What is religion about?
My heart is heavy this morning because of a collision of many factors. I wonder what exactly is the heart of religion? What is the point? What does God want from us?
I received an email from a faithful Catholic that began, “In my life one of the greatest sources of grief and sadness has been to watch friends and family members fall away from the practice of the Catholic faith.” I wish I had his life. I sometimes wish I did not know the things I know about the world.
I have traveled around the world, helping missionaries in developing nations help the people they serve stave off starvation and try to get out of the abject poverty that grinds them into the dust. (The photo to the right is one I took recently in a clinic in Haiti.) I read in the paper this morning two news articles. The New York Times reported: “Idaho: Death Penalty in Kidnapping and Murder Case.” The story ended, “Jurors viewed a videotape Mr. Duncan had made of his sexually abusing, torturing and hanging Dylan.” This grieves me to my core. What is the world like that created such a person? And what must it have been like to see this videotape? And in what way does killing one more person do anything but make the world more murderous?
Closer to home, the Belleville News-Democrat informs me of the case against the Catholic Diocese of Belleville that has just resulted in a 5 million dollar settlement against the Diocese from a man who had been sexually abused by a priest after the diocese had known of multiple similar allegations against him and yet transferred him without warning his new parishes. In the Church’s defense, “Former Belleville Bishop Gregory says key documents about sex abuse were kept from him.” Testimony revealed that an official of the diocese “knew about detailed reports that Kownacki [the priest in question], had raped a 16-year-old girl and aborted her fetus with his hands,” but did not tell the new bishop.
Now I am really sad. First, sad for these victims. Then sad for those involved who now must see how their actions contributed to the problem.
With a world like this, it is difficult for me to place people leaving the practice of the Catholic faith” at the top of my grief list. Perhaps the email I received wanting to start a “Society of Saint Monica” to pray for these wayward souls was simply exaggerating for the sake of making a point, but it leads me to ask the question, What does God care most about?
I don’t think it is which Church you go to on Sunday, though I think, in general, that whole-hearted participation in a faith community is a main source of grace for most people. I would even agree with my fellow Catholics that our Church has the “fullness of grace” that is lacking elsewhere; but I believe that the point of participating in a faith community is to prepare us for the real work God cares about–transforming the world.
What does God want from us? To help in the transformation of the world in accord with God’s plan. The most important things about this transformed world is that no one will be starving to death, no one will be kidnapped or tortured or murdered, because with God’s help good people will make sure these things do not happen. This is what religion is about.
I think there is something here for everyone to take issue with, and I welcome the comments. But if you do comment, please don’t just tear my ideas apart. Please tell me what you think religion is really about. I want to know.
Scott Steinkerchner in charge of the worldwide internet development efforts of his religious congregation, the Dominicans, and is an adjunct professor of interreligious theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. He has a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College with a specialization in inter-religious dialogue, and is a Catholic priest. 
Scott, a short time ago, I wrote the following to a friend who I first met in the first grade of a Catholic School. I think it best describes how I feel about religion in general and about the Catholic Church in particular. I was taught by secular priests and an order of nuns, then by the brothers of the Holy Cross and finally by Jesuits. I was taught by the best the RCC has to offer.
Carolyn this may disappoint you but I do not belong to any organized religion, in fact while I know there are many good ministers, I am suspicious of them in general. The higher up the ladder of their religion they are, the more I don’t trust them. This is especially true of the Catholic religion we were raised in. I believe that the true measure of a person is how that person treats other people, how they treat other living beings and how they treat the world we live in. I believe that if a person treats the above with respect and if they somehow influence the world for the betterment of all, they will be all right when they leave this world. I believe that a dollar given for the betterment of a person, an animal or the world in general is more sacred than a dollar placed in the collection plate of a church and especially better than a dollar placed in the hands of a large church. Having said that, I can identify with Christ but I cannot believe that Christ would be able to identify with much of organized religion of today and he would be especially appalled at the Catholic organization which claims to be his only true representatives.
Ultimately, religion is not about anything at all. It is the Faith behind the religious practice that matters to the Cosmic, to the human, to the Earth, to the church. Religious practice of any type is a cultural artifact. Social anthropologists have known this for over a century or a little more. What matters is what I do with, for and around YOU. A Jesuit priest once told us when were young men that God has no hands or feet. WE are God’s hands and feet. Whatever God is ever going to do in the human realm, depends completely on us. Whatever He is going to do in the realm of the Universe apparently depends on gavity, gamma rays and super nova. Religion is just an outward sign of an inward yearning. Of itself, it has no merit, none at all. But if it reflects our Faith in a genuine manner it is very good. If it is practice to some unseen force for the sake of practice, it is evil.
If religion is about achieveing a transformed world where, in Scott’s words, “no one will be starving to death, no one will be kidnapped or tortured or murdered” it has milestones that will not be achieved. We are not good.
Greg Bullough and IreneK, commenting on Sherry Tyree’s “Bishops to Pelosi: Stop misrepresenting church teaching against abortion” post have good points about abortion. If abortion is a moral issue, why is outlawing abortion not a moral issue? It seems we cannot do good without also doing evil. I think what religion is about is having a better relationship with God.
I can sum up my answer to ‘what is religion about’ by sharing two things:
Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (NASB)
The second is something that I believe is one of the great untold Religion stories of our time. I’m adding a video link to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance website. It shows a different view of the Gulf Coast since Katrina/Rita, and a different view of this particular denomination. In the name of full disclosure, I’ve been on two trips down there, and have two of those blue shirts in my dresser.
http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?v=y5h9i422
This is a heart wrenching sharing of an honest person, grappling with the problem of evil in the world and in the church. Unfortunately, we have come to a time in history, where people are going to have to make a distinction between ‘churchianity’ and Christianity. All of the correct and ennobling acts of Our Lord Jesus Christ are the ones to which we must turn. In other words, the Church and all its leaders must lead Christ like lives. Their lives must be Christ-centered. It is the example of lives changed by Christ that we see to live and to follow. “Come follow me” says Christ. The church has not done so. What does it profit the church if it gain the whole world and suffer the loss of its soul? If leaders’ lives are not Christ centered, no cathedral, no robes, no head count will help. Start thinking like Christ and you will bring a revolution of love, peace, sharing and brotherhood to this broken and sinful world. May God bless you in your journey. Fr. Henry+
hrh, your hate for the Church is obvious. Calling Catholics “kool-aid drinkers” is SOP for guys like you. The good that the RCC has done throughout the world probably cannot be calculated, but you would rather focus on the few priests that have done wrong. Because there has NEVER been a rabbi or a minister or a reverend that has ever done soemthing like that. No higher ups in the Jewish faiths or multitudes of Protestant faiths ever flew first class or drove around in a nice car.
You just hate the Catholic Church, plain and simple. But don’t apologize, instead try a little reflection and decide if what you stand for is accurate or misguided anger…