The Myth of a Chosen People

Around the world there exists various groups of people who believe they in some way are chosen to be more worthy of favor than others.  All too frequently, this chosen people notion is a religious belief wherein the members of that particular religious group believe they have greater or even exclusive favor of the Creator by virtue of their affiliation with that  religion.    

In other cases, this privileged status of a chosen people is consider to be deserved by virtue of some perceived special accomplishments that particular group feel sets them apart from all others and makes them superior.  These chosen people expect special favor and special treatment from the laws and privileges of society.  A classic example of this type of particular chosen people syndrome is the White Supremacist movement that believes white people are superior to other races and therefore should be dominant over them.  

In the view of these people who believe they are chosen, those others who are not in the select group are deemed inferior and unworthy of favor by the self-proclaimed chosen ones.  More importantly, those considered to be unworthy are conveniently used as a scapegoat for all the problems that exist in the otherwise perfect society the chosen people feel they alone have created.  The net result of these chosen people delusions is the oppression that it generates around the world in the form of racism, bigotry, and hatred.

Sometimes membership in the chosen people group is considered a birth right for those born into the tradition as with White Supremacists, and sometimes it is granted to those who accept the terms and conditions to be adopted into the fold in many religious groups. Not surprisingly, these beliefs of privileged status for the chosen group are typically only held by people who consider themselves to be included in this special group.  Everyone else simply sees them as deluded and deranged.

All three of the major Western religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) embrace this chosen people concept. With each thinking, their religious traditions are superior to all the others even though each of their religious traditions share some of the same scriptures and revere some of the same religious figures (all hold Abraham as their patriarch).  Further divisions occur within each of these religions when sects develop and believe their own particular practices and interpretations are superior to other sects in the same religious.

All three traditions believe there is only one Creator for which each has their own name.  They even have some scripture in common, but still they individually believe, their particular interpretation of these scriptures and understanding of the Creator's intent is more correct and proper than those outside their chosen group. 

It is little surprise that the three have shared contentious relationships which frequently flare-up into wars for centuries. While there are various political and land rights issues cited as the basis in some of these problems, the root cause seems to be this difference of religious opinion and each group's belief they are the chosen ones.  

Historically, the most glaring example of the dangers of the chosen people syndrome was the rise of the Nazis in 1930's Germany.  The German Nazis believed and taught the German people to believe they were directly descended from the mythical Aryans who were favored by the pagan gods and better than the rest of humanity. They committed terrible atrocities on a scale that has never before been known. They were able to convince their solders to commit these atrocities because they had been conditioned to think these targeted people were somehow sub-human. 

More currently, the self-proclaimed Islamic state ISIS very recently has been guilty of murder, enslavement, rape, and pedophilia using the excuse of being the chosen people dealing with infidels. The atrocities are not on the scale of the Nazis, but then neither is the scale of their successes.  The recent incidents in Charlottesville USA and Barcelona Spain are simply further examples of this chronic and pervasive chosen people problem.

The root cause of these chosen people myths is the very human weaknesses of vain pride, envy, and hatred being cloaked as the will of the Divine.  The truth is that everyone on this Earth has a right to be here.  This chosen people myth is not of god.  It is very dangerous, and there is no place for it in our civilized society.  

There are no chosen people. There is no superior race.  Only a multitude of people who are simply trying to survive and be happy, and each and everyone of them deserves an equal opportunity to that end.

This life challenges us to learn many lessons, and far and away, the most important of these lessons is to learn how to embrace the many faces of humanity's diversity because collectively this diversity is the true and complete face of our creator.

We are all the same in spirit.