The Two Religions

There are two religious streams – call them, “Religion 1" and “Religion 2".  Many severe problems of the world have arisen from mixing and confusing these two streams.

• Religion 1 is founded on compassion and love.  It has appeared at many times and in many forms, but perhaps its purest expression is the tathagatagarbha, which refers to the compassionate “Buddha” (often latent) within all sentient beings.  Sufism [1] and sectors within Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam represent exemplars of this stream.   
   
• Religion 2 is founded on guilt, subjugation, and control.  Inspirational guidelines from Religion 1 have devolved to precepts which have then been conflated with traditional authoritarian, and by no means compassionate, social codes [2]. 

While many of the world’s religions may have been founded as Religion 1, almost all of the religions organizations and their administrative hierarchy operate according to Religion 2.
   
Not long ago former US President Jimmy Carter severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades [3].  A religious man, he had presumably had enough of Religion 2. 
   
Notes:

1. See: "Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam", The Film Sufi, 2015.
2. See: Alan Strathern, “Why are Buddhist Monks Attacking Muslims?”, BBC Magazine, 2 May 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22356306.
3. Jimmy Carter, “Losing My Religion for Equality”, The Age, 15 July 2009, http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html.