God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
- C. S. Lewis
I was born a heretic. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
- Susan B. Anthony, U.S. reformer and suffragist
MIDDLE EAST, February 4, 2012—Looking back at my spiritual journey, it is obvious to me now that I listened to two masters: religion and Jesus – in that order, for a long time in my life and it just didn’t work. Roman Catholicism taught me to do – when my eyes finally turned upon Jesus, he taught me to be.
Free.
But religious bondage claimed a chunk of my life; naturally I broke free at the first available opportunity. From the rat race that is Indian society, I relocated as a foreign student on a fateful weekend to Los Angeles, in the prime of my youth. Having escaped from the religious supervision of parents and mentors, I dropped all pretence of religiosity. Turning godless and sensual, it was easy to embrace the heady distractions of life in California. It didn’t take too long to acquire a ‘get rich quick’ attitude either, that readily compromised all the values learned in my sheltered childhood.
Only much later would the realisation come that the shackles of impiety can be as durable as the chains of programmed piety.
Real freedom would only come much later, with the gift of saving grace and faith – not a return to religion.
Amy Julia Becker, author of Why I am Both Spiritual and Religious, addresses the problem of soul-draining stress amidst life’s chaos and strength, by urging us to become both spiritual and religious. Becker claims true peace and solutions for life can be found in drawing on the strengths of both spiritual practices and religious doctrines and disciplines.
What troubles me about religious people, is their certainty about their belief system. They easily overlook its history and serious flaws; they don’t have perfect knowledge about spiritual matters at their disposal, but they can act very sure.
I discovered one can be sure about Christ, – Christianity is another matter.
Raised in an organized religion, Becker’s dual formula clearly didn’t work for me, what thankfully did work was repentance, forgiveness and the two edged sword of the inspired Word (Hebrews 4:12). Its surgical promise is real – it divided my soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judged the thoughts and attitudes of my heart.
Let me encourage you to ignore the cliché, – to be ‘born again’ is the most incredible privilege given to human beings. Just don’t take anyone’s word for it – investigate if it is real.
But there is a divinely designed dichotomy – our bodies are engineered for two kinds of nourishment – physical and spiritual. For a long time the physical dominated my senses, overcome only gradually as the transformation of rebirth broke the chains that bound me. Interestingly, overcoming my excessive love of food and an unbridled pursuit of wealth was part of the makeover.
Man indeed does not live by bread alone.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “...an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
This was an occasion for Jesus to encourage people like her to be more religious; perhaps one of the many opportunities to hint at a grand world religion he planned to establish, but he did none of that.
Nowhere does Jesus point to religious behaviour as important or essential. Instead by his teaching and example, Jesus spelt it out in John 15:12 – “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus declared that was his commandment – he did not order any preferred religious conduct.
Michael H Hart, American Christian astronomer, mathematician, lawyer, chess master and scientist, ranks the world’s greatest men with respect to their influence on human history in his 572-page book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (New York, 1978, p 33).
For the second time Hart has ranked the Prophet Muhammad as the most influential man in human history.
That is debatable, but Hart is spot on when he writes: "Muhammad had a much greater personal influence on the formulation of the Muslim religion than Jesus had on the formulation of the Christian religion.” The book places Muhammad in the No 1 position, Isaac Newton as No 2 and Jesus as No 3.
Hart’s mistake is to name Christ as the founder of Christianity, a religion formulated not by the humble Gallilean, but by those who seized the opportunity to establish religious authority in his name.
A recent post by ‘Oudemia’, one of the readers of this column, inadvertently provides evidence that religion can be addictive. He writes: “I love religion but have no interest in Jesus. Religion is fun! I just plain like churchy stuff. I like doctrine too as a conceptual amusement park: true or false it's interesting--and I don't feel any obligation to believe it. Religion is fun. And organized religion is vital to keep the buildings up. I reject the ethics, I detest the Bible and I don't care for Jesus: I like religion.
“And religion understood in this way is one of the good things in life. Rituals are pleasurable. The buildings and their furnishings, the art and fancy dress, make the world a more interesting place. The theology is full of intriguing intellectual puzzles that are fun to play with. And the institution is important because without "organized religion" you don't have the money or administrative personnel to maintain the buildings and do the ceremonies--or produce the art and music--which are the essence of religion. Religion is fun: we need more of it.”
Christianity, with over two billion followers may indeed be the largest religion in the world, but Christ made it clear – many are called, but few are chosen. His true followers do not believe in a religion, and his popularity cannot be measured on that man-made basis.
Frank Raj is based in India and the Middle East where he has lived for over three decades. He is the founding editor & publisher of ‘The International Indian’ (www.theinternationalindian.com) the oldest magazine of Gulf-Indian society and history since 1992. Frank is co-author of the upcoming publication ‘Universal Book of the Scriptures,’ and author of ‘Desh Aur Diaspora.’ He blogs at: www.no2christianity.wordpress.com
Read more of Frank's work in No 2 Religion, Yes 2 Faith in the Communities at the Washington Times.
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