Religion good and bad(?); a rant of sorts

Religion good and bad(?); a rant of sorts

Religion good or bad (?); a rant of sorts

I am often surprised at the narrow and even simplistic notions that people have of religion.  It is of course popular today to denigrate religion as either evil or narrow or both.  Of course such criticisms do have some truth to them since religions are made up of people and not angels, with all the weaknesses and evils that go with it.   The problem is that when judgments get narrow and rigid they almost always come from either those who have had some really bad experiences in said religion and have some serious issues with the treatment they received, either from the clergy or the people in general.  Granted religion can be hurtful since as a tool it can be misused and abusive just like anything else that we humans get involved in.  The valid judgments tend to come from those inside any one religion who have the courage to speak up out of love even if they know they will get into trouble and misunderstood.  Prophets are often killed but the seeds they plant take root and grow.

I am catholic and I am aware of the dark history of my Church and of the evils that it is guilty of, and I am also aware of the good it has done, and of the deep wisdom it has accumulated over the centuries; in other words it is a mixed bag.  I suppose it comes from the notion that some “others” are supposed to be better than the rest of us without all the weaknesses that we are all aware of in ourselves if we have any degree of self-awareness, and for some reason want to believe that there are people who are better or perfect; in other words better than we are.  I suppose the quote from the psalms is true……”put not your trust in Man from whom there is no salvation”…….in other words don’t look to others for your support if it is unrealistic and really very adolescent.

I think religion is funny at times.  A person can be a “practical atheist” for say 40 years and then one day receive Jesus or join some other religious group after a deep conversion, and this person who probably never gave much thought to God, grace and where this leads; who never read or studied scripture etc., suddenly over night becomes an expert in all thing spiritual and scriptural…..indeed a strange thing.  Such people if they don’t grow also do a lot of damage.  The bible becomes a weapon in which they can fashion a hammer and beat people over the head with it and then wonder why they don’t do much good.

Maturity in ones faith is essential and if that does not happen you will have other wise intelligent people who have the faith of a fourth grader; great for the fourth grader but pathetic in an adult.    There is a paradox in faith at least there is for me.  As I get older and my faith deepens I am better able to embrace mystery and doubt in my life; ready to even say “hey I could be wrong”.  That is based on the fact that we all have our faiths and beliefs and they all can’t be right, at least on the surface.  I have found that I can talk to anybody from any faith or religion and feel at home with them if we talk on the level of experience, prayer and the meaning of life.  Doctrine does not come into it unless I am asked and we can talk about that.  I am not ashamed of my faith but I think I should give the same respect to others as I would like for myself.

I don’t think any religion owns God and being catholic I have learned to think for myself as I make my faith journey through life because if I do not think for myself then the church will be more than happy to think for me.  We are called upon to love, to stop the cycle of violence and evil that has seemed to have such a strong grip on the world and it is sad that religion is the cause of much of that.  I suppose we are still primitive and tribal and we tend to make “God” into a tribal deity just like the Jews did (and all the peoples then) when they went to war with their “God” against all the other “Gods” and did a lot of slaughtering. 

If God is infinite intelligence and love then I would suppose we are a long way off from even beginning to understand what that love means or even what that intelligence is up to.  Like St Paul says we see through a veil darkly, we are on a journey and we are all led in ways that we do not often understand.    

 Peace

mitch