The question posed by today's title would have been thought very odd not so long ago, before aggressive atheist writers like Christopher Hitchens decided it wasn't enough to just bash religion to their fellow unbelievers. Now, Hitchens, author of God is not great: How religion poisons everything, along with several other authors, is serious about trying to convince Americans that religion isn't just unnecessary (as atheists have been saying for a long time), but is actually hazardous to society.
And, after more than 30 years of involvement in Christian ministry, I can agree with Hitchens to a certain point. I discovered many years ago that "there's no fight like a church fight." The reason is simple: People tend to disagree with each other in church just like anywhere else. But among religious people, and especially those who take their religion very seriously, there is a tendency to not only disagree, but to think God is on your side of the disagreement. Which means that the other guys are not only wrong (which is what we often call those who disagree with us), but they're out of step with the Lord as well.
Of course, God is not nearly so interested in "who's right" as in "what's right", but that's a lesson that takes most of us awhile to learn. In the meantime, it takes a lot of "loving your neighbor as yourself", which is what is supposed to separate real Christianity from mere religion. The Bible teaches us that real blessing can come to those who are "peacemakers" and "merciful." That doesn't mean Christians can't ever disagree, but we have to remember that real love, the love that wants always to do what is best and good for all, is much more important than settling a disagreement in my favor.
And that's why religion can indeed be a dangerous thing, when it's human religion, pursued with zeal and self-righteousness by those who don't have a clue about balancing their disagreements with godly love and mercy. As anyone familiar with history knows, and as atheists like Hitchens are only too eager to remind us, a great many wars have been fought over primarily religious interests. And yes, there were a lot of wars in the Bible, where God's people were commanded to not only defeat the enemies of God, but to utterly wipe them off the map. And for those who don't know the difference between Biblical religion and any other variety, all religious wars look the same.
But the critics of God's aggression against the Caananites totally miss the purpose of cleansing this one specific area of the earth, where the holy people of Israel were supposed to set up a society designed to be a light of godliness to the world. They were never commanded to take their mission of cleansing to the rest of the heathen world. Their war in Caanan was a specific instrument of God's justice and judgment, which will one day visit the rest of the world of sinful men who rebel against God's word.
And that's why man-made religions can become dangerous. Their wars and aggression are not commanded by God. They go way beyond the example of holiness of a particular people and a particular time. They go beyond the mercy of God to enforce the ambitions and agendas of men. For those who don't understand that "real religion" is about loving the Lord with all our hearts, and caring for others, especially the needy, the motives of religious zeal fit all too well with other ambitions of human pride, power and ego, which can be a very dangerous mixture. If only Hitchens and his cronies could tell the difference, they could make better criticism of the right problem: not God's religion but men's hearts.
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