Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Religion falling like leaves

Maybe you saw the story. It was everywhere, with a USA Today front page behind it. The facts continue to rain on His reign.

According to The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released an analytic study Tuesday that shows that Protestants -- both evangelical and mainline -- have slid to 48 percent in this country, down from 53 percent in 2007.

The news for those of us in the business of the church, is that they didn't just switch brands. They left. Period.

The study titled, Nones on the Rise, said that that one in five Americans (19.6%) claim no religious identity. They don't need religion.

This group, called "Nones," is now the nation's second-largest category only to Catholics, and outnumbers the top Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists. The shift is a significant cultural, religious and even political change.

None is the answer for one in five. None.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the search for religious freedom was one of the bedrocks of this nation's founding. Yet here we are in the 21st century and one in five says they no longer need any -- ANY -- religion.

And here is where I'm going to get both nit-picky and surprising to many.

I join the group, the none of the above.

Let me say this before you tear up the paper or throw away the blog. I'm Wesleyan in concept, straight on down to my Christian perfection tendencies. I believe in faith alone. I'm good with doctrines that might shock some who are United Methodist.

But I throw all that way for the sake of one man, an no religion.

I believe with all my heart, most of my head, some of my soul and what strength I have left that Jesus is Lord. I profess it with my mouth. I believe He was raised from the dead. I believe He has saved me not just for the life eternal but for the life I have now.

Yet if there was nothing called Christianity, I would be Jim Dandy with it all.

I'm Christian because it means little Christ, not because we desperately needed another religion around the turn of the calendar from BC to AD.

See, the difference is what we always make of this thing we call religion. We need rules, so we have doctrines. We need ethics, so we search deeply for those things that don't offend us but so that we can put them on others.

We desperately try to solve all problems by putting our Book of Discipline, or whatever we want to call it this year, on display at OUR workshops or at OUR bookstores.

And while the cats are all up in arms over the latest set of rules to put on folks -- Pharisees anyone -- we turn around and the mice have all left the barn. For what, religion?

Nah. Give me Jesus, instead. A man so humble he gave his life (his LIFE) just so that I might have true religious freedom -- which is grace, the thing that separates Christianity from all other religions, in the long run.

Grace sufficient.
Grace all covering.
Grace free of religion, and rules, and guilt and suffering.
Grace that covers all my sins, which are too many to even go into in a 600-word column.

So, while mainline (and even evangelical, which I'm still trying to figure what should be the difference in those two) Protestant denominations fall like leaves in Autumn, while Catholics stumble about this and that, while Mormons grow and we learn much about why, here we are.

By the way, you know what each of those have in common with the Muslim faith? Jesus.

All were searching for a redeemer. Only those who follow Him know the true answer, I'm afraid.

And that answer is found no where in religion. Only in relationship. That's the key to all this.

None indeed.



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