As Theologian Eugene Peterson noted, “Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to mankind. The moment a person is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing and oppression is staggering.” [The Message, NAV Press] There is plenty of evidence in our history books and our newspapers for this belief. And likewise, religious beliefs are a source of much clutter in our lives, even if have we never belonged to any organized religion. A huge amount of emotional baggage, here called clutter, comes along with churches, religion and God. And it is the nature of human beings to collect clutter.
I’d like to make a distinction between spirituality and religion. Religion is generally accepted as a specific set of beliefs and practices, and the body of persons adhering to such. For the most part religion is based on beliefs and we human beings often have some really bizarre belief systems. Elizabeth Smart’s kidnappers believed they were doing God’s will and were walking freely around Salt Lake with Elizabeth, sometimes only a few blocks from her home, unrecognized for nine months, because residents didn’t believe that it could be she in that locale. The Columbine killers believed, to put it simply, that they deserved attention and consequently got it through the massacre of their fellow students
Where do we get our beliefs? Generally, we get them through our interactions with our family, peers, environment and culture, including the media. Based on those interactions, we make decisions, and those decisions form the basis of our beliefs. Depending on how we make decisions, that process can cause us problems. Most of our core beliefs are formed by the age of five, when we have limited knowledge and experience. And although we may form additional survival strategies later, most of us have built our foundation on a five-year-old’s perceptions.
In the Christian and Jewish religions, basic beliefs are based on the Bible or Talmud and their interpretation by theologians, and then pastor, priest and rabbi and then transmitted to us. In Islamic culture, belief is based on the Qu’ran. For the Hindus, the Upanishads, etc. This means that for religious adherents our beliefs are based upon scriptures, as interpreted by humans and then understood by humans. To which we add our fears, hurts, doubts and disappointments – all of our clutter – to the mix of our understanding. And then we hold our beliefs as the truth. It is no wonder that we have so many differing churches all believing that their specific religion holds the unequivocal truth.
In God Calling there is this admonition: “All down the ages, men have been to eager to say what they thought about My truth, and so doing, they have grievously erred. Hear Me. Talk to Me. Reflect Me. Do not say what you think about Me. My words need none of man’s explanation. I can explain to each heart.” [Russel, ed. Jove Books]
Spirituality is more dynamic than theology. It’s about relationship with ourselves, with the divine and with life. A spiritual person may or may not belong to a religion. According to the 1990 American Religious Identification Survey, there were 14 million people in the United States who identified themselves as not belonging to a specific religion in 1990. In 2001 that figure was 29 million, making it the fastest growing and the third largest category behind Catholics and Baptists. [Deseret News, 2/1/2003, B1,2] As well as a myriad of other suppositions, you might surmise from this statistic that people have a growing dissatisfaction with their interactions with organized religion, and rather than having a vehicle available to deal with their dissatisfactions, their accumulated clutter, have simply chosen to leave the church.
– excerpted from Confession is Good for More than the Soul www.confessionisgood.com
Leslie Reynolds-Benns, PhD, author, most recently of Confession is Good for More than the Soul. Speaker, trainer, workshop leader, community activist and wedding officiant. Sign up for a FR*E*E 4-part mini e-course - CREATING YOUR OWN REALITY - at www.lesliereynoldsbenns.com.
