Are you religious? Why, or why not? These are simple questions that every Christian needs to ask them self before some one else does, especially a non-christian. Religion has always been a taboo subject in polite conversation within mainstream society and even now the word "religious" has begun to carry with it deeply negative connotations within Christian communities. I've heard both Timothy Keller and Mark Driscoll say to their respective mega-churches that Jesus was extremely "anti-religious". Without a doubt, Jesus had most of His disputes with "religious leaders" for they "load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Luke 11:46) However, Scripture is quick to correct our view of what religion is supposed to be as it says in James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Just before this verse James makes another profound comment on religion that I love, and that is "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless." It is this very dichotomy of religiosity that brings me to the point of this blog post.
In the preface to Mere Christianity, C.S Lewis writes that "When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object; it only tells you about the speaker's attitude to that object." The context of Lewis' preface is a description of the common folly of people to destroy the meaning of a word by twisting the way in which it is used. He uses the word "Christian" as his main example. The word Christian means someone who "accepts the common doctrines of Christianity", yet there are many people who protest this by saying "Who are you to lay down who is and who is not a Christian?" or "Aren't there plenty of people who don't believe these doctrines yet are far more truly a Christian, for closer to the spirit of Christ, than someone who does?" I guarantee you we have all heard this before, or maybe even thought it ourselves. However, Lewis says this objection is very "spiritual, sensitive, and charitable" yet it is anything but "useful". The term "Christian" is not supposed to be used by means of giving praise but rather for describing who someone truly is based on a set definition. There are no shortage of people who claim to be Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist who do not follow any of the practices of their religion, nor do they even know what the specific doctrines are that set their religion apart from any other. This leads to my current struggle with language in so far as I use it to define myself to others.
When I talk to people on set about my faith one of the main questions I always get is, "Are you really religious?" The fact that people often qualify the word "religious" with "really" or "very" is a problem as well because it implies that you could be "moderately" or "sort of religious". As much as I hate to get legalistic or black and white when it comes to any issue, this is one of those topics that has frustrated me enough to the point where I need, or rather strongly desire, an answer. Am I religious? Well, I do religious things. Do I help out widows and orphans very often? Not really. Do I weigh people down with heavy burdens then refuse to lift a finger to help them? Not at all. Do I pray? YES. Do I attend Church regularly? YES. Do I take part in the sacraments? YES. Do I tithe? YES. Do I love God and His people? I sure try.
What I have come to accept about religion is that it can actually replace the God to whom it was meant to lead us. Marc Driscoll likens the relationship between God and religious folks to a yard in which we are allowed to play in as God's children. God put up a fence at the end of the yard so that we don't run out into the street and get hit by a car. Religious people look at the fence and say "Well, that's a pretty good start but lets put up another bigger fence just before God's fence so that no one even thinks about jumping over God's fence." Then they question whether their first fence was good enough so they build another, and another, until what started out as a yard for us to play in has turned into a prison. That's what religious people do, apparently.
To mainstream, American society, the religious people are the ones who hate the gays, advocate for censorship, are uptight, rude, prudish people who judge everything and everyone as less enlightened than themselves and who want everyone to conform to their exact moral system and way of life. When someone asks me on set, "Are you religious?" they are asking me if I'm like that. How do I answer that? I believe my religion is the true religion, but so does every other religious person. I want to be able to proudly declare that I am of the Christian Religion, but I am not proud of what the christian religion has done to so many people in the world. I do religious things out of a desire to grow closer to God, but I do not want to be identified with "religious people". It's such a difficult place for me to be. I'm not sure that once the utility of a word has been destroyed that it can ever become useful again, or at least useful in the way it was originally meant to be. Instead, now when people ask me "Are you religious?" I have to ask them what they mean by that. Maybe that's actually better in a way...Maybe that's how we get to describe our faith even more than if it was clear to all people everywhere what it meant to be religious. I still think we need to answer for ourselves what religion looks like in our lives and truly define what it is we believe. If we can't explain it to ourselves than how will we ever explain it to someone else? We have to make "religious" a useful word again, if only for our personal sanity/clarity.
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