Am I Anti-Religion?

It happens more than I want to admit.  It happened again this week.  Some people tell me that I’m “Anti-Religion” or a destructive force.  Given that religion has been foundational for my spiritual journey, perhaps there’s something to explore.

The following is a text version of this posting.

In recent weeks, some people have told me that I’m anti-religion. Yes, they perceive that I’m simply against religion in and of itself.  One person went further and stated that I’ve fallen into what he called, “the old trope:  spirituality good; religion evil.”  When I’ve tried to elicit further feedback, the responses I’ve gotten are glib.  They tell me things like, “You know what you said.”  Today I want to answer the question: Am I anti-religion?

While I’ve studied theology, psychology, and spirituality, spirituality has always been a passion.  I entered a graduate program focused on spirituality in 1978.  That was long before many people had even heard the word, “spirituality.”  I chose that area of study because I find the ways people make sense of their lives, particularly how they make sense of transcendence and religious experiences, to be both fascinating and critically important.  I believe spirituality is at the heart of what makes life worth living. It’s probably worth noting, too, that I’ve spent over forty years engaged in ministry in traditionally Christian settings including pastoring churches and serving as a health care chaplain. 

My own spiritual life has been very important to me.  My spiritual foundation is in the church.  When I was middle school age, a Roman Catholic nun, one of my teachers, helped me practice meditation.  She’d find me sitting in the church and would kneel in the row behind me.  She guided me, telling me to focus on the candle burning in the front of the church. As I watched it, she told me to let quiet surround me.  Then she directed me to close my eyes and to be quiet for a few minutes and simply be aware that God was in me and around me in the church.  Yes, that’s how I learned how to meditate.  I’ve been doing it ever since.

Over the years, I learned so many other things about spirituality.  Most of those lessons have been from religious people.  They’ve been Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu.  I also learned from Native American elders.  My point is that I am not anti-religion.  Instead, I am greatly indebted to religion for preserving great lessons about spirituality and spiritual practices. But I also recognized that organized religion has failed most people in significant ways.

First, organized religion has hurt people in a variety of ways.  Over the past few decades, we’ve learned about sexual misconduct and financial misappropriation in organized religion.  But that’s the tip of the iceberg.  Organized religion has engaged in the genocide of indigenous people, has trampled on the rights of women, and perpetuated myths condemning people for their sexual activity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.  There’s a long history of abuse.  For the most part, leaders in organized religions ignore the harm and have failed to take responsibility for the sins of the past. 

Second, much of organized religion has lost its vibrancy.  Many traditional congregations are declining in attendance because they not welcoming to people and engage in rituals that have no meaningful context.  Other newer congregations are more like entertainment establishments with lots of energy but little substance.  Missing in religious settings today is an authentic experience of community, caring, and the opportunity to explore life’s deepest mysteries.

Third, it’s my opinion that organized religion and religious institutions have contributed significantly to the levels of alienation and loneliness in society.  They’ve done this by drawing lines between who belongs and who does not.  Those who belong, well, they are people who are within the circle.  It’s easy to step out of the circle by questioning beliefs and practices, by having a different opinion, or by having an interest that’s deemed to be unimportant. 

No, I’m not anti-religion.  Religion provides us with a way to interpret and understand what we experience.  As theologian Dorothee Solle observed:  Religion does not confirm that there are hungry people in the world; it interprets the hungry to be our brethren whom we allowed to starve. Religion isn’t just about morals and ethics but is a way of understanding the world around us.  But I am critical and suspicious of organized religion and its devotees.  I think too often they’ve created private inner circles that are essentially self-serving.