What is Religion?

Julius T. Loeb, “What is Religion?” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 19. 1905. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1905-11-19/ed-1/seq-19/

What is Religion?

Written for The Star by Rabbi Julius T. Loeb of the Adath Israel Congregation

    “Who is wise that he may understand these things? Intelligent that he may know them? For righteous are the ways of the Lord; and the just shall walk in them, and the transgressors will stumble therein.”—Hosea. Xiv:10

    The text treats of the use and misuse of the godly attributes wherein man in endowed, and by which he is to work his own destiny.

    Who is wise enough, says the prophet, to comprehend the ways of the Lord, to fathom the exact line of order marked out in His divine plan of creation? And who is intelligent to follow the path of virtue and godliness unswervingly, to maintain the perfect state of righteousness in the fulfillment of religious duty?

    What is it we call religion? The knowledge and conviction of a higher power that steers the course of man and nation, and whose eternal justice is vindicated in all the affairs of the world. A proper regard for such earnest, religious faith, which stands firm under all sectarian divergency, will insure the stability of a race or commonwealth; while a misconstruction of religion will stunt its moral growth and result in an utter degeneration. This solemn we are daily taught in the life and decay of nations, of the past as well as of the present.

    It is safe to assert that the weakest point in human society is the lack of a proper understanding of religion, and the failure to search its higher truth.

    Thus, on the one hand we behold a host of misguided unbelievers hurling all sorts of missiles against religion, and keeping up a constant harangue that religion, and nothing but religion, is the cause of all human suffering, the stumbling-block of the ages. On the other hand, it is assumed that irreligion is responsible for all the grave offenses committed against the law of morality, for every manner of depravity and all the havoc played amidst human society. How then shall these two contrasting opinions be accounted for?

    Let us then, first of all, understand this truth, that religion is not a thing of human making and establishment; nor is it a mere philosophy which may soon be changed for any other form of thinking. But religion is the ever-manifest striving after perfection, the eternal and all-prevailing spirit of righteousness. Religion may present itself in various outward forms, but, its ideal is everlastingly the same. Ceremonial religion is only a means for the accomplishment of the true end; a cloak to shield the human heart from the coldness of indifferentism and apathetic disregard, and it is simply like the national attire, which must vary in every land, so long as nationalism exists. But the true spirit of religion has existed from eternity and will exist even when all nationalism shall cease.

    How thus should any rational being disclaim religion? How should one declare war against the divine within man, the essence of virtue and of truth, of right-thinking and right-living? Religion in itself will never become obnoxious to any man; not unless the pure ideal thereof is humiliated by the many devices of material aggrandizement. While religion rests on its spiritual foundation holding fast to the broad principles of humanity, of godly freedom and universal love, it is in perfect keeping with the eternal spirit of righteousness, with the attributes of God Himself. But when religion has become a terror to many, a tower-bastion of political exploit, a means of strife and cruel persecution, there is neither peace nor rest in the entire human family, and the result is none else but a brutal disregard of God and man. 

    All reckless atheistic thought was born in the lap of such dishonored faith. Unbelief, the petty excuse for all baseness and immorality, has grown and flourished in the miasma of faulty religion. And thus it came to pass that whenever lawless miscreants sought to justify their vile acts they pointed to the dark spots on the sun of religion, to the injustice so often committed under the law, and the bitter controversies incurred by a divergency of faith. It is true: Righteous are the ways of the Lord; the just shall walk therein while the transgressors will stumble by them.

    Hence there can be no question as to whether religion in itself is good or bad. It is just what man makes of it; as it is part and parcel of the human nature, the creative power by which man becomes the free agent of his own fate, and through which he may serve the purpose of God, or that of satan. 

    The ideal of religion is the golden thread which comprises the entire human family in one loving embrace, which unites all the children of man by own sense of justice and right, and under the standard of an all-one Father and God.

    The ethical nature of man, as religion is often termed, teaches the human mind that the light, the air, the water, the soil and all earthy productions are universally accorded to satisfy the needs of all men and to the injury of none. And while it is true that “the Lord is good unto all and His mercies are over all His creatures,” is it in any sense natural or religiously lawful to supplant a fellow-creature by mere earthy contrivance, or for the sake of self-aggrandizement to deny any of the natural rights to any portion of the human kind? “Are we not all children of one Universal Father? Has not one God created us all? Why should we deal treacherously each man against his brother?”

    Which is the most important passage in Holy Scripture? Rabbi Akibba said: “And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;” Ben-Azai simply referred to the clause: “‘And these are the generations of man’—not black, not white, not great, not small—but man!”

    It is sad, very sad, that the laws of human making stamp all men as aliens to each other. The fundamental laws of nature are therefore outraged; [G]odly freedom is thus too often replaced by licentiousness and violence; natural and wholesome development by artful deception and foppery. The technical formality and “business-like” method with which the world is now wont to treat everything and everybody have made the human heart void of compassion—nature’s most beautiful trait—cold and stiff, like an automaton. A farcical, diplomatic, etiquette permits it that tens of thousands of defenseless creatures, men bent down with age, tender women and innocent babes and infants, are ruthlessly slaughtered by demoniac agents of czardom and an accursed Pobyedonoszeff, without any one of the nations demanding a reprieve or stay; without any one of the rulers of the earth, even of the freest of countries, calling out “Halt!” Even our own man of the strong spirit, the truly democratic, earnest, upright and humanity-loving Theodore Roosevelt, who detests falsities and inconsistencies, even he is too weak and powerless to do aught in the face of these grievous circumstances. International law would not permit intervention in this case. 

    But if this so-called “international law” is one of the “many devices” by which man’s better nature is defiled, and the law of God outraged, then, as civilized beings as thinking people, mark ye the admonition. All ye nations take warning and dread the curse of Cain, the evil consequences entailed by blood-shed and violence everywhere, the effect of nature’s penalty, which stretches far and wide, the wrath of a just avenger that regards no person. And it matters not whether ye be guilty of direct co-operation or mere connivance at these bloodiest monstrosities, while you make not the slightest effort to oppose them the guilt rests with you. Sin lieth at your own door. The innocent blood of your own brothers crieth unto heaven from the ground, and the Divine call is resounded to each and all: “Cain! where is thy brother Abel?” No petty excuses, no false prevarications, artful devices in the presence of Almighty God. “Stand not idle by the blood of thy neighbor!” is the call addressed to us all as one common brotherhood.