Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Disorganized Religion

I remember about a dozen years ago, I was telling a friend of mine that I had decided to go to church - which I had not done in a while - and had even signed up for choir so I would really have to attend. She just said: "Well, you know how I feel about organized religion." I was thrown for a loop; I'd had no idea that she had strong feelings about "organized religion" (much less negative ones). In fact, I'd thought she was Catholic.

Not sure what brought this incident to mind - maybe the organization of American Catholic bishops and its efforts to "welcome" non-practicing homosexuals to the Catholic church? - but it makes me wonder what is the alternative to "organized religion".

I see the following choices:
(a) atheism,

(b) agnosticism,

(c) private "arrangements" with God (likely to slide into category [a] or [b] above because they are uninformed by the learning and experience of theologians and holy persons through the ages ... and unsupported by a community of believers), or

(d) "disorganized religion" - which could mean anything from
[i] poorly planned worship services that never start on time, lack necessary supplies/equipment, run too long, and consistently miss the point to
[ii] small, loosely aligned groups of fanatics making independent decisions about how to reveal their "faith" to the outside world (think warring Sunni/Shiite factions, Al Qaeda, Heaven's Gate, etc.).
For now, I think I'll stick with organized religion, thanks.

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