WHY MODERN RELIGION IS IN TROUBLE

The history of the world’s religions is vast and multifaceted. Steeped in the good, the bad, and the ugly, religion has figured heavily in humanity’s evolution. Religions have come about as mankind has sought to find answers to life’s primary questions and its need to establish a place in the Divine’s firmament.

As the mysteries of our universe and the mind of man have been explored and answers found, questions still abound; no absolutes have been determined. From trying to establish where consciousness resides in the human form to whether humans are the sole sentient beings in the universe, there is no definitive, all-encompassing resolution.

To date, there are approximately 4,200 distinct religions in the world that cover an extraordinary diversity of beliefs, values, principles, rules, agendas, and goals. Adherents range from the in-name-only to the rabidly zealous. Then there are those who are anti-religious, atheist, and spiritual-but-not-religious.

All this diversity has caused an incredible variance in humanity’s search for meaning and fulfillment, as well as a sense of identity, cultural importance, societal placement, spiritual relevance, and religious dominance.

Unfortunately, what we’ve witnessed over the ages is tremendous divisiveness and destruction as religions have fought for preeminence. This has included dissension amongst their own ranks, which has led to splinter groups adhering to their own understandings and interpretations of sacred texts. Religious leaders have risen, gathering followers to their own brand of religion, some that have survived centuries and millennia, and others that have disappeared in a few generations.

Through it all, the same unresolved questions exist with people still trying to exert and enforce their version of religious “truth” upon others. For some, it’s a war of good against evil according to their definitions and rules concerning both, and how all of that is derived (usually firmly based on sacred writings and the declarations of religious leaders and authorities). For others, religion is based on ideals and virtues, the spirit of their religion.

One of the reasons the US was established by early settlers was the desire for religious freedom. Now, hundreds of years later, the US is home to almost every religion imaginable. Some have veered from the spirit of their religion and have fallen prey to the lust, greed, and vanity of their oh-so-human leaders and some members of their congregations.

Some examples:

Jesus with an AK-47
Religious leaders living in wealth while their congregants struggle
Using sacred texts to authorize and promote discrimination, hatred, violence, and killing

In tandem with that, a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that 29 percent of Americans identify as Christian nationalists. Two of the statements included in the survey stated:

The US should be declared a Christian nation.
God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.

This points to one disturbing aspect of today’s world: religion and its holy personages have been weaponized to satisfy not only the religious right, but have been interwoven with political, corporate, and capitalist agendas. Religious texts and beliefs have been distorted to manipulate people into giving their money, minds, and votes to people caught up in the need for ego-gratification and who covet power, wealth, control, position, and status.

What’s been left in the dust of this movement is religion’s originating principles of love, compassion, charity, humility, self-control, moral integrity, truthfulness, respect, and the Golden Rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Instead, what has taken over is the lust for power and supremacy — and everything that goes with it — acquired by any means. Vanity (ego) has mutated religion into a tool simply to satisfy egoic desires, to acquire status and fame, and as a means to employ demagoguery masquerading as sympathy, concern, and support. This has led to a truism by Lemuel K. Washburn, “Most men would kill truth if it would kill their religion.”

This exclusionary, suppressive, and destructive mindset that the US is dealing with is pervasive amongst a significant percentage of the population. Those individuals and groups are so deeply mired in their beliefs that trying to help them see a different perspective is fruitless and sometimes dangerous.

How to transform this situation is to realize upon what all of this is based, which is fear. So many fear that they’ll lose their jobs, their way of life, their status, privilege, and authority. They fear being:

displaced, marginalized, and discounted,
characterized as less than, unworthy, and undeserving,
unaccepted, misunderstood, and unloved,
unsuccessful, unacknowledged, and unrewarded,
wrong, manipulated, and abused, and
left behind, shut out, and forgotten.

Ultimately, they fear not surviving in life and having lived a meaningless existence. But most are completely unaware that this is what’s lurking underneath their worldview and mindset. So they resist and fight for what they believe is right and righteous.

How to turn this around is THE question — and there is no simple answer as this is a multifaceted and complicated situation. Martin Thielen, a former minister in the United Methodist Church and author of nine books on Christianity, says, “Don’t argue with religious right believers. You won’t change their mind. Instead, you will only upset yourself (and them) for no tangible benefit.” He has also stated, “Don’t nurse superior or arrogant attitudes toward religious right believers. You are not better than them. You just see the world differently.”

One helpful response is to not offer resistance, but find commonality and to come from the heart, not the mind. People are looking for connection. They’re also looking for answers and a way to resolve the conflicts besetting the US. They may be fully immersed in their mindset and beliefs, but few turn their backs on people responding authentically from their hearts.

Eric Jones in, his article “When Someone Won’t Respect Your Beliefs: Navigating Pushy Religious Conversations” for Thinking In Educating, wrote, “It’s tempting to retaliate by mocking their beliefs or launching into a debate about biblical contradictions. Resist this! Hostility fuels their narrative… Instead, stay calm and redirect.”

The idea is to not placate or patronize, but to acknowledge and validate, and to live the universal principles of love, compassion, charity, humility, self-control, moral integrity, truthfulness, respect, and the Golden Rule. These are not according to the fragile foibles of human beings — lust, greed, and vanity — but the higher consciousness of Divine Spirit.

Divine Spirit is none of the human attributes so many apply to It. Those are just the egoic projections of people wanting their way, wanting to be right, wanting authority, wanting power and control, wanting celebrity, and to be important. Essentially, they’ve made God in their own image.

Connection with one’s understanding of God, Divine Spirit, All-that-Is, or the universe is important to everyone. That connection is found in the heart, not in institutions, dogma, and blind adherence.

There are a number of core precepts shared by all religions: