It’s common these days, when you ask someone if they’re religious, for many of them to tell you they’re ‘spiritual, but not religious’. That most people can’t even define what ‘spiritual’ means makes this response virtually meaningless. But the point should be taken that organized religion has failed so many people that it has been rejected by many of them.
So much evil has been done in the name of religion throughout the centuries that the very concept is distasteful to many people. Fanatics in the name of every religion have rationalized and justified their lunacy as being “the will of god”, even when their actions have been pure evil by any standard.
Typically two things exist in a religion, the body of beliefs that individuals adopt as their faith, and the culture that develops among its believers. The first, the body of beliefs is the idealistic part of a religion. The second, the culture of a religious community, often goes unstated in its official beliefs. It is the culture that develops in a religious community that usually comes to dominate it. A particular religion can give one a community wherein one is supported and strengthened when it is working like it should. When it has gone wrong…it ceases to be idealistic and can become oppressive, even dangerous, to its members.
Religions should exist for individuals and families…individuals don’t exist for the religion. When the focus of a religion becomes the organization and not it’s individuals, it has lost its way. When a religion becomes about itself or about it’s human leader(s)…it becomes a cult. A religion should never be about the personalities of its leaders…it should be about the beliefs that define it. Those beliefs should make its members better human beings. That is the ‘why’ of religion and faith. Human beings can and do often corrupt religion…but they can’t touch a deeply held faith.
Faith and religion are not the same thing. Faith is what guides us in what we do; it’s what we expect from ourselves. Religion is what we expect other people to do. Faith is within individuals, religion is in organizations. Faith gives people purpose. Religion gives them ceremony. Faith gives individuals a connection with something unseen and much bigger than themselves. Religion gives them affiliation to other people. Faith gives you power. Religion gives others power over you. Religions usually become static bodies of beliefs. Faith is a living thing wherein beliefs may changes as one grows and matures. Religion, at its worst, has served to divide people and to fuel hatred. Faith has quietly gone about changing the world one individual at a time.
Religion can be a true force for good in the world but only by doing good. Religion must be guided by, honest people of good will…people of faith.
By definition, since there is only one truth, there is only one true faith…one truth that we can hold and have hope in. As a Christian, I am convinced that the Christian world-view is the true one. That doesn’t mean that all, or even most, people calling themselves Christians would agree with it…and they certainly don’t live by it. Most are divided by their respective religions. Imagine that...people who claim the same faith divided by their religions? The only people who benefit from that are the religious leaders. This serves to do the very opposite of what Christ taught. When a ‘Christian leader’ teaches something different than what Christ taught…he, or she, has left the faith once delivered and they should be left behind.
It is not a human leaders place to live a Christ-like life for their followers…it is every believers place to do so. What the world needs is fewer religions and more faith.
Still, it is not what we believe that makes us decent human beings…it’s what we do. Religion, all too often, makes us complacent. Simply belonging to a religion doesn’t make us better people. We must act. Faith prompts us to action. And, faith without works is dead.
These three abide…Faith and Hope and Love. (Religion isn’t even in the running…)
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