Unhealthy religion

Daniel B. Clendenin writes a blog every week reflecting creatively on the lectionary. This week his reflection on an apocalyptic text in Mark's gospel contained the following analysis of how to spot religion that is unhealthy or even evil. 

You can find his blog here - http://www.journeywithjesus.net/

...some of the signs that religion has become evil and that evil has become religious. Here are ten warning bells.

• Fanatical claims of absolute truth. I don't mean the belief in absolute truth(s), which I think is both tenable and admirable, but rather the doubt-free and uncritical confidence that one has understood absolute truth absolutely.
• Identifying the gospel with nationalistic ideologies, partisan politics, state power, and ethnic identity.
• Blind obedience to totalitarian, charismatic, and authoritarian leaders, personality cults, or views that undermine moral integrity, personal freedom, individual responsibility, and intellectual enquiry.
• Ushering in the “end times” in the name of your religion.
• Justifying religious ends by dubious means.
• Any and all forms of dehumanisation, from openly declaring war on your enemy, demonising those who differ from you, construing your neighbour as an Other, to claiming that God is on your side alone. Do you believe that God loves Iran as much as Israel? There shouldn't be the slightest hesitation or qualification in the answer — of course he does.
• Pressure tactics of coercion, deception, and false advertisement.
• Alienation, isolation and withdrawal from family, friends and society, whether psychologically or literally (eg, David Koresh's Branch Davidians or Jim Jones' "People's Temple" in northern Guyana).
• Exploitation and all forms of unreasonable demands upon one's time, money, resources, family, friendships, sexuality, etc.
• Oddball, sectarian interpretations of Scripture that have little or no support from the broad, classical Christian tradition, or that disregard the best of historical-critical scholarship.

Often these danger signs combine and overlap.

  Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net