Conventional wisdom be damned

 
I have devoted a substantial portion of my posts to subjects related to a demon (Jodi Arias), so I thought I'd give her opposite number some print.  The old saying goes that you should never discuss religion and politics unless your intention is to flare nostrils.  I have never been one to follow old sayings (or much of anything else) so prepare for some nostril flaring. 

I'd like to bend your ear (or I suppose it's really your eyes) today about "religion".  In order to properly do that, allow me to provide you some background on my religion.  I was born and raised Catholic.  I attended church every Sunday and on every fancy day the Catholic Church likes to call a Holy Day of Obligation.  I ate fish every Friday during lent.  In addition, I also attended Catholic school every day from first grade until the time I graduated from high school.  For those of you unaware of the curriculum in such schools, this meant (on top of Sundays), that I attended mass (that's the formal Catholic word for it) either two or three days during the week, depending on what grad I was in, through the eighth grade (as if having to deal with nuns as teachers wasn't enough).

Now some of you may have already gleaned this little nugget from the sarcasm in my previous paragraph but, suffice it to say, I am no longer a practicing Catholic.  As a young boy, I was under the oppressive thumb of nuns who hadn't had sex in 60 years and my devout mother, but once I became an adult and began to do my own thinking, I found I did not agree with all that the Catholic church teaches.  In fact, I have pretty much come to the conclusion (prepare your nostrils) that organized religion as a whole is a SHAM.

Much more on that in a moment but first, lest anyone get the wrong idea about me, let me say that I believe there is a distinct difference in being "religious" and in being "spiritual".  I am very little of the former but very much of the latter.  I believe very deeply in God, have seen His work in my life on many occasions, pray often, etc, etc, etc.  In fact, (public service message) should any of you dear readers have doubts about Him, feel free to hit me up.  I can tell you some stories that may help reconcile your misgivings.  Anyway, the point is that I am definitely NOT an atheist or such.  I just believe that what we think of as "organized religion" is nothing but a misguided, money-making scam.  Allow me to expound. 

There are many reasons I hold this opinion.  For the first, let's revisit my Catholic upbringing.  As I said, I attended Mass nearly every Sunday (I tried feigning stomach aches but it rarely worked) and then again either two or three times during the week at school.  Once in high school, there was no regular Mass at school but we did have it on special occasions.  As an adult, my Mass attendance has been largely non-existent, except for a few short term periods where I attended regularly.

So, what has all this church going made me?  Holy as a bus full of priests at the Vatican?  A sinner with an express pass through the Pearly Gates?  For reasons you will learn later, I don't believe it has made me either of these.  What it made me was a well-conditioned robot, who, to this day, despite many years of sparse church attendance, can still recite the Catholic Mass backwards and forwards, in my sleep and with both of my arms tied behind my back.  I'm pretty sure a populace of robots is not what the Almighty had in mind.  If he did, he wouldn't have given us free will.

My grandmother (God rest her soul) was the epitome of a devout Catholic.   Until health circumstances dictated otherwise a few years before her death, she attended Mass EVERY day.  She regularly prayed the rosary (for those of you not in the know, the rosary is a circular collection of beads and a cross on which you say prayers mostly to the Virgin Mary, mother of God), subscribed to the Criterion (a Catholic newspaper), and even said Novenas (nine straight days of prayer).  My grandmother once called me during my college years and asked me if I had been going to church.  My reply was "Once in a while" to which she replied "Twice in a while is better".  Her entire life revolved around the church.

So, my grandmother had to be one of the most highly admired people in her community right?  Full of warmth and goodness with a halo that required the use of sunglasses in her presence, eh?  Semi-annual parades in her honor?  A key to the city?  Bridge club pals with the priest?  Sadly, no.  While I owe my grandmother a huge debt of gratitude for teaching me how to play numerous card and board games, she was largely not someone I liked to spend a lot of time with.  (There goes my express pass through the Gates).  In fact, she was one of the most bitter, manipulative and hateful people I have ever known.  Everyone has been to a funeral in their life.  Usually, they are testaments to a life lived well.  Speakers detail a virtuous existence, even when most times the truth is far less immaculate.  The PRIEST at my grandmother's funeral (and I swear I am not making this up!) stuttered and stammered to find good things to say, finally acknowledging how difficult she was to deal with.  But she went to church every day of the week and said enough prayers to save the entire population of China. 

Then there were the years I spent in retail.  While working on my undergrad degree and then for four years in management afterward, I slaved as a gopher for Kmart Corporation.  We can discuss my mental state to have endeavored to do such later, but my experience there also provided some of the basis for my opinion about religion.  You see, every Sunday I worked, I watched as families and couples strolled in, all decked out in their best clothes after performing their weekly ritual to be saved.  And every Sunday I worked, I witnessed a conglomeration of some of the worst behaviors in which human beings can so partake.  Yes, after singing a few hymns, saying a few amens! and repenting for their sins, these well dressed church goers invaded our Kmart and proceeded to berate employees, beat their kids and otherwise make asses (and not very good Christians) of themselves.  Apparently, there are those among us who still prescribe to the theory that weekly attendance at a worship session gives you a pass to be an a-hole the rest of the week.  I'd say that's a outright perversion of all that Jesus stood for and taught us.

I'm sure by now that some of you have already begun to poke holes in my arguments.  This is America and it is surely your right to do so.  "The Catholic Mass is not like most church services" you'll say.  "Church serves a variety of functions, i.e social".   "It makes me feel good to go to Church".  "I just don't like you and won't agree with your opinion no matter what you say".  All of these are good arguments (save the last) on the surface.  Indeed, were my argument to rest here, it'd be one more of opinion than something based in fact.  But, I've saved the best of my ammunition for last. 

I have asked several people I know who attend church regularly to explain the following to me.  It is a Bible verse and not just any old Bible verse, but from one of the Gospels.  That is to say, these are reputed to be the very words of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  I must say that I came to my opinion about organized religion quite a long while before I happened upon this particular nugget.  While I read the Bible occasionally and am familiar with all the well known verses, I am not in any way a Bible scholar.  Throughout my many years of Catholic education and later just as an adult who had these conversations from time to time, I have heard many scriptures quoted as the reason that we need to go to church every Sunday. (Keep holy the Sabbath is the one I most often hear)  And then I happened along the following pearl and wondered why in the world I had never heard this read in all my time in Mass.  In Matthew 6: 5-6, Jesus says,

                              "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray
                                in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them.  Amen,
                                I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go to your
                                inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret.  And your father
                                who sees in secret will repay you."

When confronted with this, most of the devout worshippers whom I have asked to reconcile this passage with the idea of church going usually say that worship is not what Jesus meant.  That somehow this only pertains to praying.  Well, isn't worship, in reality, just one big prayer?  Not only that, but Jesus specifically says "synagogues" which is the Jewish equivalent of a church.  "But the ten commandments say to "Keep Holy the Sabbath".  Well, indeed it does.  But what exactly does keeping holy the Sabbath mean?  For all I know, it could mean not to kill grasshoppers on that day.  How can one offer "Keep Holy the Sabbath", a general and non-specific statement in response to the above quoted passage which IS very specific?  In my mind, there is no doubt what Jesus meant and that is that worship is an activity to be done in the privacy of one's home and in the privacy of one's mind.  Sure, Jesus and others mention the church many times in the Bible.  But if you read carefully, you will see those are references to a body of people and not to a building. 

I must say I was absolutely both floored and tickled when I first read this scripture.  Floored, because for years and years I'd been told that weekly church attendance was necessary to avoid hell.  Tickled, because a belief I had held for years had finally been validated by the only being that really matters.  I've heard the Gospel of Thomas, which was suspiciously left out of the Bible, champions these very concepts. 

So why isn't this passage a part of regular religious celebration everywhere?  Well, it's quite simple.  If you were to read and believe this, you'd stop going to church.  If you stop going to church, they stop making money.  A preacher true to the word would tell you to stay home and conduct your business with God in private. But then he'd have no job and the church would have no reason for being. 

Are there preachers, evangelists and churches out there sincere in their efforts who truly want to teach the word of God?  Sure there are.  But Jesus didn't say "go to church if you want to".  He specifically stated that you should not worship in public and that's all that church services really are.  I, for one, am not here to try and argue with Him.  I realize of course that such a drastic change in lifestyle will probably never happen.  However, I believe that each individual's relationship with God is private, personal and none of anyone else's business.  Jesus tells us so in the Gospel. 

That's it for now, loyal readers.  Until next time, I'll be praying hard in private for the balls to walk in a church service and ask the preacher to explain this verse to me.  Ta ta for now!