Organized religion has gotten a bad rap by many over the years, and much of it is well deserved, in my opinion. There is the joke about spiritually evolved people getting excited about their understanding of the Spirit world, and the devil comes along and says, “Great, now let me help you organize that.” With organization came hierarchy, patriarchy, abuse, control, fear, sin, shame and the list goes on. Of course, there were some evil forces behind the organizing, to keep us in line, afraid, easy to control and manipulate.

People actually became convinced that they themselves not only were not a part of God or the Divine, or that God was some judgmental dysfunctional man in the sky, but also that they needed to go through a priest or other male authority figure as a go between to connect with Source, even though most of these priests and hierarchy themselves were hardly living in align with the Divine.

But let’s look at the roots of religion, the main beliefs or goals.

Mayans Popul Vuh: Your are myself. We are all one.
Christian: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Mathew 7.12
Buddhism: Do not offend others as you would not like to be offended. U’danavarga 5.18
Confucius: What we do not wish to be done to us, do not do to others. Annalects 15.23
Judaism: What you do not wish for yourself, do not wish for others. Talmud Shabbot 31.A
Islam: No one will be a true believer, unless he wishes the same for others as for himself Sunnat
Brahmannism (Hindu): Never do unto others what would hurt you if done unto you Mahabharata 5:15
Taoism: Make as yours the profits of your fellowman as well as his losses. Tai-Shang Kin-Ying P’ien
Bahai: If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself. The Bayan

So, as you see, do unto others and oneness is a common threat, and the roots are really identical, and the goals are the same. It is up to each member of these groups to awaken themselves and be the change within each of these groups.

Yes, many members of the religious hierarchies got lost in ignorance and fear and consciously went about controlling the population, but there are mystical roots within all the great religions, and I hope, trust and pray each group returns to their sacred senses and loving essence.