Another Pleasant Valley Sunday?

I thought that today might be a good day to review what Logos says about "religion." It, like one of my vaccinations, won't take very long, but "This may hurt a little bit."

There are only four verses to consider. To get the context the dear reader will have to do it her/him self..or you could borrow the ferret's elf (Satchel)

Acts 26:5 Paul to his captors--
"They have known me for a long time. If they want to,they can tell you I was a good Pharisee. And the Parisees obey the laws of the Jewish religion more carefully than any other group."

Gal 1:13 -- 14 "You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I attacked the Church of God and tried to destroy it. I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion, doing better than most other Jews my age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the teachings handed down by our ancestors."

James 1:26 -- 27 "People who think they are religious but say things they should not say are just fooling themselves. Their' 'religion' is worth nothing. Religion that God accepts as pure and without fault is this: caring for orphans and widows who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world's evil influence."

This is taken from Strong's Concordance. Please note that the comment from James, Jesus' half brother, is the only really positive reference and it refers to doing good works, which is in counterpoint to what Paul says in his letters. Elsewhere in James, he says: "You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? So you see that people are made right with God by what they do, not by faith only. Just as a person's body that does not have a spirit is dead, so faith that does nothing is dead!" But he also said the next chapter, "For we all offend in many ways. If people never said anything wrong, we would be perfect able to control their entire selves, too." (not likely)

I would further observe that the definition of James is very general one and could apply to virtually any religion, since there are mandates for beneficent behavior and self-improvement in all religions, that is probably their most prominent earmark and commonality. Certainly it would apply to the Jewish religion as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity per se as generally defined by the majority of people. In fact if you ask most Christians, that is, self -- designated followers, why they think they are going to heaven, they will be rather uncertain and propose that they hope that their good deeds will outweigh the bad ones or something of that sort. This is what one could generally describeby the word, "Karma." Here I am not speaking of hairsplitting doctrines but of what all religions have in common, and I would include atheism, which has recently become rather evangelical, which seeks to judge other religions by their offenses, and even can be seen proposing certain types of charitable works of their own devising. Camus certainly identified in every man the strong propensity towards self-justification which appears to be ingrained in our very nature. This could explain, for instance, why Jean-Paul Sartre joined the Communist brigades. And as scientists have observed, religion and religious responses to life are virtually universal and hardwired. As Bob Dylan said, "You're Gonna Serve Somebody."

It is considered quite modern to speak of "spirituality," rather than "religion"-- which seems to have become a rather offensive word. This certainly has some biblical precedent. If one looks up spirit or Holy Spirit in the concordance there are pages and pages of references, even or especially in the Old Testament,where religion doesn't even appear as a term. I would tend to look at this as a rather hopeful development and certainly a far cry from, "Gimme that old time religion." Given the fact that our nation seems to be split into Pharisees and Sadducees neither of whom will cooperate with each other, it may be time to reconsider our religious/political dualisms. Axes of evil , axes to grind?

I mentioned immunizations in the first paragraph. It is quite possible that when we take up a religion or, "the Church of our Choice," that we are in fact getting a vaccination against the real thing. Richard Dawkins has proposed that the belief in God is similar to a virus that has been inserted into our genomes and yet can be somehow eradicated by science/education. But the "antibiotic"campaign that Dawkins et.al. are carrying on is not nearly as effective as a simple vaccination of self-righteousness or group -- righteousness. As The Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov demonstrates, it really doesn't take much to neutralize the impact of Christ, as a person, by broad strokes of the swords of religious actions. I would maintain that this happens more often than not. Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of "Punch" makes this point very well in his little book, "The End of Christendom" I think Dostoevsky, himself a self-designated Christian, used skeptical Ivan's tale to point out in all its starkness the difference between a religion and a person. Jesus, in other words, is not inherently a religion, even though we try to immunize ourselves against his pernicious numinous influence by making him into an idol--and an American idol at that. "I don' care if it rains or freezes long as I gots my plastic jesus, sittin' on the dashbord of my car........." Or as Flannery O'Connor intimated in "Wise Blood," the honest Haze Motes church-without-Christ is certainly not about Jesus but comes down to the worship of the car itself, the only salvation Haze wants-or gets. Y nosotros de nostrums?

The Misfit's final words to the old gal before he offs her "fit" here:

"Yes'm," the Misfit said as if he agreed, "Jesus thrown everything off balance--If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can--by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness," and his voice had become almost a snarl.

And then?

"Some fun!" Bobby Lee said.

"Shut up, Bobby Lee," the Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in life."

Have a Nice Day!