‘Here Endeth’ The Reign of Religion - Or Does It?

Growing up surrounded by religion, alongside the stark objection to it, I have struggled all of my life with my relationship with what God is, and what faith is. Constantly fighting against myself, trying to force belief, and then picking away at whatever belief I thought I had. Most people I know attended religious schools, and although that religion was different to the one I was raised in, the ideals of God, traditions, and teachings were always there for everyone, lurking beneath the surface. Religion and I have a turbulent relationship: I push it away, yet its mysteries and controversies pull me in closer, intriguing me to the point where I have decided to study it at degree level. 

As a product of both a religious and a non-religious environment (attending a religious school yet living in an atheistic household), I am one to understand how it affects people. It can happen in two entirely different ways; one involves remaining religious, submitting your life to tradition and to faith, whilst the other involves turning the very other way, either due to past trauma or simply a difference in how to view the world. It seems as though the Western world began to treat religion like a child whose past actions need discipline. Some excuse the child completely, some forgive and strive to fix its actions, and some aim to punish and reform it completely. 

However, it is hard to ignore the former. In North America there has been a notable rise in conservatism, which has grown exponentially since Trump's second term starting from January 2025. We saw a rapid change from a more liberal environment (arguably stretching back to Obama’s first term in 2008 and then the end of his second term in 2017), to a Western world where Trump is glorified alongside many other right wing figures and influencers. Of course, with conservatism comes Christianity. Christian support was crucial for Trump’s win, with American Christians making up 76% of his voting pool. 

Whatever one’s views on politics, I do not see any excuse for hypocrisy in religion, especially when it is used to berate or feign superiority over others - seeing as it goes against the very teachings of Jesus, who preached love and equality. If I were to sit here and write down everything Trump and his government has done which goes against the very values of his Christian voters, I would be here for a very long time. Objectively, the majority of people in government on both sides will always have done bad things. However, it is when Trump’s Christian voters place him as an idol, allowing for his actions to flow freely under the guise of doing what is right for a Christian God and country, that I begin to object. Like always, the purity of faith is taken advantage of by authority. 

With this comes the polarity our modern world knows very well. Again, like everything today, religion seems to be viewed in black and white. ‘Wake Up Dead Man’, the new Knives Out murder mystery, did something that made my Religious Studies brain light up: it showed the diversity of ways Christianity can be wielded. Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin) represents the abuse of faith and how easily it can be distorted to fuel hatred. The main character Father Jud (Josh O’Connor) is a boxer-turned-Priest who sees Christianity as a reclamation of spirituality and finding love and forgiveness for one another as Jesus preached. It was refreshing to see an open take on religion, not from the side that refuses to see the faults in certain teachings, and not from the side that condemns religion and faith altogether. It shows what I have come to learn - that religion is not to be weaponised in either way, political or personal, but rather it is there to be a light for some. And if that light doesn’t speak to you, the way it did not speak to Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), don’t rip it apart, assuming you know everything about what it means to those you condemn. 

I am not a Christian, or even close to any form of belief in a God, yet it hurts to see atheists and religious people take what should be something very personal and politicise it to hurt one another. So no matter what you believe, it should be pretty universal to accept the religion of respect and understanding.

Words by Libby Stern, she/her