Religion the opium of the masses

I try to steer away from posting things about religion and politics on my blog because it's a more personal sort of a blog. But then it also about the things that affect me. I have been watching some shows on CNN about Christianity which were kind of disturbing for me. The first one was God's Warriors by Christiane Amanpour. The showed talked about the conservative nature of the Christian collation in US. The development of them as a political force in US and their 'agenda' particularly against homosexuality, abortion, and teaching of the theory of evolution in schools. This was something I was already aware of but was rather disturbing was Teen mania movement started by Ron Luce. These so called 'ministries' help people deal with the corruption from pop culture and media of 'secular nature'. The students who go into the ministries have to follow rules like no access to secular music, internet etc, girls are not allowed to wear skirts which fall above their knees!! They hold these concerts called Battle Cry and the last one was held in one of the most liberal city in US i.e. San Francisco where as expected they had confrontations with people who don't agree with their agenda. I agree that every person has the right to follow their religion but why wear it on your sleeve and impose Taliban like laws on young minds thus sending them down the path of religious fanaticism. Hasn't the world already seen enough bloodshed in the name of religion. Will we ever learn our lessons??!
Another story that formed a part of the show was about a family with 5 children who were being home schooled because the parents wanted to protect their children from the corruption prevailing in the secular public schools. Such was the extent of brainwash of the children that when the reporter asked the eldest child who was about 8 or 10 as to what Jesus wanted for him he said that Jesus wanted him to be home schooled??!!!
After seeing these disturbing stories I thought of posting yesterday about it but thought I rather not and then today I saw a news piece on CNN about Tom Monaghan (the founder of Dominos Pizza chain) who has founded Ave Maria a planned community in Florida with a Catholic University at it's core. This was supposed to be a safe haven from the corrupting secular nature of the rest of US and it was planned that the community would not air TV channels which showed pornography, pharmacists would not be allowed to sell contraceptives and birth control pills etc. The founder got in trouble after making these comments and hence had to later back track. The whole thing reminded me of the The Stepford Wives!! Tom said that he decided to sell off his business empire and all that he thought was ostentatious because he thought that the greatest sin was pride (which he realized after reading a book by C.S. Lewis). The question that came into my mind at that time was that isn't believing that my religion or belief system is better or superior to others also a form of pride!!
I fail to understand why most religions are always trying to prove the supremacy of their religion over the others and that their messiah as the only one who'd be able to take you to salvation when the world comes to an end. Why has this agenda over shadowed all the other teachings dealing with brotherhood, love, compassion, forgiveness and live and let live? Why can't religion be a more personal matter and why do we have to make such a spectacle out of it all. And does all this ostentatious and grand celebration of religion ever help anyone connect with their inner self and find peace and sanctuary from this madness and stress of our daily life?

Photo Credit: SpYderDelusion