Freedom From Religion

Bruce McGarvey is a friend from my high school days. We keep in touch via social media and have met up a couple of times in recent years just for fun. He introduced me to the greatest Western ever made – Lonesome Dove – and we’ve explored some of its qualities and characteristics.

Bruce is an atheist. He used to work for Madalyn Murray O’Hair. And at one time he was a member of the board of directors of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which was incorporated in 1978 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization. It has around 20,000 members and an annual budget of about a million dollars.

What might surprise you is that I, too, prize freedom from religion! When I was a student at Anderson College (1968-75), we had an annual “Religious Emphasis Week.” And by the time I returned as a faculty member, somebody had seen the problem with that and it had been changed to its current name, “Spiritual Emphasis Week.” A much better designation, in my humble opinion.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines religion:

·         “the belief in a god or in a group of gods

·         “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods

·         “an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group”

What the dictionary leaves out is that religion is a human construct – a manmade thing. God doesn’t create religion – people do! People choose to believe in a god. People organize systems of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules. People develop interests, beliefs, and activities. And in an interesting sort of way, I believe that Jesus himself proclaimed “freedom from religion.”

If you remember, the historical setting in which Jesus appeared was heavily religious. His own people, the Jews, were highly religious, with elaborate systems of belief, ceremonies, and rules. The Jews were subject to Imperial Rome, which had itself become a religious system, proclaiming that Caesar was a god and requiring Roman subjects to burn a pinch of incense once a year and utter, “Caesar is Lord.”

And it seems to me that Jesus was teaching and preaching against religion. Not against God or spirituality, but against religion. Listen to his words (Matthew 23:1-33 NRSV):

"Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi . . .

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves . . .

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.'”

I for one am deeply thankful to be free from that kind of religion! And, as a matter of fact, I’m glad to be free from all kinds of religion! For religion is a manmade thing. And history teaches us that all religion, however well intentioned, eventually becomes corrupt. Just look at history – most wars have been waged in the name of religion. Google “religious wars” if you’re not aware of this sad fact.

And so I call 21^st century disciplers to declare their freedom from religion and to swear loyalty only to Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. The Church of God-ers reading this will recognize the teachings of Daniel S. Warner when he declared his freedom from manmade religion and swore full allegiance only to God (sadly, I think the Church of God has followed the course of all other well-intentioned movements and has become little more than another religion, another denomination – but that’s a different topic!).

Hold onto these thoughts, because next week I’m going to continue exploring this important issue.