Religion: The Oppressive Tool!!!

So we're sitting in Chili's the other day and Tyler Perry and Spike Lee came up...

Basically it boiled down to this: Spike is a better filmmaker than Tyler Perry but NO ONE can out rightly say that Tyler Perry does not have a positive impact on his community through his films.

Some time during the conversation my friend (let's call him Phil_ICE_Sopher) said something that stuck with me... He said during slavery religion was used as an oppressive tool which I agreed with but then he proceeded to say that this is still true today and that's when he lost me. He went on to explain that Black people have this ENDURE type of mentality that keeps them from doing for themselves. He said that religion is the reason why people are that way: ENDURE today for a BRIGHT tomorrow.

MY THOUGHTS...
I do agree that Black people tend to be complacent more times than not but is it really because of religion?
I believe that there is only one God, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, the only thing that differentiates them is the way in which the individuals who practice these beliefs choose to worship. And whichever you practice you believe that your GOD will always protect you and want what's best for you. But like I said before life is all about the choices you make, you need to make the first step before God can guide you through the other 99 steps. I don't believe religion is oppressive because everyone should stand for something or else they'll fall for anything. What you choose to do with the information each of these beliefs provided you is yours and yours alone. People choose to sit around and and let life happen to them instead of making life happen for them, religion is not to blame.

Religion is an institution practiced by human beings who are far from perfect.
How one chooses to practice the institution isn't the institution's fault so to say "religion is oppressive" is far-fetch because religion doesn't practice itself nor is it there at every corner telling you "this is how it's done". Religion is a tool and just because some use it to oppress others does not make the institution itself oppressive.

Thank you and The End