Religious diveristy - Research Paper Example

Moreover, the author will be supporting the stand for religious diversity in the country on the basis of respect for individual rights, knowledge of good and evil and the treatment of diverse choices like commodities (Wuthnow 76). According to Wuthnow (Wuthnow & Myers), America claims to have been built on Christianity when in fact religion already existed even before Christopher Columbus discovered the land. This has caused the problem we have today because of the information instilled in the American minds that the country progressed economically, technologically as well as other aspects where the nation succeeded, because of Christianity.

These days, the modern American now assumes the right to insist on his/her belief in the Christian God and disregards the other religions as exemplified by the then presidential candidate George Bush who was reported to have claimed that only Christians have a place in heaven to which his own mother did not agree with (Wuthnow & Myers). This reckless comment gained Bush a number of enemies at least when it comes to religious discussions with the Muslims, Jews, Hindus and other religions. Just this example may probably suffice to represent the tension experienced in America because of individual religious convictions.

Being a political leader, the aforementioned statement of Bush has been unwittingly uttered because knowing the laws, he should have borne in mind the spirit of democracy which is freedom and in this freedom is included the respect for individual rights to religion (Balmer). It is unwise for an individual, not to mention a political leader to try to coerce somebody to conversion by scaring them about heaven or hell. People have individual rights and they have the right to choose so that proselytizing would not be a good means of sharing one’s faith but as one preacher once said, faith is not a matter to argue upon but is a gift to be shared.

If an individual thinks his religion is the right one, then he should share the reasons why he has such convictions. If his reasons are acceptable enough for his prospect, then that person will have all the right to have the freedom to choose or to reject the religion even if he is fully convinced of a person’s convictions and arguments. The second argument to be discussed is the belief that people have the ability to distinguish good from evil on the basis of their common experience as human beings, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion (Wuthnow 76).

This is in relation to the right to religion, leaving the person to choose the beliefs he wants to embrace, trusting that they are able to make wise choices. Salvation is a choice and should not be insisted. It can be encouraged but not forced nor become a threat to an individual, like he does not have the capacity to decide for himself. The third argument is that diverse choices are like commodities (Wuthnow 76), where when there are more choices, a person can have a choice that would really fit his/her needs and satisfy individual expectations.

For instance, where there is a wider selection of clothes there is the greater possibility that the one that best suits a customer can be found. Correspondingly, diversity in religion will allow a person to choose