compulsion

Opposites are intimately related. You can't be courageous unless you are afraid. And strength is rooted in weakness. One becomes extraordinary by being ordinary. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are, in fact, the same person.

When religious groups try to banish all possibility of doubt or sin - when they try to enforce goodness by demanding adherence to a set of rules or principles - they extinguish people's faith. Because choice is fundamental to love and faith. When you love, value and believe in a person or in God or even in an ideal, it motivates you to think, say and do certain things. You choose to do those things. If you are compelled or coerced into doing those things, it's not the same. It's not real love or real faith.

We learn through failure and struggle. We don't learn by being told what to do and then doing it because we're told. We have to discover the right thing to do for ourselves. So, struggle and setbacks and mistakes are part of the process. I think religious groups sometimes make the mistake of demonizing struggle itself and insisting that you say, do and be certain things because they have told you to do or because according to their view the Bible tells you to. They want compliance with a set of rules, not realizing that what matters is the heart.