Oh My God

I recently came across a documentary film called “Oh My God”, directed and created by Peter Rodger. He goes on a global journey to ask the simple, yet earth changing question; what is God? You get the idea from the beginning that Peter is just another cynic trying to prove how detrimental religion is on society. Mr. Rodgers even says that he had expected for everyone to tell him why their God was the best. Accordingly what usually happens when one takes the time to do some research, and discover for themselves the true answers instead of relying on what we are told, the filmmaker stumbles upon many beautiful examples of faith and tolerance from every stretch of the globe.


It was a pleasant part of the journey to see the filmmaker’s heart open up, as he discovered more examples of the kindness of people when they are truly following the spirit of each of the represented religions. I was also moved myself to examine more closely my feeling towards other religions. When I was younger I immediately dismissed other religions, solely on the fact that they weren’t mine. I thought that they were wrong, violent, and against everything I believed in. I believed in their right to worship, but not in what it was they were worshiping. I think that there are a lot of Christians out there who exist in this thought plane. To paraphrase an old Saturday Night Live sketch “If its not Christian, ITS CRAP!”

I have recently been doing a lot of research on Buddhism and Shinto in Japan for a graphic novel I am working on. In the genesis of my research I was really hesitant as to whether I should read Buddhist scripts, being a Christian and all. A guilty mind asked; would these texts have the ability to cloud my mind, and steer me away from Christ? The further I read the more similarities I found. I began to become more comfortable and began delving further into the subject. I started to see how the different sects developed over similar social issues that caused splintering of Christians into many different sects. I learned that texts were translated differently when they traveled through Korea and through China, and were again modified when they reached Japan. But most importantly I learned that the ultimate goal in Buddhism is peace.

The film “Oh My God” pointed out to me a situation in the Muslim community that we also face as Christians. Extremist are misleading people using the isolation of specific parts of scripture to manipulate a situation, while conveniently ignoring the main point. Christians used the scripture to justify slavery, and some are still doing it to promote the hatred of homosexuals. These are both are in direct violation of Jesus’ order to “love one another as I have loved you.” Extremist in the Muslim community are using the Quran to justify the killing of Christians and Jews. While a majority of Muslims are like a majority of Christians, we just want peace.

It is my belief that people mostly want to promote peace and love. The media only portrays the corrupt and ignorant misuses of these systems, so if we don’t do our own research and find out for ourselves we will never know the full potential man has to live together in peace and tolerance.