My short diatribe on religion in response to someone that believed it was counterproductive for minorities.

' Karl Marx, had an ambivalent and complex attitude to religion viewing it primarily as "the opium of the people" that had been used by the ruling classes to give the working classes false hope for millennia, while at the same time recognizing it as a form of protest by the working classes against their poor economic conditions. '  - Wilkipedia

Many civil rights leaders use churches to organize protest and use the freedom to worship as a strong tool toward change. Nonviolence adds legitimacy to a cause and violence often leads to the dissolution of the movement. The church at Ferguson that was used as a training ground for protesters is a recent example of the positive. The shootings in Charleston served to delegitimize white supremacy groups because they are associated with attacks on good people, people who are so good they are willing to publicly forgive. Religion is a mixed bag. It can be what motivates you towards good or evil, and can be a ball and chain to either hold you back from progress or ground you to resist behaviors that lead to failure.