Organized Religion

The first word should give you a clue as to where I’m headed with this commentary. Organized religion is precisely that, and the more organized it becomes the more it moves away from the Spirit. It’s that II Cor. 3:6 principle in full bloom.

It’s bad enough when religion (name one) gives a name and explicitly makes the Creator a distinct being (can you feel the separation?) or person; however, when we “denominationalize” (I think that’s a word) God, we thoroughly build a box for God.

Oh yes, and then we say that God is everywhere (omnipresent).

John Shelby Spong used words that are just too true to not quote. He writes, “Organized religion always divides the world into warring camps. It separates the followers of ‘true’ religion from the followers of that which it judges to be false religion. It separates true believers from heretics, the clean from the unclean, the saved from the unsaved, the baptized from the un-baptized, and the circumcised from the uncircumcised.”

Dang that hurts to read that!

The GOOD NEWS is that more and more people are becoming aware of these rules, regulations, dogma, and doctrine that simply have no place in the Kingdom of God- just the kingdom of religion.

The supernatural TRIBAL deity that organized religion has built (and there are hundreds of them) can be seen in almost every denomination. These deities can even be found in non-denominational houses. It’s scary to see how divisive organized religion has become, but how hopeful to see the spiritual embraces of the seekers who need only intimacy, communion, and the unconditional love of Father-Creator, or whatever name you choose to embrace.