Late night TV comedy and the internet continue to push hard to expel religion, which many see as toxic, from modern life. They reason that a world without religion would be a peaceful place where all could live up to their potential. A place where logic and reason rule, causing superstition to disappear.
Talk about being delusional.
A quick glance at history turns up Stalin's atheistic experiment that murdered millions and Hitler's racist Reich that had no use for Christian principles - "Christianity is an invention of sick brains" as he once famously said.
So civilization's problem isn't religion, but evil hiding behind the veneer of religious practice. Evil that creeps into the folds of religion and infects it with human selfishness and pride.
I tend to oversimplify, but it seems that all valuables have a corresponding counterfeit. One's true relationship with the Supreme Being should be the goal of religion. But religion has become an end unto itself, like a gigantic government that once began in order to benefit the public, but now merely protects its own existence.
Therefore, we have toxic religion. So, what is this toxic religion? What distinguishes it from true faith?
It's summed up in Jesus' statement, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27 NIV). The Pharisees' hard hearts and slavish attention to man made religious details caused them to forget compassion for people.
Religious ideals should lead people to a healthier relationship with God and with fellow human beings. Religion that leads in the opposite direction is toxic.
It's this toxic form of religion that's now the butt of jokes and draws the ire of thinking people worldwide.
So how can one be a Christian without being religious (in the toxic sense)? By focusing on one's relationship to the Father. And by serving others in love (See James 1:26-27).
Both of these objectives demand prayer. And they demand that our churches become "houses of prayer" and loving harbors for shipwrecked people. We can't continue to ignore the great Biblical themes of love, compassion and spiritual formation without paying the price of becoming toxic.
It's time to drop the religious pretense and be authentic. Authentic believers in a risen Lord who cares about all humanity. Authentic believers who are willing to risk it all to serve Him and the people He created.
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him... Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another." (1 John 4:8-11 NIV).
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