An account of a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu includes Tutu’s words below, which explain how he understands religion as morally neutral:
And you have to remember that religion is of itself neither good nor bad . . . Religion is a morally neutral thing. It is what you do with it. It is like a knife, a knife is good when you use it for cutting up bread for sandwiches. A knife is bad when you stick it in somebody’s gut. Religion is good when it produces a Dalai Lama, a Mother Teresa, a Martin Luther King . . . We’ve got to say, what does your faith make you do? Make you become?
So What?
For those who follow the way of Jesus, the journey of faith is intended to include personal transformation. How have you embodied Christianity as a religion that is morally good? What is your faith leading you to do? to become?
Read my review of Desmond Tutu’s God Is Not a Christian And Other Provocations (2011).