The Problem With Religion

I have given the best part of my adult life, energy, and creativity to the institution of organized religion. This no doubt seems incomprehensible to many people; it has sometimes seemed incomprehensible to me.

Religion during my lifetime has gone from being a deeply respected pillar of civilized society to a seriously suspect activity most commonly practiced by a slightly lunatic fringe on the outer edge of what might be considered reasonable. Religion has developed a seriously tarnished reputation over the past thirty years.

But what are we really talking about when we use the word “religion”?

Spirituality Cafe #2 (see April 15, 2010)

Wednesday we held our second Spirituality Café at Shine Café. We managed to attract a better percentage of non-Church people this time. People attended who had read about our venture in “Monday Magazine,” and who had seen a poster on the board at the public library.

Our question was “Who Are You To Tell Me What My Spirituality Should Look Like?” This moved quickly into a discussion of authority and whether or not anyone is ever in a position to tell another person what that person should believe.

Who Needs Community?

A mail carrier is being hailed as a hero after helping save the life of a 90-year-old Gordon Head resident who fell and was unable to move for five days.

After being alerted by the mail carrier police officers entered the home and

discovered the 90-year-old man crying for help, lying on the floor outside of his upstairs bathroom. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since falling last Wednesday. (“SaanichNews” Friday May 21, 2010)

Thirtieth Anniversary

Thirty years ago today in Toronto, Ontario, I was ordained a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada. I was twenty-five years old. There were twelve of us ordained on May 20, 1980 in St. Paul’s Church on Bloor Street by the Rt. Rev. Allan Read.

After my ordination Heather and I moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba where I began my professional church life as a Curate at St. George’s Anglican Church. Arthur Thompson was the Rector.

Apart from two sabbatical leaves I have spent the entire thirty years since my ordination working in the church. I have perhaps ten years of full-time ministry remaining. I am three quarters of the way through my professional church life.

The Wisdom of Doing Nothin’ and Somethin’

Life is full of painful stories. In Anne Cameron’s book Daughters of Copper Woman, “Granny” describes the wisdom way of the old women for dealing with painful stories.

Purveyors of Fear

They came to my door and rang the bell. I didn’t answer. I knew who they were and what they wanted.

Sometimes I am embarrassed to be identified as a religious person. When I refused to open my door I was pretty sure I was leaving it shut to religious purveyors of fear. The tract they left behind confirmed my suspicions.

Questions

Early in his personal memoir of survival in a Nazi concentration camp, Elie Wiesel reports a conversation with his teacher Moche the Beadle.

“Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him,” he was fond of repeating. “That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. But we don’t understand His answers. We can’t understand them. Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself.”

“And why do you pray, Moche?” I asked him.

“I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”

We are not made wise by the answers we know. Wisdom lies in our ability to hold the deep unresolved questions of life.

The Sacrament of Showing Up

If you hang around any church for long you will eventually hear talk of community. Church people like to say, “We are a community,” or “We are building a community.” You might be invited to “Come and join our community,” or to “Support our community with your time, talent, and treasure.”

If you stay long enough, you may find yourself wondering, where is this “community” everyone is talking about all the time.

The Problem With Grace

Why is judgment so often so much more attractive to people than grace?

Pain II (see April 19)

Once again I find myself in a familiar hurt place. I wonder why psychic/emotional pain is so painful. It is not as if something truly terrible has happened. It is not as if my life is actually threatened. Why am I unable to simply walk by this broken piece of glass without stepping on it and letting it lacerate my foot?