Religion Should Be Personal

This is a re-positioning of a commentary written by me which may also be found on another page of this blog devoted to Letters to the Editor at The Dallas Morning News.


I thought the letter deserved a more prominent place here and have given it a place as a separate blog for that reason.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rating:  Worthy 
Author:  Greg Hawk, Denton
"Accept Personal Beliefs"


Re:  "Religion should be personal" by Robert Thickman, Thursday Letters.


Religion, sometimes referred to as the square-circle society, is based in part on beliefs that contradict facts and reality.  So why does it exist or isn't "corrected" when new facts come to light?  Because it has evolved into its present form to make its followers feel better, motivate them to charitable action, foster a sense of belonging and hope, and give explanation to the still, but dwindling, unknown.


We are a whirl of emotion and logic, one counteracting and yet somehow reinforcing the other.  Beliefs are personal and need not be exposed as the naked emperor unless those beliefs harm others or undermine our ability to apply logic to the real world.


Amen, Mr. Hawk.  But I have a few reservations about people choosing the "religion" or congregation that best suits their view of the world. 

I was fully and completely inducted into the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, in the continuing tradition of my family and ancestors.  This was their religion and, by default, my religion.  I received an outstanding education from the parochial private, church supported, elementary school (Concord Lutheran School, Pagedale, Missouri) and high school (Lutheran North High School, Jennings, Missouri.)  Aside from the education though, I was fully inculcated in the norms and practices of the underlying Lutheran doctrines and practices through daily participation in prayers in elementary school and a full-on religious service during daily chapel services in high school.  I make a joke on the appropriate occasions that I have attended church enough during elementary and high school participation that I can go several more decades and still be certain that I have attended "church" more often than most other individuals in my circle of acquaintances.

Despite all of my reservations about the Lutheran Church's teachings and doctrines, when I do attend church it has always been, and will always be, in a Lutheran Church associated with the Missouri Synod.  You may rightfully ask why this is so when as you say in your letter, "why does it [religion] exist or isn't "corrected" when new facts come to light?  Probably, Mr. Hawk, because these corrections occur in such small steps and over such a long period of time they are hard to notice without a level of attention to any particular religion that doesn't reach the level of scholarly study.

Take for example this simple prayer every Lutheran child, who is around about my age, learned at his grandmother's knee. 

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Could you write or find a prayer so likely to induce in a small child the fear of death without any explanation during their sleep?  I don't think so.  In truth, it seems something more akin the the sub-title of a Wes Craven film.

If they still teach this prayer to small children as part of catechism I have no way of knowing as it's been a very long time since I was confirmed and learned my catechism.

Yet, religion and doctrine in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod has changed over time, but it is only the four decades of my life since my education that allows me to see this - to both my pleasure and sometime dismay. 

For example, I like the "new" Lutheran Service Book, but am dismayed to find that the traditional version of the "Tedeum Laudamus" included in so many of the services I remember as a child missing. The Lutheran Version is distinctly reflective of the doctrines of the Lutheran church.  A beautiful piece of music requiring chanting on the part of the Pastor and singing responses from the congregation.  I find it remarkably moving piece of worship lacking from services at the Luther Church I attend, but infrequently, here in Dallas, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

However, I can not bring myself to "believe" that it is appropriate to "shop around" for a church that "suits my beliefs."  Why?  Because deep down in my heart I have the feeling that if one truly believes one has the responsibility of reflecting in ones outward behavior and inward examination all the tenets of one's faith and beliefs and not participate in some "religious cafeteria plan" that allows you to pick and choose that which best allows you to behave as you like as opposed to how one has been instructed to do through one's existing religion.

I think the corrections you seek are to be found more in the individual personalities, if you will, of the congregations within a denomination, more than in their associated religious doctrines.  One can get the "fire and brimstone hell and damnation" emphasis of the Old Testament, or the "hope, encouragement, and emphasis on "here and now" good works of the New Testament in just about any Judeo-Christian religion.  It depends a great deal on the personalities of the congregations and the "call" they place for their church's pastor, Reverend or priest, and on which of the Testaments they choose to emphasize, though both are included in the order of worship and church doctrine.

By all means, find a church and congregation that places the emphasis on which Testament you feel most reflects your feelings and desires, but don't think that you will escape hearing things that make you uncomfortable, because if you should find a congregation that excludes either the Old or New Testaments, you are missing the fundamentals of religious doctrine.  We sin in thought, word and acts (both of commission and omission) and to expect not to be told of our failings in these thoughts, words and acts would be something like going into your employer's performance evaluation expecting to hear nothing but praise and encouragement, without hearing a single negative thing or area in which one might improve.  Improvement should be the goal of any worthwhile performance evaluation and it's an absolute necessity if one is to gain anything by attending church.

I myself admit that I am a poor reflection of the tenants of my religion.  Yet, when I do attend church and listen to readings from both Old and New Testaments, and the sermon which follows, based on both, I am comforted by knowing that I have failed, but not irredeemably.  God has rightfully judged my behavior and found it lacking, but through love and grace gives me the opportunity to improve because I have been forgiven and therefore may rightly feel better about myself through heartfelt confession and unearned absolution, I may therefore be motivated to charitable action, feel a sense of belonging and hope and be given the explanation that through belief, rather than proof, I may understand that though I can see but poorly through a dark window into what you refer to as the "dwindling unknown" that one need not have absolute proof or documentation of what one believes, in order to still have good reasons to act in such a manner that we reflect that which the best of ourselves, despite our chosen or inherited denomination.