Recently, a caller to the local newspaper phoned in with a comment about faith and religion. I thought I would mention it here and critique it, because its contents reveal a common misunderstanding about Biblical Christianity.
The caller said: "I agree with the caller who said organized religion is responsible for more deaths in mankind's history than anything else combined. I believe in God, I pray every day, I teach my children about God, I just don't believe in religion."
Here are a few of my immediate thoughts:
1. No doubt "organized religion" has been the cause of much harm historically. And that is not a good thing at all. But, in the first place, this does not mean that all "organized religion" is to be dismissed with the same broad brush. Christians, for instance, have done wrongful and hurtful things in the name of Christianity. But this does not mean that Christianity should be dismissed. What it means is that those particular Christians who (mistakenly) advocated a hurtful thing in the name of Christianity should be dismissed. It's one thing if the entire "religion" advocates harm and another thing altogether if some adherents to a "religion" advocate harm mistakenly. Rather than dismissing Christianity, we need to stand up to the particular adherents that are in error and call them to account. And, in the second place, I would question the caller's claim that "organized religion is responsible for more deaths in mankind's history than anything else combined." Without doing the research, I would doubt very much that that is the case. Unless, of course, one speaks so broadly as to refer to EVERY belief system as an "organized religion" (including things like Nazism, Communism or Marxism, Paganism, Hedonism, etc.).
2. The caller makes absolutely no reference to Jesus Christ, whom the Bible states to be the only way to God. Belief in "God" in any other way besides through the person and work of Christ is a dead faith.
3. The caller advocates a "private" religion, one in which he/she can "believe," "pray," and "teach his/her children" but only on his/her own, without the evils of an organized religion. But the Bible says that there is no such thing as a private religion. The Bible explicitly teaches that all who believe in Jesus Christ are united to Christ and, therefore, united to everyone who is united to Christ themselves. In other words, the Bible explicitly teaches that Christians are, by definition, part of a corporate and "organized" BODY, the body of Christ. The Bible knows nothing of a private Christianity that simply stays within one's family. Instead, Christianity gives us a new family and commands us to gather together in organized assemblies. As John Calvin (and St. Augustine before him) was wont to say: we cannot take God as our Father without also taking the church as our mother!
What is that but "organized religion"?
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