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Religion Often Too Exclusive
Just a few days ago, I had temper tantrum which I shared in an email.
"I have officially decided," I said, "that I don't like religious people."
"People who love God are OK," I proffered, "but religious people turn people away from God."
That being said, I am not surprised at the results of the recent survey that says fewer people are calling themselves Christian and more people are declaring no religion at all. Religion does a good job of turning people off and away from God.
One wonders why, but for me one of the biggest reasons is that there is a disconnect between what religious people purport to be and what they/we actually are. We talk about love, but we demonstrate hatred, judgmentalism and intolerance, all in the name of God.
I think about Ryan White, the young man who died from AIDS, and how I read that church people turned him away from church because of his illness. Or I think about the stories I heard about when I was young about pregnant teen girls made to sit on the front pew alone and be chastised because of their fall from grace ...while the young man involved remained conspicuously absent.
I think about how religious people would listen to a sermon and then go out to lynch people because of the color of their skin, or how religious people have too often felt justified in attacking gay people, all in the name of a loving God.
Then I think of how too many of us, the clergy, have used our pulpits not to turn people toward God, but to control them. Instead of preaching and teaching in such a way that frees people from insecurity and self hatred and low self-esteem, we have done much to perpetuate those conditions.
We in the pulpit have avoided the hard issues of family life, like domestic abuse, and sexual abuse and sex in general. We have supported sexism and militarism and racism and homophobia.
So, in effect, we have excluded a whole lot of people from the Kingdom of God, and we have made them think that that kind of exclusion is God's will.
In the end, it seems that we religious types have been more concerned with raffle tickets, flowers on the altar and spaghetti suppers than we have been concerned about the people God created. What we cannot see, or what we will not see, we cannot care about, and it is a fact that too many of us religious types do not and will not see the injustice in the world. For those who are the recipients of injustice, that is a problem.
Obery Hendricks, in his book, "The Politics of Jesus," defines "righteousness" as justice. So, when the Gospel says that we are to seek "righteousness" along with the Kingdom of God, there is a clear mandate given. When people know that they are loved and appreciated, they are drawn to the source of that love and appreciation.
The recent debacle involving AIG and the ridiculous bailout it received while at the same time paying executives huge bonuses shows how we religious types just don't get it. How could ANYONE accept that kind of money when the masses are suffering?
It's that kind of disconnect, I think, that bothers people. It's that kind of disconnect, the lack of concern for justice, the lack of concern for each other, that causes people to turn away from religion.
The lack of concern is rampant. Thus, I guess the decline of people calling themselves Christian or religious will continue to rise. And that is definitely bad, bad news
By
Susan K. Smith
|
March 18, 2009; 1:21 PM ET
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Posted by: nberger | March 20, 2009 3:15 PM
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Amen Rev Sue! Again you have boldly dealt with the issue of the seeming unbridled hypocrisy of religion and religiosity. Religion has a tendency to build fences rather than bridges--the apple cart has yet to be upset in religion.
Dana Carver's SNL character "Church Lady" seems to personify the religion of exclusivism and exclusion. Carver says that character is actually a combination of religious types he encountered in church as a young boy--God knows that I did also. In the movie, "A River Runs Through It," the Presbyterian father, upset that his son is dating a Methodist girl asks in disgust, "Don't you know that a Methodist is just a Baptist that can read?" Although that comment is from a script through the medium of art imitating life, it reveals a narrow truth held sacred by some religious types. The debacle of AIG bonuses suggests a dearth in basic morality brithed by tepid religion. Some people seem to behave as if God does not exist--at least as far as they are concerned. Thanks Rev Sue for another serving of bold truth-telling.
Posted by: jr4111checkitout | March 20, 2009 12:26 PM
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Amen!
Posted by: djw531 | March 20, 2009 8:47 AM
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The only thing "new" for me is the published report or the result of yet another "poll." All my life I have heard what the new "poll" is saying. People have been turned off by "religion" all of my life. The reasons I have heard are just like the examples you give -- the vast difference between what the faith teaches and what the practioners of that faith do!
The question I would raise with you, however, Pastor Smith, is what in the world would make you think that any of the scoundrels receiving the huge AIG bonuses are religious? What they do has nothing to do with God, Jesus, Muhammad, faith, belief in Justice, "righteousness" or mercy!
Posted by: Jamila1 | March 20, 2009 8:02 AM
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thank you Ms. Smith for the truth that you put into your essay. there is so much in it that is real and honest, clear and truthful, bald and beautiful. Relevant.
"...for me one of the biggest reasons is that there is a disconnect between what religious people purport to be and what they/we actually are."
"So, in effect, we have excluded a whole lot of people from the Kingdom of God, and we have made them think that that kind of exclusion is God's will."
"When people know that they are loved and appreciated, they are drawn to the source of that love and appreciation."
Perhaps it is the process that any union or organism goes through as it confronts what does not work for itself and has to make adjustments in fundamental ways, (no, no, no pun intended!), in order to continue to stay vital and relevant. Be it a business, foundation, or entity, person or society, it can survive only so long in a lie. If it lives as an untruth long enough it will dissolve by necessity. Change form in some way. Only that which is 'genuine' has continuity, and longevity.
Thank you again for your honesty.
Posted by: justillthen | March 20, 2009 5:07 AM
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As a Wiccan, I want to say to you---Amen Sister! Preach it! I LOVE your commentary! I wish more Pastors/clergy, like u, fill the pulpits!
Blessings
Posted by: PallasAthena09 | March 19, 2009 6:09 PM
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Thanks Rev. Sue for your commentary. I too am saddened by the way we as a society have hit the disconnect button. We don't communicate anymore and I think the biggest reason is that we have become desensitized to the problems we face. Much the same way that a slave could be beaten almost to death and never shed a tear in pain. We numb ourselves to the truth because the harsh reality of the matter is that it is too painful.If we can somehow begin to plug back in to our source. If we as individuals can begin again to make that connection between what God has planted in our hearts and what the world and life experiences have planted in our head's then we have a chance at recovery. The ultimate task here is understanding that though the physical distance between the head and the heart is but a few short inches,for some, the journey is much too far to travel.