The Importance of Religion
by
Rev. Tom Thresher
As you
know, I was away during the middle of July, attending
conferences and workshops.
The
first was a workshop in Denver entitled Integral
Organizational Leadership; the second was a conference
in Berkeley on Spiritual Activism. I gained a lot from
both of these events, and it will take some time to
process it all and bring it to you. I don’t expect that
it will take the form of specific information but will
show up in some of the exciting directions outlined in
the following section.
One of
the powerful insights that emerged concerns the
importance of religion, particularly mainline
established religion. This insight comes from the
developmental perspective that informs my efforts at the
church. This developmental perspective states simply
that our awareness and our
way
of understanding continue to develop well beyond
adolescence. In fact, if we allow ourselves, our
awareness can expand throughout our lifetime. This
expansion of awareness is at the core of spiritual
development.
Unfortunately, we do not all arrive on
the earth fully enlightened. No matter who we are --
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, or just an ordinary person --
we develop through all the stages, beginning with
infancy, going through childhood, adolescence and,
hopefully, into various dimensions of adulthood.
Everyone passes through these stages, and everyone is
free to stop at any point along the line.
However, if there is a mismatch between
where we stop in our development and what the culture
demands of us, we can find ourselves in over our heads
and in great emotional pain. Much of the struggle and
strife in our world today can be attributed to this
mismatch. The modern Western world demands that we see
through the eyes of science and rationality, while much
of the world continues to see through the eyes of
tradition and external authority. “Tradition” is
increasingly threatened by “Modernity,” and many have
chosen to respond with violence. There is a global
pressure-cooker effect as ethnocentric, fundamentalist
beliefs run into modern reason and postmodern morals.
And it is argued (persuasively, I believe) that the
great religious traditions have a pivotal role in
keeping that pressure cooker from exploding.
The world’s great religious institutions
are the ones that carry us through
all
the stages of development from infancy to adulthood.
Precisely because our religious stories are multi-level,
they create a vehicle that carries us, and is available
to us, as we pass through the major transitions in our
life. Unfortunately, most religions socialize us into
the stage of culturally narrow, traditional values and
understanding. But the world is demanding modern and
postmodern capacities; hence the pressure cooker.
According to this reasoning, it is the
role of religion to find a way to expand the meaning of
our stories to include the modern world of science and
rationality, and beyond. Only religion has the myths,
the stories, the power and the legitimacy to lead us
beyond traditional belief structures with support and
caring.
Many Stories…. One
Community
Our church is actively engaged in helping
move beyond traditional beliefs while honoring the
importance that these (and mythical and magical) beliefs
have in our lives. We do this regularly in worship and
in conversations when we acknowledge the importance of
Jesus both as a savior and as a companion and guide; and
when we acknowledge that both of those views are correct
but still incomplete. We explore frontiers of thought
in TAGS, Transformational Prayer, the Politics of Hope,
and in many personal ways.
A new initiative, called “Many
Stories…One Community,” directly addresses the movement
from traditional religion to modern. Folks in this
church have spoken very highly of our interfaith
services with the Native American, Baha’i, Jewish, and
Buddhist faiths.
But it is no longer only faith groups
that share our values and passions. Local community
groups -- like Compassionate Listening, Suquamish Olalla
Neighbors, and Stillwaters -- share our way of
understanding and caring outside of a faith context (but
not outside a spiritual context).
“Many Stories…One Community”
is an
initiative to explore more deeply our commonalities
while rejoicing in our differences. In terms of moving
our
faith to a different way of understanding, we are
proclaiming that we do not have the only answer.
On September 25 we will have a joint
service with these religious and community partners.
Following the service, there will be a potluck barbecue,
with presentations and conversations about our
commonalities and differences, and how these can be more
effectively brought into making a better world.
Let’s get everyone here.
Blessings.........
Tom
