My Sunday Thought for 070818: Fall Back on Faith

“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”

-- Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), comedian, social critic, satirist

We can only hope Lenny Bruce is still right when he stated, “Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” Even though, for myself, I find no use for the church other than fellowship, a meeting place to discuss, debate, and learn, I would still rather people grin and bear it than be seduced by atheism. The church should not be a place for worship, as scripture specifically states in Matthew 6:5-6, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward. But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."  To me, this does not prohibit churches and synagogues as places for fellowship; it simply states they are not ideal places for worship and prayer unless your goal is to stroke your own ego.  These are not places to parade your faith in public, "like the hypocrites," instead of exercising the preferred humility of Christ.

I was baptized a Catholic, studied through Catechism, and took my First Communion, prior to falling from the "grace" of the church.  I began to speak the "heresy" of, "Why?"  My questions, as for many of us, went to the heart of biblical contradiction.  My questions found no credible answers as to how man would dare explain, for God, what God really meant to say.  How could the Word of God be so confusing when He, God, obviously considered His audience and knew what they would be able to comprehend?  We are taught that God is an omnipotent being, after all.

“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” 

-- Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821), statesman, military leader 

Is God nothing, then, without a religion to clarify His desires?  Were the Ten Commandments, the only law written in stone by God and given down by God to all of mankind, so difficult for mankind to understand that it actually required a book of parables to explain?  Are black and white rules of yes and no, do and do not, so difficult for even the uneducated masses to comprehend?  Or, is scripture and religion simply a way for the authority of a church, and by extension the government, to maintain control over the faithful?  We really don't know.  We, the very people who should know, don't really know the truth of Jesus Christ.  Any truth we have is meted out to the "sinners" by the clerical hierarchy of whichever religion the "sinners" prescribe belief in, and this belief, historically in many cases, was not voluntary.

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”

-- Seneca (4 BC-65 AD),  philosopher, statesman

So, what happened to change the perceived allegiance of the faithful to the God of the church?  Personally, I think it was education; we became as smart, if not smarter, smarter than the ruling class.  The church hierarchy made a fatal miscalculation when it came to intelligence - they forgot to figure good old fashioned "common sense" into the equation.  Common sense is something people who have to fight for survival have abundance of and, as for the very intelligent, not so much.  To this day, those in control habitually short change the common man's ability to see through the bullshit and grasp the hidden truth.

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”

-- Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988), aka, "dean of science fiction writers," 

But why, then, when the corruption of organized religion is laid bare to the masses, do people continue to have faith in a supreme power?  Why don't they just throw up their arms and surrender to atheism?  Why would any smart person run from a fire into a burning building or from evil into the arms of the devil?  Why would any smart person give up hope for no hope at all?  People seem to have a genetically encoded need to have faith.  It could be a faith in them, others, or faith that there is some supreme power in the universe which created everything.  

In our darkest hour, we seem to always fall back on the things no one can take from us, our freedom of thought, our freedom of choice, our unyielding faith in something greater than that evil which confronts us, even if that perceived evil is the very body we have been indoctrinated for eons to trust with our salvation.  When the apple is rotten, don't throw it away before retrieving the seeds, for the seed has nothing to do with the corruption of the deliciously righteous meat.  Corruption is solely the work of outside influence.  Ha!  It seems like I might have, unwittingly, taken a short detour into a chapter of Genesis for the apple analogy. 

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.”

-- John Lennon (1940-1980), singer, songwriter, activist

What do we do when things go wrong?  Well, we can keep plodding ever forward, hoping against hope that things will work out, or we can go back to the beginning and find out why it went wrong and, from those answers we can find out what to do to have a better outcome.  For the spiritual and religious the beginning would be our faith.  If we feel our faith has been corrupted we shouldn't, necessarily, fault the faith.  

If we detect some fault in our chosen philosophy, we need to study our faith, investigate the corruption infecting it and excise said corruption from our belief system.  If this means running from organized religion, then so be it.  The guidelines used for our investigation should contain no more than those commandments given to us by God.  If God's Ten, very simple, Commandments are too difficult for you to understand, then fall back on the moral philosophy and common sense ethics contained in, not only the commandments themselves but, the very foundation of those commandments: Love God with all your heart and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Really, God didn't make it rocket science, so just how difficult do we have to make the easy path to salvation which was laid before us?

Where we, as people of faith, seem to constantly fall short, is with the "Golden Rule" of doing unto others.  We seem to misunderstand the spirit behind the Ninth Commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."  If your neighbor hasn't violated the commandments of God, what is there to bear witness against?  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explains the Ninth Commandment thus:

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). Simply put, this commandment encourages you to speak the truth. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour” (Ephesians 4:25). People who misrepresent others or spread rumors about a person’s character bear false witness. “Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips” (Proverbs 24:28).

What it really come down to is leaving judgment of others in the hands of God, for who are we to judge others if there is, truly, not one righteous among us?

Perhaps the answer to wavering faith in religion is to fall back on the basic premise of our numerous religions.  That premise lays at the very root, in almost all cases, the faith on which it was conceived.  I fall back on a favorite quote to make my next point.  19th century writer, poet, and cultural critic, Matthew Arnold once wrote, "Protestantism has the method of Jesus with His secret too much left out of mind; Catholicism has His secret with His method too much left out of mind; neither has His unerring balance, His intuition, His sweet reasonableness. But both have hold of a great truth, and get from it a great power."  And, my next point would be:  This same secret, method, unerring balance, intuition, and sweet reasonableness of which Arnold speaks, lies at the philosophical foundation of almost every major religion and, also, seems to have been lost, corrupted, during years of interpretation, explanation, and the less than righteous agendas visited upon them by the ruling hierarchy of the faithful.

If you are questioning your faith, make certain it is your faith and not your religion with which you have issues.  If your religion, in fact, turn out to be the reason behind your concerns, then fall back on the very faith you worry about losing, the faith in yourself to make righteous choices for your own life.  After you fall back on your personal faith, ensuring this faith in yourself is solid, and then you can move forward to ensure faith in your "religious" convictions.  

When it comes time to investigate those convictions, perhaps it would be a good method to listen to Matthew Arnold and ensure the religion actually holds dear a righteous sense of this secret, method, unerring balance, intuition, and sweet reasonableness of a loving God, attributes of which he so correctly addresses.  Only in this way will you ensure that, regardless of your chosen religions misguided choices, convictions, or interpretations, you will continue to rise above it and ensure your own personal salvation by simply doing the right thing and being a shining example to others.

“I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and that also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we were Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu; but our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), lawyer, political activist

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead Chaplain and Chaplain Program Liaison, at the regional medical center.