The Religion We Really Need.

[rug]

December 29, 2014 by James Ford

I see that it was on this day in 1170 that Thomas Becket, one time tool of the king Henry II, and later thorn in his side in an interesting if generally antique argument over the relationship between church and state where neither were particularly concerned for the actual people under the thumb of state & church died a bloody death, possibly following a casual remark from the king.

At the same time on my Facebook feed I noticed an article about the rise of the new atheism linked and with a comment by a liberal Christian minister, fellow Pacific School of Religion alumni. The comment lamented the general decline of religious sensibilities within our North American culture, a popular rumination among my clergy colleagues of most all theological stripes.

Me, I’m not so sure there’s anything wrong in the decline of religion. Assuming there is such a thing going on, a fact I’m not entirely sure about. There appears to be a decline in church going, but we Americans seem to continue to be among the most religious of peoples. For the most part it seems we’re just rejecting the old brands…

I’ve said elsewhere that as I see it too much of religion is about social control.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2014/12/the-religion-we-really-need.html

[cbayer]

1. Worth the read. Hope is a good thing

and I love the description of the religion that we need.

We need to see our deep connections on the biggest possible scale, that includes us as biological creatures, and how we live within a mysterious web where “I” am transient but also precious, and completely a part of something larger, actually several somethings larger.