I think Christopher Hitchens is, sadly, too often right. History makes this clear, and many of us who are religious have experienced our share of religious irrationality, intolerance, bigotry, contempt, exclusion, violence (if not physical, then verbal insult), and so on - whether with members of our own religion or members of other religions, or even members of no religion.
Unfortunately, religious people don't have a monopoly on these behaviors. This fact may be obscured by the fact that most people in history, by a very large majority, have been religious, so the sample of irreligious people is smaller to begin with. That means that the total number of acts of ignorance and bigotry will be most commonly associated with religious people.
That's why, I think, if we focused in on irreligious people, Hitchens could make the same kind of generalization, substituting "irreligiosity" for "religion." There are plenty of irreligious people who treat women and children badly, who say and do stupid things, and who are full of prejudice.
Unintentionally, I'm sure, Hitchens himself may fall into this very trap with his statement. By saying "religion is violent, irrational" and so on, Hitchens implies all religious people are this way. This kind of hasty or unqualified generalization funds many forms of racism and prejudice. Someone meets a string of white people who are nasty, for example, and they conclude, "White people are ...." Hasty and unqualified generalizations trip us all up at times.
I would hope that somewhere in a surrounding sentences, Hitchens has qualified his generalization to keep it from funding the very things he rightly despises. But even if he doesn't, the fact is, all of us at times make sweeping generalizations we later come to regret, and we hope that people will give our statements the most charitable interpretation possible.
So putting aside any weaknesses in Hitchens' statement, as a committed but deeply flawed believer, I want to say to Christopher, "Yes, this is too often true of religion, including the religion of which I am part. And sadly, the adjectives you used have too often applied to me too. I'm sorry. I hope it brings you some comfort to know that many of us - inspired by our faith - are devoting our lives to working for justice, compassion, equality, mutual care and respect, and the pursuit of peace and wisdom. We are pouring out our lives for widows and orphans, for the forgotten and despised and marginalized, even for nonhuman life and for the planet itself. We are standing against hypocrisy and religious abuse. We join you in being appalled by violence, irrationality, racism, tribalism, bigotry, ignorance, hostility to free inquiry, and unkindness toward women and children.
We as deeply committed believers will gladly work side by side with you to make this world the kind of place it can become. We will try to be an example of a different kind of religion, a different kind of spirituality, a different way of life. We will fail and fall short, but we must, with God's help, make this our aim.
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