Religious Righteousness

    Religion has always been an excuse for some of the most horrifying events in history. Don't get me wrong though, it has also helped millions. As Douglass shows us, slavery wasn't the exception to the rule. He presents some very harsh contradictions that he witnessed when he says, "...and yet that mistress and her husband would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket and store!"(pg. 62) The slaves were starving while their masters chose not to feed them properly yet they still prayed for more? If people were discriminating black people based on their skin color could they go to the extent of finding slavery justified in religion? Apparently they did, and were very successful at it. Douglass also describes how his master gained nothing but cruelty when he first experienced religion saying, "If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before."(pg. 63) It's hard to believe that the interpretation or rather misinterpretation of an ancient text led people to such cruel extent. It's even harder to believe that the misinterpretation of ancient texts still leads people to commit the most atrocious crimes justified on religious righteousness.

"I have seen him tie up a lame young women, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of scripture- 'He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.'"(pg. 64)

    When I think of righteousness the first thing that comes to mind is the Spanish Inquisition. There too, religion was used to justify the torture and murder of thousands of people for a period of almost 300 years. Being of different religions or choosing not to believe in Christianity was motive enough to schedule an appointment with the reaper. This violence has transcended time and religions across the world. People nowadays attach bomb suites to their bodies and walk into public places full of women and children to pursue their interpretation of the Muslim Jihad. This all has lead to the deaths of millions of people under the pretext that it is justified and maybe it's time for us to realize we're holding the book upside down.