The recent US elections witnessed the battle between Kamala Haris and Donald Trump. It was a nail-biting race for months which resulted in Donald Trump emerging as the winner. There are many layers to this election and politics is not what I intend to discuss in this blog. However, what I found interesting is the religious identity that played a major role in all this drama. During voting it is said that people from Tamil Nadu, India, offered special prayers for Kamala Haris. There’s little to distinguish the village of Thulasendrapuram from any other rural community except for its connection to Kamala Harris, a woman who was expected to become America’s first leader with South Asian roots. The temple reverberated with rhythmic Sanskrit and Tamil hymns, as a Hindu priest held a flame before the god. “Our deity is a very powerful God. If we pray well to him, he will make her victorious,” said M. Natarajan, the temple priest that led the prayers in front of the image of Hindu deity Ayyanar, a form of Lord Shiva. Well, we now know how that ended.
Interestingly, there is one more woman who is now grabbing the news, that is Tulsi Gabbard. The Indian newspaper titles, “Hindu Congresswoman appointed by Donald Trump as US intelligence director” Another news media states, “Meet the Hindu American appointed by Trump as US Director of National Intelligence”. The media is quick to highlight her religious identity rather than all her achievements and hard work that has earned her the position in the first place. Today’s world tends to segregate people based on religion and claims that you are born to be one. However, we are all aware our identity is in God and not religion.
We have one identity, ‘the image of God’. The best thing described in Human creation is when in the first book of Genesis in the Bible records, “so God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”. Genesis 1:27. We do not resemble any four-footed beasts or created out of nothing. We stick to these beliefs as we do not want to be known as children of a divine sane God. The Judeo-Christian worldview is the best narration of a perfect image of a human being. The Bible states that we are created in the image of God making us His masterpiece. The religious identity doesn’t add any value to our existence. Our sanity as human and our love for brotherhood, are the ones that make the difference.
We create divisions using religion to gain mileage for our political advantage. This sentiment disturbs the unity among us. We tend to forget that we are God’s image bearers. We refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as He is a God who offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for forgiveness of our sins and hope for eternity. We are apprehensive to invite Him into our heart as there is a dire need for us to change as a person once we do that. Whereas religion does not require us to change. Religion is okay with our superficiality of rituals and puts us in a spiritual coma. It does nothing to save our soul.
The mark of true leadership will manifest itself when we have a close relationship with Jesus Christ. He was a true leader who modelled it well for us. He showed us what true sacrifice is, what it is to serve in spirit and in truth and how to be obedient to your calling. The beautiful part of following Him is that we don’t have to go to a religious place to find Him because He longs to live in our hearts and make us His temple but first to become that we need His forgiveness and truly repent of all our sins. Then He is faithful enough to live in this sanctified heart transforming you into a remarkable leader.
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