President Obama's faith is under constant question | photo courtesy of pri.org

In his highly influential novel, "1984," George Orwell writes of a dystopian society saturated with perpetual war, invasive government surveillance and mind control of the masses. The common perception of history and reality is based almost solely on constant brainwashing by the mass media. Did organized religion beat Orwell to this idea centuries before his birth? Is it a form of brainwashing? It tells you how to live, what to think and sometimes even what to eat.

This was a question posed to me by a college professor years ago and has left my mind on a teeter totter about its true answer ever since. It is hard to argue that through different systems of propaganda, children raised in the United States, China or Russia grow up to have significantly different views of history. So does it follow that children raised in different faith traditions grow up to have different views of reality and the purpose of life?



It is pretty obvious that they do but I always get hung up about whether it can be compared to Orwell’s example as a system of propaganda. I realize a lot of people (I’m guessing the majority of people that prescribe to a faith system) could find issue with their religion being compared to a propaganda machine. This is where I make an important distinction. Religion is not always necessarily propaganda, but infusing political motivations into it can definitely send it that way.

The mix of religion with politics is always dangerous and sometimes deadly. If your parents are Democrats, then chances are, you will be also. If your parents are pro-life, then chances are you will be against abortion as well. Many people, and understandably so, lump religion into this argument. Religion is often passed innately through generations even after the hope that it provides is no longer necessary or replaced by a valid substitute.



Religion is important (and some would argue necessary) for very logical reasons. It gives people that are hopeless the hope they need to live. As humans we often have very little truth to grasp onto in a cosmic sense. People always wonder if we’re alone in the universe and if we are how insignificant human life can seem. This idea of existential nihilism: that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and is not likely to change in the totality of existence can be incredibly depressing. Historically, religion filled that void along with others such as moral values in society when humanism wouldn’t pervade.

However, it becomes hazardous when it is passed from generation to generation as a package deal with political believes. Its not surprising that it is though. Politicized religion is so much more attractive and passionate, especially when used to overcome or put down an opponent for perpetuating one’s own purpose.

Iran's Ahmadinejad, well known for infusing religion into politics, speaks at the UN | photo courtesy of getreligion.org

Regardless of whether people agree or disagree with it, one thing is true: it the fusion of religion and politics has penetrated almost every arena and aspect of our lives that it possibly could. Political candidate’s personal religious beliefs have indirectly been used to gain or steal prospective voters, with examples ranging from conservative views of President Barack Obama as a secret Muslim to newbie Christine O’Donnell apparently being anti several things.



In 2008, public misconceptions bolstered by opponents about Mormonism and the practice of polygamy (which the church actually renounced in 1890) were enough to drastically hurt former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. In more extreme examples religious fundamentalists and clerics twist the words of holy texts in a complete u-turn to coerce their devoted followers to do the very opposite of what their religions promote.



The Quran teaches all the general morals that many other religions do (don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t kill, don’t kill yourself, etc). Now introduce politics and enter the fundamentalist clerics that literally interpret this holy text to mean Muslims were meant to wear scary masks, make VHS tapes of themselves playing on dingy jungle gyms and monkey bars in the desert overlaid with crappy singing and of course the ever popular, and still inexplicable to me, suicide. The separation between church and state has become incredibly obscure in the U.S. and is completely non-existent in other countries.

Exacerbating the entire issue is the 24 hour onslaught of the mass media and its insistence on putting the primetime spotlight on the most extreme and radical individuals. Sometimes it can seem like lunacy is the new currency in the world. It can be debated whether this is good or bad, but I now refer back to George Orwell’s famous work and think that even one step towards a world of Big Brother, Thought Police, and Newspeak is a step in the wrong direction.

Ahmed Chaudhry was born in Lahore, Pakistan and moved to the Michigan in 1994. As a recent graduate of Albion College, where he received a degree in biology and religious studies, he plans to pursue a career in public health.