TALKING RELIGION

LET’S TALK RELIGION

Now don’t recoil in horror. We have been warned often not to bring up religion in public, but let’s risk it and examine religion. 

“A personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices held to with ardor and faith”, is the cold and unsatisfying definition of religion by Webster. But religion is not cold, on the contrary, it is a hot topic.   

There is something seriously wrong with the human race when it comes to attitudes about religion. Most religions have a built-in arrogance they call righteousness.  Their attitude is what we believe is the one truth. All else is in error. The sad effect of this attitude is the anger and resentment between people or things that in the long run don’t matter at all.  And religions with myriad rules and strict codes of conduct create a judgmental attitude in all the followers, which leads to creating snobs of the congregants who pass judgment on one another as well as on people of other religions.  Judge not, lest thou be judged.

Even though the Christian religions purport to follow the all-inclusive Jesus Christ, many do not.  For example, there is a church, which attends military funerals carrying signs that read GOD HATES GAYS. They have created their own god, made in their likeness. There is no compassion in their system of beliefs. How is it that the worship of the Supreme Being can engender violence?  How can it be that what you are against is more important than how you reflect Jesus? Jesus was emphatic that his followers were not to set themselves up as superior to each other or the rest of the world.  “It shall not be so with you.”

Many years ago a woman told me that the parish council meeting the night before was awful with name-calling and anger. I said I didn’t understand that. If Jesus was at the meeting how could that happen?  She laughed at me.  She told me I was naïve and I would soon change my tune.  Well, I wasn’t wrong then and I’m not wrong now.  Jesus is the center of our faith.  Jesus is the one we are expected to imitate.  Personally I think that people who allow hate in their religion are lucky Jesus and his whip are nowhere around.  

When Vatican II came along, the idea was to go back to the time of the early disciples who were called The Way.  The simplicity of their faith, their emphasis on love and caring for one another in the name of Jesus was something to be desired.  But something went wrong. The human need to control gained power and Jesus was left out.  Human beings ignore the will of God and set out to make up their own Way.

This is not limited to Christians, however.  Hindus hate Muslims and some Muslims apparently hate everybody. Jehovah’s Witnesses hate Catholics. Many Protestants say that Catholics are not Christians. Therein lies the problem.  

What exactly is a Christian?  Put simply, a Christian is a follower of Christ. That means that you try to live your life in his image.  It means that gossip, intolerance, and hate have no place in your life.  It means you operate from a compassionate center at all times and with all people.  Is that too hard? Is that why we don’t do it?  What in the world do we think Jesus was all about?

Jesus is our direct link to God.  He came as one of us to teach us how to be human. The Spirit of God lives and works to fulfill the will of God throughout the world and we, who have received that spirit, are duty-bound to cooperate in that work.  

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA