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F
aith T
oday
I was pleased to see the announcement recently of a new office for Faith-Based Community 
Initiatives in the U.S. Department of State and to hear Secretary of State John Kerry proclaim that 
if he went back to college today he would probably major in comparative religions. 
What are the truths about religion? Here are a few:
1. 
Religion is a constant, and will not go away. It is built into our DNA, so to speak, even for Nones 
like me who don't attend church, believe in God, or follow a particular creed. The sacred is 
always embedded in social life and elemental to our notions of right and wrong, experiences 
of transcendence, and understanding of the purpose and meaning of life.
2. Even though religion is a constant, it is never the same around the world and through time. 
There is no one essence — not “God” or “Spirit” or “Mana” — but instead the religious life mani-
fests in a myriad of forms, rituals, beliefs, myths, and moral systems. It can be associated with 
just about anything: gods or surfing; movies or sacred texts; rock and roll or UFOs.
3. No one has a monopoly on religious truth. What's sacred for someone is profane to someone 
else. In this sense, religion is messy, conflicted, and highly contested — conditions anyone 
familiar with the history of religions can identify.
4. Religion is a force of good in the world and, paradoxically, one of the most destructive forces 
motivating horrible bloodshed and hatred throughout history, in the present, and into the 
future. The powers of religion cannot be generalized nor made universal. It is not either good 
or evil, but has the capacity for both.
5. Religion is not simply about revelation or spiritual truth; it is most at home in the physical 
body as it experiences suffering and aging, sex and ecstasy, the mundane and altered states 
of consciousness, birth and death — universal characteristics of human life we all share.
(Based on Gary Laderman’s post on the Huffington Post website)

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