If you mean Hinduism, that's oppression par excellence (castes).
Buddhism not so much, but overly ascetic (oppression of the corporeal).
Religions feed on rules - whether they are rational or not - therein lie their power.
One of the core tenets of Buddhism is the emphatic rejection of both hedonism and asceticism and embrace of "the middle way". But whatever, my point was just that it's not "a Christian thing".
Yes, religion always creates power relations. Wherever there are normative statements, it is impossible to fully "keep it to yourself", but the aggressiveness varies considerably. If you define politics as the total sum of power relations, then religion will always at least partially overlap with politics.
But, that doesn't mean that all there is to religion is power relations, hence
Not everything is
exclusively about power dynamics...Perhaps there is
more to stuff than just oppression
The modern mind has been poisoned by decades, perhaps centuries of endless hammering by the politicians, public intellectuals and the media, down to blockbuster movies recycling the trope of the rebelling underdog protagonist, that reduces all human behavior and motivation to power dynamics. Is x oppressive or oppressed? That's all that matters.
The oppressor is then evil. He holds oppressive convictions,
because they are oppressive. You are against abortions? It's because you hate women and want to control them. You think they are (sometimes) ok? You are a sadistic baby murderer, who enjoys killing babies. The only permissible alternative is that you are brainwashed and you need to be (re)educated by the Truth and Facts. If you still hold oppressive convictions after the Truth and Facts have been revealed to you, then that only leaves the option that you hold them, because they are oppressive. You are evil.
But this is all nonsense, people can and do hold convictions that have restrictive consequences for others, for all kinds of reasons, many of them in good faith.
Neglecting, beating, traumatizing children that happens all the time, everywhere in the world is unforgivable. I'd be intrested to see all of those "pro-life", righetous good catholics (and not only) finding remedy for that or at least trying...
Neglecting, beating and traumatizing children is very much against (not only) the Catholic doctrine. And what, until the Catholic church solves all world's problems it can't oppose abortions? Oh, you are against racism? Interesting you say that, since you STILL haven't solved global warming. Uh, hypocrite much?