Communicating Authentically

I’m not religious, but I’m not an atheist, exactly.

I left the church, but mostly because the church left me.

I was raised Catholic, so my faith tradition is based on Jesus Christ. But I’m not a “Christian” in the sense of how most people, including most Christians, view it today.  My worldview is evolving, but mostly because the world is changing.

Lately, people are blaming the COVID pandemic for “the Great Resignation”: the worldwide trend of people leaving their jobs in the search of something better. People have been leaving the Christian church for decades, and I think it’s connected.

It’s because the “carrot and stick” approach to motivation no longer works. People are no longer incentivized by the promise of some future reward (the elusive dangling carrot), or the threat of punishment (the stick) if they fail. People today are inspired by purpose, a sense of being connected with others and contributing to something bigger than themselves.

Bishop John Shelby Spong explained in an interview why he why he doesn’t believe in hell. “Religion is always in the … guilt-producing control business,” he says, “and if you have heaven as a place where you’re rewarded for your goodness and hell as a place where you’re punished for your evil, then you sort of have control of the population.”

Which explains why so many angry people attend churches that correspond with their prejudices. I’m sure there is some satisfaction in being told that the people who make you uncomfortable are going to hell, while you’ll be going to heaven because you believe in the “right” things. There are a lot of hurt, lost, confused people whose earth-bound lives have felt like hell, and it must be a momentary comfort to hear that you aren’t required to do anything with your life, or change your thinking, or be kind. You just need to say, “I accept Jesus as my personal savior,” to the administrator of the celestial country club, and you’ll get your reward when you die.

As Groucho Marx said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”

Life is so full, and there are immeasurable choices in this world. Why stay in a situation where you’re punished for being human; where you have to wait until you die to be rewarded for being good?

It occurs to me that the whole focus on salvation through the death of Jesus Christ is everything that’s wrong with Christianity, and frankly, anti-Christian. If you read Christ’s words, he is not calling us to be in a death cult. He calls us to live life more fully: to be a part of something larger than ourselves; to love and care for others. If I focus on Jesus’ LIFE as the way and the truth, I am called to:

• Give to the poor (Mark 10:21)
• Feed the hungry (Matthew 14:15-21)
• Care for those who are ill in body, mind and spirit (Matthew 9:35)
• Visit those who are in prison (Matthew 25:36)
• Welcome the outcast (Luke 7:36-50)
• Condemn the hypocrite (Matthew 23:13-15)
• Drive corruption out of the church (Mark 11:15-17)
• Pay my fair share of taxes (Mark 12:13-17)

Focusing on his death, specifically believing Jesus died to take away my sin, seems to engender an attitude that I now can take credit for all the wonderful things Christ did and called the rest of us to do, without actually having to do any of them.

It also makes us focus on our own death, or on what will happen after we die, rather than our lives. Jesus himself said surprisingly little about the afterlife. What Jesus did say is, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) – possibly one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible. It seems so clear. Focus on his life, not his death. Do the things he did.

In a clip from a sermon, Bishop Spong says, “You and I are emerging people, not fallen people. Our problem is not that we are born in sin. Our problem is we do not yet know how to achieve being fully human. The function of the Risen Christ is not to rescue the sinners, but to empower you and to call you to be more deeply and fully human than you’ve ever realized there was the potential within you to be. Maybe salvation needs to be conveyed in terms of enhancing your humanity rather than rescuing you from it.”

I don’t believe I’m meant to be saved. I’m meant to be spent.

I don’t believe in a bearded man somewhere in the universe who keeps a record of our good deeds and transgressions. That’s Santa Claus. I believe that what we call “sin” is a disconnection from God, who is the source of all love. I believe that when we allow selfish interests to distance ourselves from each other, or from the true core of who we are, we hurt ourselves and others.

I don’t believe in a judgmental, cruel, or vindictive God, as the ancient Hebrews did. They also believed the sun revolved around the earth, ritual sacrifice of animals and a whole lot of weird purity rules. I don’t believe in a God that destroys people who do bad things. I believe that people destroy themselves when they do bad things.

I don’t believe that God has a face, or a hand, or sex organs, or a gender. Even if humans were “created in God’s image,” it only means we are sentient beings capable of transcendent love.

God, to me, is the power behind everything in the universe, connecting each of us to everything else in the universe, through true, unimaginable, boundless, and joyful love. A binary, good vs. evil, black and white view doesn’t correspond with the complex and beautiful spectrum I know life to be.

As the rainbow is pure light refracted, we exist within that spectrum. And I have seen the subtle shifts in hue that turns fear to wonder, frustration to acceptance and laughter to love. These are connections to the divine. There is where we find who we truly are.