Once in a while the realization that the human religious enterprise is seriously flawed comes crashing in on me.
I wish I could say that realization came to me only once in awhile. It’s kind of a daily occurance. Especially lately. And it usually starts with me. Some thought will go through my head that stems directly from old habits that just won’t die, and I remember how screwed up we all are. Even though we tout our religions as something to fix everything, it’s still all screwed up.
nakedpastor says some really great things. True things. But some really hard things. Things we don’t want to hear. I haven’t found a Christian this honest about the state of Christian hearts in a long time.
I don’t think we can escape our religious impulses or the communal expression of these impulses. But we have to confess that for the most part we are the gathering of hypocrites. I sound severe, but I am only saying this because I know myself well enough to say it.
During this Christmas season it is good to applaud expressions of good will. However, we all know (please, don’t we?) that we only need to lightly scratch the righteous surface to find the dirt. We are prize specimens of the art of veneer. This can’t be helped. But let’s admit it! It’s like I told someone years ago who had committed a horrible, shall we say, “sin”. It wasn’t days after his confession and repentance that he was already back on his feet and ready to go again. I said he was like a cat! But we are all like cats. We all have learned how to land on our feet. It’s uncanny! Maybe it should be so. But can we at least admit it? That’s what I’m asking.
I truly think that if we could just admit our inevitable tendency towards hypocrisy and our finely-honed skill at readjusting that it would take the religious pretension out of our personal and corporate lives. Yesterday I came home from church reassured again that we are not interested in the renewal of the mind, but only in the rearranging of its thoughts. We will acquire new thoughts and toss old ones, only if it will serve our unconscious and hidden selfish agendas. We are only interested in renovation, not re-creation. Again, this is our human and religious tragedy. But can we at least admit it?
Pretty much.
