Religions“He is risen, he is not here.” — Mark 16:6

Jeanine and I went to church yesterday… it was an Easter thing. Church is always a strange experience for me because as adults, neither of us has been faithful to a particular belief. Jeanine was raised Catholic and I attended an Assemblies of God church throughout most of my youth. Years later, Jeanine continues to run from guilt and I just run… as fast as I can.

But with children in our future, it forces us to have meaningful conversations about religion and so we dabble from time to time. We both like the Episcopal Church but even there I have a difficult time being a believer as I listen to the homily.

I feel more agnostic in my belief system and often, when questioned about life after death have responded in similar fashion to Sanjaya Belattiputta, contemporary of Gautama Buddha: “When asked whether life continues after death, he is said to have replied that it might and it might not, refusing to speculate any further.”

So I’m agnostic at my core but Jeanine said this view would scare the hell out of our child. I guess I have to fake it the next 18 years… hence, the reason for trying to find a church. We tried this teeny, tiny Episcopal church in our neighborhood. The 8:00 AM service had 14 people there. I counted everyone including the four people running the service. As the usher collected our offerings, I wondered how could this place possibly financially exist… this is where my thoughts wandered. It’s an easier question to ponder than if Jesus really rose from the dead.

Phil Ruthven in the Business Review Weekly had similar thoughts. “The business done in God’s name is more than $10 billion, of which going to church and giving money to it account for less than 10%. If the total amount spent on religion is falling, how are the various denominations fighting for their share of the market?”

“The real worry these days is fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism, as ably discussed by Karen Armstrong in her seminal book The Battle for God. If we think that only Islamic fundamentalism is a problem, it is worth examining Christian and Jewish fundamentalism. The extremists not only corrupt the core philosophies of their religions, but can cause death, destruction and economic upheaval. This might be one reason why fewer people are taking on religious occupations. In 1954, the Catholic Church was ordaining 25 secular priests per million Catholics. Today’s intake is one-tenth of that rate.”

“One of the interesting developments of the past century has been a change in the application of charity, once the domain of churches, religious organisations and general do-gooders. Now, more than 90% of charity is provided by the general populace through taxes: disaster relief (floods, fires and so on), the dole, single-parent support, aged and disability pensions, and many other forms. A big part of the business of religion, as distinct from church attendance, has been nationalized and made part of the fabric of modern society.”

So what is the role of church in our society? Is it to provide a moral framework in the lives of children. That’s why we want to attend but I didn’t see any kids on Sunday. Perhaps, they were coming to the 10:00 AM service. The bulletin mentioned something about an Easter egg hunt to follow.