Searching for God # 110

No matter its name, religion usually embraces three elements: faith in a divinity, rites and rituals honouring that faith, and an inviolable moral code.

Such things light the way for a lot of good in this dark world, most of it done quietly, away from the headlines. Marginalized people are fed and cared for, the distressed are comforted, souls searching for meaning are offered purpose and hope. And the gift of religious inspiration in the arts is available to everyone. You don’t have to believe in God to feel the yearning human spirit in Mozart’s “Ave Verum.”

And yet the soul of all this is abased and abused by con artists twisting religion to fit insufferable egos and despicable political ends. (Janice Kennedy, Toronto Star, April 29, 2026, in a piece entitled, ‘Religions all over the world are being blasphemed and perverted.’)

While it is obvious that much good-samaritan work is continuing to be carried out in the spirit of religions, Ms Kennedy rightly highlights the perversion and blasphemy that betray all religious faiths for a variety of nefarious human motives.

From a lay-Christian perspective, her ‘three elements: faith in a divinity, rites and rituals honouring that faith and an inviolable moral code’ make sense….except for that one word, inviolable.

Defined as ‘never to be broken, infringed, or dishonoured,’ the perspective and attitude, and even the conventional ubiquity of perfection that comes with ‘inviolable’ is both a rock and a whirlpool on which religion can be, and often is impaled.

Aspirational, inspirational, ideal and metaphorically stretching and even psychologically compelling, as one’s faith can be, one’s faith can also become one’s personal crutch, high-powered assault rifle, political and professional ‘alb’ of the appearance of piety, righteousness and social status and trust in a world consumed by literal, empirical perceptions, definitions and appreciations of reality.

Conventional conversations in all areas of human endeavour are dedicated to the sensate, literal, empirical ‘take’ on whatever is going on. This includes the highest and most honourable and ethical professions like law, medicine, science, the academie, and, to varying degrees many religious institutions. We are moved when we learn stories of various, deplorable and preventable human catastrophes, whether they are natural disasters, pandemics, economic drought or the multiple iterations of the abuse of power by some on others. Something ‘inside’ says ‘this is not right’ and sometimes we seek to make a difference. Philanthropics abound, thankfully, from such a deeply embedded instinct. And, whether those ‘helping’ and ‘rescuing’ initiatives have a religions base, formally, they do have one informally and almost unconsciously. There is also a highly impactful emotional, psychological, and even intellectual gratification from doing honourable, somewhat hidden and private, non-publicized ‘helping’ of others, again whether those engaged have a faith/religious connection, motivation and foundation or not.

Changing the world, making a difference, serving our fellow humans, the spirit of altruism, generosity, compassion, advocacy, healing, especially in a world that seems to be blind to that ‘spot’ on the compass of human ‘geography’ is and continues to save lives literally as well as metaphorically. Some of that work is indeed conducted under the auspices and aegis of religious faith-based institutions. And, as the ‘Canadian Blood Services’ advertising reminds us, those who give benefit as much or more from the giving as the intended recipients.

Social service clubs and agencies, learning centres, even free medical and legal clinics dedicated to a plethora of human needs, with the support of public dollars as well as private tax-deductible donations, attempt to address some of the human needs that continue to remain outside the purview of government. Many of those men and women have either a formal and continuing relationship a religious institution or have associates with that continuing relationship. God be with all of them! They are a blessing and they convey a level of care and commitment that, as John McCain used to remind us ‘commits them to a cause bigger than self.’

While some of those philanthropics can and frequently are sabotaged by the various human moral failings, generally they operate honourably, ethically, and both transparently and accountably.

The religious aspect of our lives, however, at least in theory and hopefully in praxis, is about something quite different, although not precisely disconnected from altruism, ethics, morality, compassion and care. The religious aspect, in its purist form seeks to awaken, to transform and to radically alter the conventional social, political, economic and legal aspects of our lives in and through what some call ‘transcendence’….a word that has gathered the imprimatur of psychedelic and mind-altering interventions.

In a universe defined, perceived, analyzed, dissected and philosophized over from a literal, empirical, rational perspective, for the most part, the ‘inner life’ of each human tends to attract attention in what James Hillman calls ‘in extremis’ moments. It is in such moments that we have all heard others, uttered ourselves and even imagined ourselves screaming, “Oh my God!” And yet, is that only when the matter of our relationship with God has any meaning or relevance? While crises naturally provoke and invoke a re-visiting, re-framing, re-structuring everything we have previously perceived, believed and held as important. These moments are ‘transformational’ and although we consider the ‘bottom of our world to have fallen away’ somehow, with the presence help and patience of others, including a God, never absent and never failing to uphold, we ‘begin again.’

The question of how our faith relates to our more ‘regular’ non-cataclysmic routine, however, generally, for most people, remains in the ‘literal, empirical and rational ‘frame’….we are after all highly practical, sensate and also potentially rational beings. At the centre of  that ‘ordinary’ life, for most, the ‘ego’ and its perceived needs, aspirations, dreams, and fears tends to dominate. We are, so we are consistently reminded, in a dog-eat-dog world, where competition, discipline, and also the ethic of compassion still warrant our attention.

The politics of religion, however, is a subject with which the church (all mainline Christian churches at least, and likely also the other Abrahamic faiths, Jewish and Muslim) have to reckon on a daily, hourly basis. And while everyone of us continues on a unique path toward whatever we consider, believe and imagine to be our ‘better angels’ (to borrow a Jon Meacham favourite), we might benefit from how we relate to others.

In this space, reference has been made to a piece of theological writing by James Alison, entitled, The Joy of Being Wrong, in which he articulates a highly sensitive, provocative and challenging perception and attitude to the parable of the ‘speck and the plank’ with which most are familiar.

Alison posits that if we come to each encounter with another human being bringing to the fore the truth that we all have a ‘plank’ in our eye, before we begin to criticize another for the ‘speck’ in his/her eye, we could and would begin on a note of mutual forgiveness. Such an individual, conscious, deliberate and disciplined approach, while challenging, and even at first appearing ‘idealistic,’ nevertheless has multiple benefits for all.

First, it humbles the one who is contemplating the issuance of a ‘judgement’ of another; second, it changes the ‘playing field’ to one of equality, equity and commonality; third, it releases the fears and anxieties of the ‘targeted other’ and finally, the process has the potential of ‘seeding’ what effectively amounts to a revolutionary tilt to a culture drowning in judgement, much of that judgement based on a kind of theology that, clearly, is the antithesis and the apostasy of any authentic and sustainable theology, of any and all major faith communities.

With respect to a critical judgement of a policy, or a shared, organizational, political, corporate decision or action that is unequivocably, indisputably ‘wrong,’ judged primarily by its capacity to abuse innocent, and voiceless others who are or are about to become victims of that injustice, it is the abuse that demands, in Tolstoy’s reminding, non-violent opposition with force. Personal attacks, serving merely as ad hominum attacks, have the impact of only further embedding those committing the injustice to commit even further to its execution.

All major mainline religions are being perverted, and blasphemes, especially by those whose need to manipulate for their own selfish, narcissistic and narrow purposes and ends, (and all faith communities have their share of such persons. The challenge for all the major mainline religions is to resist our desire, tendency and natural impulse for revenge, for withdrawal and for burrowing into some fortification that separates the faith communities from the rest of the world.

We, all mainline religious faith communities, have a legitimate, humane, thoughtful, spiritual and faith-inspired story to tell. And, while our story is important, it is never to be used as a weapon against another faith or another person who may have no faith at all. Competition among and between faith communities, whether openly acknowledged or more secretly and surreptitiously waged, will only redound on those initiating such a conflict. And such conflicts blatantly and naively display more of a religious neurosis on the part of the instigators.

At the centre of all talk of religion is the concept of ‘power’….personal power, institutional power, national power and international hegemony. God is not signed on to be manipulated by any who choose to hide behind Him in their own pursuit of power….….And those who practice an authentic and humble discipline in their faith life will resist the temptation to take up arms either in what they think is a legitimate defence, or a necessary counterattack, based on some perception of impending ‘loss of control.’ Religious communities, themselves, are not beyond their own blind fears, anxieties and neuroses.

Oh, and as for that phrase, inviolable moral code: as a guide, an inspiration and as aspiration, it holds water. As another weapon to use against another, (see the speck and the plank) above, it betrays a fundamental human truth, as well as a theology that, tragically and impoverishingly, relies on the manipulation of fear in order to attract adherents. Tolstoy’s ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You’ clearly articulates the difference between an absolute inviolable moral code to which none of us has or ever will completely adhere, while we continue to grow in conscious awareness of our own specks….and our own need to face them, as an integral aspect of the discipline of our faith in God.