Losing My Religion

The title of this post was borrowed from the famous R.E.M. tune of the same name. I chose it because I felt that it would be descriptive of my own experiences and a discussion that I wanted to inaugurate about an article that was referenced several days ago over at Banned by HWA, People of the Book? The article originally appeared over at Christianity Without the Religion (Plain Truth Ministries), and it presents a very interesting quotation from a book by Barbara Brown Taylor (Leaving Church: a memoir of faith).

The quote that really caught my eye and spoke to my own experience was this one: "I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape. Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out, since at this point they involve more blood than ink. The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith."

As long time readers of this blog know, I have written numerous posts about Christianity and its attitudes toward the Bible. I believe many Christians have been seduced by THE BOOK. Unfortunately, instead of using Scripture as a guide to God, Jesus Christ and salvation through him, the Bible is seen as the Source - the Final Authority - something to be revered and worshipped. Indeed, God and Jesus Christ are unwittingly relegated to a secondary or unimportant role in establishing truth, doctrine and theology in general. Experience and what we can observe about the world around us are dismissed as legitimate sources for revealing God and "His" will to us (or they are only valued in so far as they can confirm/reinforce what's revealed in THE BOOK). The Scriptures are selectively mined for proof of the tenets/doctrines or prophetic interpretations of the Church. In other words, like the Pharisees of old, the form becomes much more important than the substance. And, sadly, many Christians never quite get around to living what the Bible teaches.

Some of my readers will recall a post that I did regarding the Christianity practiced by Jane Fonda. As someone who was previously seduced by THE BOOK, I can attest to the real value of this alternative view of Christianity - a Christianity rooted in action and experience. The article referenced above describes a faith that "is far more relational than doctrinal." This type of religion believes "that God is found in right relationships, not in right ideas." OR As the Apostle James expressed it, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (see James 1:27)

Is this a permission slip to turn one's back on traditional Christianity and its churches? Not at all. The author of the book of Hebrews said that there was real value in Christians coming together in community learning and worship. Paul said that Christians should be helping each other and lifting each other up when we fall (and we all fall down sometimes). I can attend the local Lutheran Church on Sunday and enjoy the message and the fellowship without absorbing the corporate mindset - the corporate religion. In other words, true Christianity is a state of mind - something that you can carry with you wherever you go or wherever you're at (whether sitting on a rock overlooking the Grand Canyon or standing in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome)!