Last week I read an article on MSNBC's Web site about a major conflict that has emerged among Jehovah's Witnesses. An elder of the church in western Kentucky has criticized the way that the problems of pedophilia and sexual molestation have been handled. One of the basic tenets of the faith is the need to shun the outside world, and therefore, secular law. Rather, they are dealt with internally, and this disturbed the elder. He said publicly that many do not wish to recognize that sexual crimes against children exist, and thus, many go unpunished. Having gone public with this criticism, this man has been ostracized by those he might call friends, because he broke a rule of his religion.

This really got me thinking of the problems that religion brings to this country. It appears to me that religion is used just as much as a tool to hurt people as it is a means of spiritual enrichment. Now, I do recognize the positive aspects of organized religion. Much of the charity that goes on in this country does so through religious channels. And if people derive comfort from their respective religions, that's fine. However, there seems to be more and more religion jammed down our throats in the public arena and this is creating more conflict than calmness.

The first issue that I find bothersome is school prayer. It was our third president, Thomas Jefferson, who said, "I have considered [religion] as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle." Jefferson's idea that religion means the most when it is kept private is a powerful one. Can anyone justify for me the need to make one's religion public? Does faith mean more if you choose to burden other people with it? Being raised as a Roman Catholic, it has always been my belief that faith means more if it can be something special between an individual and his god. Sharing religion with people who could probably care less is simply a means of maintaining the status quo. Throughout history, humans, particularly men, have lusted for power. Once power has been attained, tools such as religion have been used to keep rulers in power. And this is all that school prayer is meant to accomplish when you get down to it. It is a method of indoctrination so that wealthy white people can get everyone believing the same things and maintain control over this country's political and commercial institutions.

This constant debate over the morality of society has also wasted everyone's time. Certain kinds of television shows, movies, art, etc. have all been labeled as immoral by the religious establishment in this country. It is outrageous that in a country with explicit freedom of speech and implicit freedom of expression that censorship exists because small groups of people find certain items offensive. Morality is a standard that varies from person to person and cannot be used legitimately as a tool to suppress certain unpopular ideas. And the fact that religious leaders have any opinion about the influence of violence on children is laughable. For centuries, wars have been fought based on religious hatred (do the Crusades ring a bell?). This debate over the morality or immorality of sex and violence is simply another way of infecting people's minds with the idea that they are evil or wrong and should not be what they choose to be, but rather what Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson wants them to be. For a closer example, look at what's going on in Harrisburg.

This is a clear illustration of what generalized morals that are derived from religion can do to people. Some idiot named John Lawless has decided he was offended by the Sex Faire event that went on at Penn State a couple of weeks ago. So now, because of an isolated incident, he is going to go before the Appropriations Committee and tell them that Penn State should receive a cut in funding. Religion is not something that should be outlawed. It does some wonderful things for our society, and I would be a hypocrite if I told people that they were wrong for what they believe.

But religion is dangerous when brought to the public stage. It is used as a tool to persecute certain people because they happen to disagree.

And we Americans must reverse this tide of public censorship and intimidation. We must take more responsibility for the choices we make and be willing to defend those choices so that narrow-minded people cannot exert authority over us. We must stop looking to books that were written thousands of years ago for a moral compass. Instead, you should be your own moral authority. If you don't like something, don't pay it any attention. Don't let your children have anything to do with it. And most importantly, we should not let these people who claim to be moral authorities damage your life because of their beliefs.