Your Label is Crooked

*Disclaimer: I know this subject could trigger some things for some people, for many reasons. I’m asking that you please try to hold off on those triggers and consider the reason for the article.*

“Thou Shalt Conform!” This has been the rallying cry of religion since before recorded history. It does not matter who or what the focal point of the religion is – it amounts to the expectation that you will do as you are told. So is there a difference between religion and faith? I’m sure there are people who believe that they automatically go together. For some people, they might be just different ways of saying the same thing, but is that the case? I have certainly known religious people who had no faith and were not in any way actually spiritual, and I have known some exceptionally spiritual people who were in no way religious, so before we talk about these words let’s try to tease them apart.

(Let me just point out here that I am not presenting a defense of religion or faith in this discussion, although of course my personal beliefs will inform my comments. The purpose of this discussion is simply to examine the relationship between these constructs, and the impact that has on how we live, and on the people around us.)

It would take far too long to unpack everything about these terms, so for the purpose of this discussion I am going to define them in this way:

Religion is the fence around spirituality and faith. It is a system of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that is intended to organize, define, and guide people who share similar beliefs in a divine being. (John D. MacDonald’s famous character, Travis McGee, refers to organized religion as being marched in formation to look at the sunset. I like that one…)

Faith is the belief in something that cannot be verified. Most of us go to sleep at night with faith that we will wake up again, but in truth that is a likelihood, not a guarantee. For this discussion we are focusing on faith as the belief that there is a God who has a significant place in determining what we hold as important and how we live.

Even just trying to create a starting place of common ground and understanding is difficult for this subject matter…

For myself, I believe in Jesus Christ, but I am gun shy about the word Christian, because it has come to carry such a negative bias for so many people. Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians”. I have been judged by stereotype by those who have come to associate Christianity with hypocrisy, violence, and abuse, but I have also been judged by religious people for not conforming enough, and I don’t like either one. And guess what? Jesus was not a fan of religion either. He instead taught that we should “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself”, and the only time we know of that he lost his temper was with the religious leaders of his day. Is religion all bad? Of course not, but when we are too caught up in the rules and regulations of religion to live out Jesus’ example of love and acceptance, then it becomes a problem. That is when we who identify as Christians begin to exclude and condemn people who do not match our idea of what is acceptable. Now, please, make no mistake – whether or not you believe in a higher power, you should still treat others with love and acceptance. It should be a given that all people deserve to be shown equal consideration, and I will be writing about that more specifically in another article, but that is not where this discussion is pointed. This discussion is about how religion can actually keep us from loving others by getting caught up in enforcing rules and pointing fingers. The world does not need more religious people, but it could certainly use more people who are full of faith, and as a wise man once said, what the world needs now is love, more love.