Religious Manipulation By The Powerful

For thousands of years, individuals have interpreted religious texts to justify who should hold power in society and who should remain powerless.  For example, monarchs wishing to maintain their authority in medieval times used the divine right of kings to claim that god supported their right to be in power. Individuals have manipulated religion to support their beliefs and interest throughout history.  So, I pose the question, why has religion been so easily manipulated to serve the interests of the powerful? What has stopped the people in lower social classes from challenging the religious backing that powerful individuals have claimed to have?

To address the questions at hand, I believe that it is important to look at one of the main underlying similarities between the individuals that have claimed that their position in society was justified by religion.  What did they all have in common that allowed them to support their beliefs with religious justification? The answer is their education and their ability to read religious texts. Thousands of years ago, most people did not have access to education and consequently were illiterate. They could not claim that they understood religious texts because they had no way of reading them.  This automatically gave the educated people in society the ability to use religious justification for power.  This left the uneducated unable to oppose the social order imposed by the educated. The powerful and educated could then continue the cycle of a divided social class system that deprived lower societal classes of educated. This therefore left these individuals without the ability to question this so-called religious justification because they were never given the education to do so.

An example of this cycle occurred during the years of early Hindu society, called the Vedic Society. During this time period, a social class system known as the caste system arose. It was made up of five different castes, each defining a separate societal class.  At the top were the Brahmins.  These were the priests, teachers, and highly educated scholars.  The second caste consisted of the Kshatriyas, the warriors and royalty.  The third caste was the Vaishyas, the traders.   Next but definitely not least, sat the Shudras, the farmers, service providers, artists, and laborers.  The fifth caste was made up of people that were believed to be “too dirty for casted Hindus.” These people were titled the untouchables.  The untouchables were deprived of many luxuries and rights that casted members were given such as (very intentionally) education.  The untouchables were unable to oppose the rules and religious justifications for laws made by the members of higher castes because they were not educated enough to do so.  They were given the dirtiest and most difficult labor and had no way to refute the belief that there was a religious purpose for being put in the lowest caste. A law in the caste system stated that one could move up a caste level.  Once born into the untouchables, one stayed an untouchable.  Therefore, the offspring of these individuals were treated in the same manor as their parents had been.

In addition to depriving the powerless of an education, the powerful have often promulgated self-benefiting interpretations of religion to maintain distinct social classes. Simply depriving people of education would likely not have completely eliminated the incentive of lower class members to challenge their social status in society. So, throughout history, the powerful have taught the lower social classes that they would be punished or rewarded based on their compliance with the rules of the existing social system.

Once again, an example of the powerful manipulating religion to their advantage is apparent in Hinduism’s caste system.  The members of the highest castes, the Brahmins or the Kshatriyas, taught members of the lower social classes that if they remained in their caste without challenging their position in society, they would be rewarded by moving up a caste level in the next life.  This was hard to argue with when the alternative was to be born once again into an equally low caste level.  By using this reasoning, the members of higher castes could further keep members of the untouchables from opposing their beliefs about the social order.  Members of the untouchables were frightened to oppose the beliefs of the higher castes in fear that they would not move up a caste in the next life.  This highlights how the powerful and educated people have used religion to keep the uneducated from challenging their social status.

Throughout history, the powerful members of society have used religion as justification for the social status quo. For thousands of years, the powerful have been able to maintain the social hierarchy in society.   By depriving the lower social classes of education and threatening them with divine punishment for disturbing the social structure, the powerful and educated have kept the powerless from demanding an equal society.