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“Religion: any system of beliefs, practices, ethical
values, etc., resembling, suggesting of, or likened to such a
system.” –
Webster’s New World Dictionary
That’s what you get when you
look for religion in the dictionary, anyway. Webster suggests other
meanings, each about as helpful.
The battles in the Episcopal
Church over the confirmation of an openly gay bishop and the
blessing of gay unions should have been a great opportunity to
explore the true meaning of God, faith, and religion, an angle lost
in sideshows about conservatives, liberals, and schisms. The real
story is about nothing less than the meaning of life, a topic
apparently a bit meaty for most of the media.
Besides, circuses are in
style. I suppose only so many reporters can follow Arnold
Schwarzenegger around California covering the gubernatorial recall;
the rest have to pull a paycheck somehow. Unfortunately, the
situation in the Episcopal Church deserves better than the P.T.
Barnum treatment.
So let’s do it here. First
question: What is God?
Answer: He is what he is.
Let me illustrate. I, for
instance, am 6 feet 1 inch tall and weigh 190 pounds. I am
Caucasian, have brown (OK, graying) hair which I am slowly losing,
and am 48 years old. I am not a 7 foot, twenty-something basketball
star, much as I may wish otherwise. Nor am I a complete dolt, as my
email occasionally suggests. I am what I am, regardless of what I
or anyone else might think.
Few would argue that, though
we have a hard time extending the same courtesy to God. We think
him – or her or it – to be what we think him to be, therefore he
is. In this school, the Bible’s teaching on morality may seem clear
but it’s really open to interpretation, or at least outdated.
If God were giving his word
today he’d surely scratch a few commandments; why would a loving God
would want to be a cosmic killjoy? We wouldn’t, so it’s awfully
tempting to remake God in our image. However, a God that really
exists is there for us to discover, not define.
Second question: What is
faith? Answer: Faith is believing in something you can’t see.
This is a tough one for those
of the I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it school. I appreciate the
sentiment and hold to it myself when it comes to human endeavors,
but in a larger sense it is the lowest form of understanding. A dog
believes what it sees; people were given the power to explore,
reason, and yes, believe what can’t be seen.
Belief in the unseen is an
article of faith in science, oddly enough. Black holes, the big
bang, evolution, and countless other theories are taken as gospel
truth by people who demand the equivalent of parlor tricks from
God. I’m not sure why this is so, but I suspect it’s because
science won’t get in the way of one’s way of life.
Last question: What is
religion? Answer: The dictionary is right, or getting perilously
close.
The root of the struggle in
the Episcopal Church and others is that many people have come to see
religion, like Webster, as a hodgepodge of beliefs and values, or
something “resembling” it. They select their beliefs like they’d
buy a shirt: Pick a suitable style then grab one that fits.
The leadership of the
Episcopal Church has chosen fashion, and in doing so may lose the
large chunk of their membership that aims higher. They would have
at least been more honest had they not also covered themselves with
the Bible, but like God and the rest of us, they are what they are.
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