I'm fed up with religion! Shocked? Appalled? Offended?
Well if relationship is where you are, don't be!
What set me off this a.m. is the fact that I didn't sleep well last night and I didn't because I went to bed angry, frustrated and sorrowful! In fact, I awoke at 4:30 A.M.; went downstairs to perk the morning 'java' and then wept over what I'd heard and experienced last evening coming from the lips of a well-known self-described 'evangelical Christian'!
It wasn't because we differ on matters politic. It was the sheer utter disregard for the "bigger picture" as it relates to matters of grave importance to our nation and the audacity to declare judgment on others with whom the man disagrees. The crowning blow for me was the arrogance with which the man judged another with whom he has never spoken or inquired!
But that's what religion will do for you!
Last week I posted one of my now famous 'rants' entitled "Why Can't We All Just Get Along!" In it I posited that religion is rules, regulations, codes, doctrine and dogmas. And contrasted same with relationship as the 'marriage' of the Creator with His creatures - male and female.
I'm fed up with religion because it separates people - people who profess the same faith tradition. It sets those who worship (and I use the term loosely) on one corner against those who worship on the opposite under a different 'label' or 'brand'!
Over the centuries, it has been the cause of some of the most horrendous wars one can imagine. Just ask a radical jihadist and he'll spout "the crusaders" before he or she beheads you! I'm not offering any defense for the him or her who does the beheading; just pointing up that some folks never forget what has been done in the "name of God" when in actuality it was done in the 'name of my particular brand of religion'.
But one doesn't have to go to the extreme fringes of 'religion' to find pain! All one has to do is have a conversation with a faith-filled battered woman who has been advised by her 'pastor' to "stay the course" at a time when her eyes are blackened and she hobbles to the office on crutches! Try finding words that fit that situation in a 'religous context'.
Watch out if you dare do so and duck as the words or crutches fly!
I've learned a few things along the path since my personal 'damascus road experience'! I grew up in church - a "hell, fire and brimstone mainline denomination that has grown exceedingly cold over the years. I was there everytime the doors were open. I sang in the choir; played the organ; lead many of the fundraising events and sought to be what I thought a 'Christian woman' is supposed to be.
But, I couldn't wrap my head around the phrases that everyone threw around so vicariously, such as "washed in the blood of Jesus"; "born again", etc. I would respond to the altar calls; swear not to swear again; walk away relieved; only to swear the next time a driver started to pull out in front of me.
Then came an early morning encounter that changed all that. It was years later and I was 41 years of age. It came because I asked God a question in prayer. The answer came swiftly, dramatically and awesomely!
And it changed my mental perspective forever. It instantly erased the 'tapes' I'd learned and immediately started a new strand of 'recordings' that continues to this day. And I 'understood' those magnificent phrases I'd heard for years - the meaning that had for so long eluded me.
I'm still trying to wrap my understanding around all that happened in that 6:00 a.m. encounter that I alternately refer to as my "personal damascus road" or "He connected my heart with my head!"
But the above is simply prologue to why I'm fed up with what the world calls 'religion' and the Christian community calls "church" or "worship" or "expression of our faith".
We haven't come very far! We haven't moved much beyond the politicizing of faith. And for whose benefit?
We have continued to codify the free expression of real movements of the Spirit and call it such and such 'denomination' or 'non-denomination' or 'evangelical' or 'charismatic' or pentecostal' or 'fundamental'.
None is accurate! Because none describes the essence of who we are as believing men and women or what we are to be about; where we are to be about it and how we are to be about it!
Because each of the above takes a piece of the truth (which, by the way can be found anywhere and everywhere and I have that on very high authority) and masguarades it as the "whole truth" - and that's called 'heresy'!
The model is the MAN! Jesus, the man of Galilee who went about teaching and doing 'good'. The MAN who was and is the Christ - the Son of the Living God! The Word made flesh! He who came to give us a glimpse into what God is really like and how His Kingdom is and how we can become a part of kingdom experience here - and now!
But I've gone beyond my point. Since He is our model, then our 'roadmap' is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Richer interpretations and 'meaty' dissertations on meaning are found in the letters of a tentmaker who had his own 'damascus road' experience.
If we haven't studied the Gospels for the 'essence' of Jesus teaching and the model and style He used - then we're gonna' miss the mark and hurt a ton of folks along the way.
He didn't 'preach' (sorry all you preachers who rant and rave, scream and shout, sweat (ugh) and scourge) - He taught!
He encouraged questions to which He gave practical answers - practical for those who didn't quite get the paradoxes in the parables. And He gave 'meaty' stuff to those who had ears to hear (in the lower right quadrant of their cranium) and hungered for what He had to offer!
He was compassionate to the little people who hung on His every word, and was outraged - considerably so - with the 'religious' leaders of His day!
Why? Because they put chains and impossible limitations on the flock and chastened them unmercifully when they didn't live up to the rules, regulations, codes, doctrines and dogmas.
Perhaps it would be a worthy pursuit to look at the Good News in the following ways:
How did He "be" with people?
What did He offer them"?
What means did He use to plant seeds?
How did He deal with what we call 'sin' and what He must have considered 'behavior that missed the mark (that's the root meaning of the word "Sin").
How does His model and style differ from our own?
Again, I've gotten off track and off point!
I don't mind religion when folks keep their 'religion' to themselves! What I mind is when someone tells me or someone else that they aren't right with the Lord because 'we' don't look like, smell like, talk like, think like or otherwise fall into a model that most often is not of God's making - but of personal arrogance and a pride that says "my way is the only way!"
As a member of the body, I'm as guilty as anyone else of 'bruising the crushed reed'. But over time, the Lord is instructing me on how His Son did it and encouraging me to visit the 'roadmap' and study the 'process' and adopt the 'model and style' so that those who've yet to travel the Damascus Road or have and found only pain and suffering among the 'brethern' - will be led to a street called "straight" and find a stranger with healing salve that soothes burned eyes and restores sight to him who was blind!
Finally, if you don't understand the map or are confused by the directions - get out of the way and let those who do led the pack!
Author Resource:-
Linda S. Fitzgerald, M.S.Ed, has a passion for enriching, empowering and encouraging women to achieve their God-given destiny. A professional therapist by background and destiny-design coach, she is chief architect for the web’s newest online COMMUNITY for all women whether over 40 or not! Please visit http://www.awomensplace.org/blog for great information on topics of interest to women transitioning through life’s most exciting season. Checkout http://www.awomensplace.org to join dynamic women of excellence as we journey through the 2nd half of life together!
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.christian-article-bank.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites