Honest Religion

Tom Spencer

CEO, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries

August 2, 2009

Sermon: Honest Religion Part 1

This is the first of two sermons that I will share with you on the theme of honest religion, a phrase that I have heard in this community and which strikes me as being an essential idea.

Today, I will share some thoughts about why I believe the idea of honest religion is so important, and later this month I will talk a great deal more about what I think an honest religion for the 21st century should look like.

Let me say this strongly right at the outset – I believe that honest religion may be humanity’s best and perhaps last chance of saving itself. More on that in a few moments…

But, speaking of honesty… isn’t it somewhat amazing to many of us that we are still struggling with ideas about faith and religion in the year 2009?

I am taking it for granted that most of us would self-identify as spiritual or religious progressives… and who among us has not wondered to ourselves, honestly, “when will all of that go away?” And when we say “that” we aren’t talking about just old time religion – evangelical, radical, or even reactionary religion – we are talking about religion itself.

Be honest now – How many of you refuse to use the label “religious” when you are talking about yourselves – preferring to use the word “spiritual” instead? Isn’t it more socially acceptable? Doesn’t it just fit more comfortably? I know that in certain circles I have fallen back into that more politically correct stance.

And, don’t we all have secular friends who see religion as the root of all evil and wish it would simply go away now – this very moment?

In fact, there is a small army of newly assertive atheists out there who have turned their disbelief into a cottage industry where they delight in (and profit from) shadow boxing with fundamentalists.

The truth is that each side in that debate is delighted that the other exists… the atheists of the academy with their arch disdain are the perfect foil for the fundamentalists who are only too happy to have atheists banging at the gates. Likewise, the academics relish in the antics of the fundamentalists – it is all so amusing. But what really drives this debate is fear. Fear driven faith needs visible enemies – and fear works as an effective tool in the market and in politics too. All of this sells a lot of books, gets a lot of votes, and fills a lot of pews.

But is there any real honesty in the current atheist / fundamentalist debate? Here is a quote from our fellow Austinite, Dr. Steven Weinberg, the Nobel Prize winning physicist – “Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”

Really, Dr. Weinberg – religion is the only thing that makes good people go bad? What about crushing poverty? What about patriotism? What happens when love is betrayed? Or, what happens to good people when someone throws verbal hand grenades at traditions they revere? Seems to me we offer each other all sorts of temptations to shed our goodness. Some actually delight in that sport.

And here is a quote from Jerry Falwell, “If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.” …You know, I won’t even bother with a retort for that one.

On and on it goes:

The fundamentalists keep insisting that there is an intervening God who orders every hair upon our heads and who wrote the demise of the Do-Do bird into history before there even was such a thing as history or Do-Do birds.

And the atheists insist that all religion – even “progressive” religion is a mirror of fearful, primitive minds that demand fairy tales to deal with the terrors of existence. They say that all we need is logic and reason – that if we would only educate ourselves, the long march of progress will someday purge us of every irrational impulse. Love itself, I suppose, will lie dissected on a petri dish – understood by its chemical code.

Is that honest? Really? Do you want that world – really? Good luck with that mathematical equation that solves everything. My hunch is that mystery will never, ever, curl up its toes and expire regardless of the beauty of our equations or the power of our telescopes.

A point of real interest for us is that some of the new atheists, like the author Sam Harris, hold religious “moderates” up for special scorn – they argue that religious moderates provide cover and context for the radicals.

This is one of the points I’ll concede to Harris, I actually think he’s on to something here. For example, nearly every “liberal” Christian I know feels queasy about mouthing the Nicean creed or one of its watered down versions in church – and yet millions of them do it every Sunday… declaring before their children their faith in 3rd century concepts of the divine that fly in the face of reason, science and common sense. What is honest about that?

When we recite ancient creeds with our fingers crossed behind our backs, we are on our way down that slippery slope where moderation winks and nods at fundamentalism.

So, where does all of this leave us, in this place and in our search for honesty? Do we dispense with all beliefs that cannot be proved by physical evidence? Or, do we just go “spiritual” hoping that new age vagueness will provide the balm that the age old certainties can no longer deliver?

In some ways don’t you feel that we are right back where I began – don’t you just wish all of this – all of it – would simply go away?

I have struggled with this question for years and my answer is – NO. I don’t want religion to go away – in part, because I know that it never will go away and wishing it would is just as delusional and yes, just as irrational as believing in the legend of Noah’s flood. Sorry, Dr. Weinberg and Mr. Harris it ain’t going to happen.

We see evidence of the allure of religion – even radical religion all around us. Why? Because it is the fate of mankind to suffer and to look for answers to that suffering – we crave explanation and look for that one-encompassing answer.

Mark Lilla is the author of The Stillborn God, a brilliant book which explores the still prevalent attraction of theocracy – that system which unites the “Kingdom” overhead with the kingdom that collects our taxes. In his book he writes, “When the urge to connect is strong, passions are high and fantasies are vivid, the trinkets of our modern lives are impotent amulets against political intoxication.”

What trinkets was he referring to? You’re not going to like this: he’s not talking about cell phones and i-pods, no, he was talking about the bequest of the enlightenment – liberalism, reason, and our notions of progress. He argues, these are impotent amulets when the scales have been tipped and passion and rage are unleashed. Think about the simmering rage in our own nation – the irrational resentment stoked by the angertainment industry of the reactionary right. How does reason reason with that?

Lilla argues that classical liberalism is the exception to the rule – that our progressive little world is the odd man out, that it is imperiled.

So how could I not want religion – that world of passions and vivid fantasies – to go away?

And so, here is the second part of my answer – I don’t want it to go away because I believe that honest religion is neither an evolutionary dead end or a suicide pact – I believe that honest religion is our last best hope to withstand the ever present threat from that other shore described by Mr. Lilla – where alienation, passion and fantasy are being stoked into a raging fire.

The truth is that honest religion can’t inoculate us from every danger in the world – that is the trouble with all religions that promise ultimate deliverance – ultimately they can’t deliver. But, honest religion can help us help one another through the perils we face – it can help us live our lives more deeply and, hopefully, help us to pass on a better world to our children. And what more should be asked of it?

So, how will this work?

Let’s take just a moment to consider the origins of the word religion itself… there are actually two theories about that. One holds that the word religion comes from the Latin, religare which means to bind together – and the other says that it is more closely related to the word religio – reverence.

I think that what we need is a fusion of these two concepts – that only a reverent bond in the form of honest religion can sustain us and strengthen us for the challenges of the 21st century. We need the binding together – the acute awareness of our interdependence – as well as the tempering and humbling force of reverence.

What does this look like in practice here on the ground, in this place? Well, let me be very clear about this – if religion is to be honest it must make demands of us.

I remember having a conversation some years ago with University of Texas Professor, Paul Woodruff, who wrote a beautiful book about reverence. In this conversation he really opened my eyes to the critical distinction between what most of us call spirituality and religion. I had invited him to participate in a taping about “spirituality” thinking that that word would be more acceptable to an academic than “religion” – but, much to my surprise he bristled and said that he rejected spirituality. Taken aback, I asked him why, and he said he felt it was a “conceit that makes no demands of you.”

This is a powerful insight. Don’t many of us think of spirituality as an adornment or as a commodity? Dr. Woodruff’s rebuff helped me realize why spirituality is so popular – it’s because it is, like so much else in our culture, disposable – you can toss it away when it becomes an inconvenience. And what is more inconvenient that something that demands your attention 24/7.

And shouldn’t an honest religion demand our attention? I certainly think it should – I don’t think honest religion is something you pull from a bookshelf when you’ve got a few moments to spare or are feeling spiritual. But we need to recognize that paying attention is the most counter-cultural thing we can do in 21st century America. We live in the age of distraction – not the age of information. We have made careers and an entire economy out of not paying attention.

However if our’s is to be a religion that really binds our world view, holds us together as a community, awakens reverence within us and helps us to embody it – to live it– then, yes, it should demand our attention. But demand our attention to what end?

First and foremost – the test of honest religion should be whether it actively helps us to become better people – to be kinder, more compassionate, more patient, more generous, and more grateful – in short, more virtuous. Honest religion should have one great purpose and that is nurturing human goodness… a goodness that attracts goodness to it – that inspires reverence and awakens a deep gratitude.

Only through human goodness can we be saved – after all we are the ones who are messing everything up – and now, with our life-giving planet endangered, we need goodness enacted more than ever. This is the real promise of honest religion. My friend Michael Benedikt says that God is the Good We Do. I say Amen. That is honest.

An honest religion should also be humble – because none of us will ever be purely good, there will always be a need for humility as well as a well-developed practice of forgiveness and contrition. It is a difficult balancing act, but an honest religion should remind us of our imperfections and help to sustain our aspirations simultaneously.

An honest religion should also make sense – common sense. While our humility should remind us that there are things that we can never know – there is no reason to embrace supernatural theories that fly in the face of first-hand experience. The following quote from Buddha says it better that I could: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

Another way to say this might be that honest religion should not require theological trampolines. Sure, it should appeal to our heads and, yes, our hearts, but its real business is in helping us to ask better questions and to live better lives not in making up myths about crystals or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

And, speaking of dancing, I believe that an honest religion should speak to our bodies as well as our heads. Enacting or embodying our reverence is an essential part of honest religion. I recently returned from a long trip to Turkey where the call to prayer echoed across the cities five times a day – imagine that – stopping your busy life five times a day to say thank you. Frankly, I found myself feeling inadequate because I had no way to share my own reverence in that beautiful communal and physical manner.

The most important part of the ritual comes right at the beginning – you stop, stand, clear your head and silently declare your intentions. You then give thanks and praise – wishing peace to those who stand to right and peace to those on your left – you bow, kneel, touch your foreheads to the ground together.

Let me be clear – and honest – about the call I feel in my own heart: I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with brothers and sisters – to bow, kneel, and pray with them – but when I do, I want to speak in words that that reflect the realities of the world as we see it and experience it every day. Here in the 21st century.

Frankly I long for this kind of honest religion. And I believe that if it existed as a living community – a real binding of brothers and sisters who practiced goodness and shared reverence– it could, by example and deed save the world.

I’ll have a great deal more to say about what honest religion might look like in our lives in my next sermon on the 23rd of this month. But for now, I will close with this thought …

The real question for those seeking an honest religion is simply this – would we honor it? How would we respond to it if it were to spring to life right here before us? Would we embrace it, or, inconvenienced by its demands, would we come to wish that it too would simply go away?