Freedom of religion is a right granted to us by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It grants us the freedom to follow any religion we want, including the right to follow no religion. While it is commonplace to see its invocation to resist a compromise of our right to follow our religion, the First Amendment right gets frequently forgotten when people try to influence others to belong to their own belief system. Clearly, we see a practice of "my freedom of religion is more sacro-sanct (sic) than yours!" As a non-believer, I often find myself in situations where I am the object of forced enlightenment.
Firstly, it is ironic that I should have to call myself a non-believer. It is really the believers that need to identify themselves with what they believe in. However, as a miniscule minority, I have come to accept my place on the totem pole of religious power. Peaceful avoidance of conflict has been my strategy of late, rather than righteous confrontation, which I used to do in the past to make the other party aware of the fallacies in their arguments.
Bhausaheb Patankar, a poet, has beautifully articulated how I feel:
जातो तिथे उपदेश आम्हां सांगतो कोणीतरी
कीर्तने सारीकडे, चोहीकडे ज्ञानेश्वरी
काळजी अमुच्या हिताची एव्हढी वाहू नका
जाऊ सुखे नरकात आम्ही, तिथे तरी येऊ नका
One of my life goals now is peaceful existence. Live and let live, and for others to let me live. The former is in my control; the latter is not. The former is empowering; a violation of the latter is a source of nuisance. My strategy, hence, for the latter - adopt Jesus' principle, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:43)
Timely thought for the upcoming Good Friday and Easter holidays!
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