A Fearful Excerpt

Religion attempts to take something as organic as relationship and force it into regulations and rules. It simply does not work. In A Heretics Guide to Eternity, Spencer Burke and Barry Taylor wrote:

For years, preachers have appealed to people to join the church and experience Christian salvation using this phrase, “It’s about relationship, not religion.” The only problem is that it’s seldom true. In actuality, the relationship promised by religion is usually predicated on commitment to the institution as much as it is to God. You don’t have to be in a church for long to figure out what the expectations are—whether it’s tithing, teaching Sunday school, praying, or going to confession—and what they expect you to believe becomes even more apparent.

They continue,

Rather than facilitating a dialogue between followers and God, the church has a tendency to interpret individuals’ relationships with God for them. Rather than responding to the call of God on their life directly, individuals often find themselves responding to the call of the church. What seems like obedience to the teachings of Christ is often adherence to external and dogmatic belief systems. This “false advertising” of sorts has no doubt also contributed to the interest in new spiritual paths. [i]

Relationships are as unique as the individuals involved. While there are certain foundational principles for genuine relationship – truth, grace, honesty, authenticity, patience, acceptance, etc. – there is no one pattern that will fit everyone. Religion can become a hammer that will drive any shaped peg into a square doctrinal hole.

---

[i] Spencer Burke and Barry Taylor, A Heretics Guide to Eternity (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006), p. 9.