the service at the Holy Spirit Anglican Church in Gqeberha, in Eastern Cape, to round off his two days of campaigning ahead of the elections on 29 May.
Both these men, and just about everybody else in the electoral race, are seeking the vocal endorsement of religious leaders to give their campaigns the shots in the arm they so desperately need — and the odds are the “holy men” will give it to them.
Never mind that Jesus threw the corrupt moneylenders out of the temple for perverting his father’s house. Never mind that political leaders have been directly linked to corruption and state capture. Never mind that the corruption of our leaders has not only cost the lives and livelihoods of our people but has brought into question the very idea that democracy is worth fighting for.
The church leaders will get in line for their 30 pieces of silver and deliver the endorsements for which they are paid.
The same faiths whose leaders so shamelessly sell themselves for the table scraps of their political masters do, however, have people who are doing good works.
The Catholic Church has constructed more than 18 000 clinics and 16 000 homes for older people. Its 5 500 hospitals provide medical care to those most in need and 65% of these are in the developing world.
Gift of the Givers, an Islam-based faith organisation has, over the past 30 years, provided disaster relief, hunger and thirst alleviation, education, healthcare and humanitarian development aid in more than 45 countries around the world.
And rounding off the Abrahamic religions, The Joint Distribution Committee is a Jewish-faith based organisation that has for more than a century provided humanitarian relief to those in need and has a presence in 70 countries worldwide.
It is very easy to lose faith in the religions of the world as we look upon the rampant corruption tearing us apart, as cynical men blame the state of our planet on one another, or the past, or even on us, the citizens, as we try desperately to survive.
Yet they, “our lords and masters”, roll around in their ill-gotten gains claiming to be “chosen by God”.
They are not chosen by God; they have perverted the image of God to their own likeness while those truly doing God’s works in our world are forgotten as they scrape together what they can to help those most desperately in need.
You can choose to be swallowed by the man-made God of the corrupt or you can side with humanity.
God is not the bad guy; we are always responsible for our own actions. If we make God in our image, let it not be the genocidal maniac worthy only of contempt but rather a God of kindness, worthy of our worship.