Kryachkov 2!indd

READING 2
Read the text in detail to find out what the author thinks about religion.
IS RELIGION MORE THE PROBLEM THAN THE ANSWER?
John Senter Compere
I think a case can be made that religion gets a free ride in this country.
“Never discuss religion or politics with your customers” is a standard business maxim. The rea-
son is obvious. People's religious and political belief systems are apt to be untouchable by logic. Or 
evidence. Or anything else approaching intelligent discourse. And a businessperson cannot risk 
alienating potential customers by challenging deeply-held notions and expect to stay in business.

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Английский язык для магистратуры
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aith T
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Fair enough. Business success is tough enough to achieve under the best of circumstances; no 
sense deliberately making it harder.
But what about the larger public arena? Politics certainly gets its share of public discussion, 
with supporters and detractors on almost every subject vigorously arguing their positions.
But have you noticed, the same cannot be said for religion? It's almost automatically assumed 
as a good thing, the foundation of our country. Even when some bizarre event involving religion 
comes along, like the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide, it is presented as an extreme case of what 
may be troublesome about religion in general.
What, pray tell, could possibly be troublesome about religion in general, you ask. Plenty. But 
first, permit me a brief diversion to give you some perspective on where I'm coming from. Honest 
debate requires it.
I have up-close and personal knowledge about religion from the inside. I was born into and raised 
in an extremely religious tradition. My father was a Southern Baptist minister. My mother's family is 
also deeply steeped in religious vocation, with ministers and missionaries all over the place.
So having been baptized a Christian at age eight, with a tearful profession of faith in Jesus as is 
customary in such churches, I “surrendered” to the ministry at age 13 or so. I preached my first ser-
mon when I was 15 and was ordained a full-fledged minister at age 18, serving as pastor of two rural 
churches throughout my college days. I was the featured speaker at many functions of the college 
ministerial society, since platform skills came somewhat naturally to me because of my background.
I loved what I was doing and couldn't have been more sincere. Except for one thing. I began 
to think for myself. Serious questions about the religious indoctrination I had imbibed began in 
college, even though I attended a conservative religious institution. They continued in seminary. 
When I sought answers, I was told, “Kick the rock. When you've finished kicking it, you'll know it's 
a rock.” And other no-think pap of that genre. Well, it wasn't so. The more I investigated the basic 
tenets of the faith, the more certain I became that Christianity was no more valid than any of the 
religions I had been taught were false.
Nonetheless, I loved being a minister and wanted to serve people. I decided to try to ignore my 
inability to believe such basic doctrines as biblical inspiration, the divinity of Jesus, the necessity 
of religious salvation, and plunge into living a devout life of service in a simple setting. Although 
I had been something of a star during seminary days, often preaching at the campus church to my 
fellow students and professors, upon graduation I refused to play politics and accepted a simple 
country church. 
I served this and then a similar one in the poor part of the city for seven years. It became in-
creasingly harder to do with integrity. At age 32 I faced a choice: either get out of religion or risk 
becoming publicly phony and privately cynical, as I saw happening to many of my minister friends. 
I chose to get out.
Now, let's return to my opening contention that religion is being given a free ride. What I mean 
is the automatic assumption that religion is a good thing, that it makes people better, that Amer-
ica was founded on religious principles, that without religion immorality would completely take 
over. Horsefeathers!
John Lennon's signature song “Imagine” was, unfortunately, ahead of its time. What if there 
were no religion? Well, let's see.
1. Most of the world's wars would not have been fought. Start with the wars the bible glori-
fies against the “enemies of God” and come all the way through the Holy Roman Empire, the 
Crusades, the cruel colonization of less developed countries by Christian countries who were 
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