In my last post I ended with the idea that organized religion is not the only choice Christians have to worship their God. While I believe this I think there is another key point to be made; most people need organized religion.Organized religion does a number of things very well. Organized religion plays a very important role in society and in an individuals personal interaction with other people.
Some quick bullets on the benefits of Organized Religion:
1. It teaches people how to behave in society; marriage counseling, grief counseling, addiction counseling, childcare counseling, etc.
2. It gives people a sense of community and belonging to something larger than themselves.
3. It helps feed the hungry, administer to the sick; it is a security blanket for people that are hurting.
In my experiences, especially with the last group I worked with, these three things are true about organized religion. I believe that 95% (this is an arbitrary percentage to emphasize the majority) of the people need something like organized religion in order to function properly in society. (The organized religion does not necessarily have to be Christian.) There are a lot of caveats with this that I don't have the time or space to talk about. So, you will have to do your own probing and research to see if you do in fact come to the same conclusion.
For the record I want to make it clear that I believe most people involved with organized religions need it. Organized religion keeps people honest, it teaches them how to live in a society, it cares for its members and in some cases even its non-members, and it provides people with a structure in which to live productive lives.
What about those of us that fall in the 5%? More later.
6 comments:
There definitely is a place for organized religion. I also believe that community is important. Belonging to a community gives us that standard of behavior, provides support and gives oppotunity to take care of others. It's interesting that the small towns of the past provided this and also had organized religion at its heart. The local church. What we need now is more community connection.
I think organized religion is a snare. They expected perfectionist and fulminate the rest of us.
(3 WOD used!... WOO HOO)
Isn't it interesting that we humans tend to make a "group" of everything?
Let's put our money together and make...banks.
Let's live together and make rules forming a...nation.
Let's pool our money in case one of gets sick and call it...insurance.
Hey, I didn't say EVERY group works out well!
I think it is just human nature to seek out a group in whatever we do, religion included.
Hey Theresa - Great comments about community and the past.
I agree with you. I think belonging to community, whether it is related to religion or society or whatever is a very positive thing.
Everyone close to me has exhibited emotions and thoughts that make it fairly obvious that they need to feel like they are an important part of ____ (fill in the blank). Heck, I feel this way all the time.
Am I impacting life in a positive way? Am I making a difference?
Austin pointed this out on one of his comments from a different post. We all play a small part in the big picture.
I think community can help us feel confident that our part actually does mean something.
Thanks!
Bro - organized religion has a role in life. Maybe not yours or mine, but it does have an important role in the lives of a lot of people.
Catch ya later!
Franklin - I agree man. I think most people feel like they need to be included in something larger than themselves (me included).
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