Phew! Neither are we! Religion, by definition, means 'to bind'. Traditionally, what it has meant is: "To bind to an abstract rule book". Lots of times, in many cultures, -- those rules are vague, unfair, illogical & do not discern between acts that harm others vs. acts that merely break some 'rule'. For the most part, "religion" is evil and that evil is obvious by what it DOES, (not by what it proclaims) -- for it often espouses the very opposite message of how it acts. Jesus pointed this out, and the religious establishment of his day conspired to kill him. So much for institutionalized "religion".
However, not being "RELIGIOUS" does not equate to being faithless. As
a matter of fact, the Scriptures record Jesus stating that the greatest faith
he found was not in Israel, but from a Roman Soldier who requested that Jesus
heal his "Beloved Servant" (Doulos-Pais). "And
a certain captain had a servant who was very dear to him; this servant was ill
and near to death. And when news of Jesus came to his ears, he sent to him
rulers of the Jews, requesting that he would come and make his servant well.
And they, when they came to Jesus, made their request warmly, saying, It is
right for you to do this for him, because he is a friend to our nation, and
himself has put up a Synagogue for us. And Jesus went with them. And when he
was not far from the house, the man sent friends to him, saying, Lord, do not
give yourself trouble: for I am not worthy enough for you to come into my
house: And I had the feeling that I was not even good enough to come to you:
but say the word only, and my servant will be well. For I, myself, am a man
under authority, having men under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes;
and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does
it. And when these things were said to Jesus, he was surprised, and,
turning to the mass of people coming after him, said, I have not seen such
great faith, no, not in Israel. And when those who were sent came back to the
house they saw that the servant was well." -
Luke 7
Yeah, the greatest faith Jesus said he found came from
a guy outside of the faith of the very group of people Jesus came to save, and
that man happened to be g0y! See, at the
time it was the practice of ranking officers in the Roman army to "draft" a
teenage guy into service to help with responsibilities. The drafted guys
were almost slave status. You can imagine what went on behind closed
tent "doors" - which is why the reputation of the Romans was so detested by
the Jews. In the particular account recorded, we have an example of a
soldier who had a servant -- but one that was "very dear" to him. The Greek is
"ENTEEMOS" which translates as More-Noble.
Combined with "DOULOS PAIS", a picture begins to emerge that this was no
ordinary soldier/servant relationship. For the soldier to have sought
out this "Jesus" was remarkable in itself -- humbling himself (a Roman
soldier) before a Jewish guy who had himself taken on the role of a servant!
See, a hardened soldier would have simply drafted another guy to replace the
one dying. However, there was a bond between this soldier & his
"servant" that went deeper than the social customs of that day. After
all, while this servant was ill, who was taking care of him? The soldier
was. Another hint at the relationship is when the soldier said that he
was not worthy to have Jesus in his house. This is a veiled way of
saying that he did not keep a nice "Jewish" household. There was
probably only one bed -- if you get the picture. However,
Jesus did not pry for more information (he already knew) ... neither did he
judge the relationship. What he did do was comment on the man's faith (I
suspect with a 'wink of understanding') & the servant was healed (from
some sickness about to kill him). I also note that the soldier did not have
the 'sickness' himself (no BPT in that tent). G0ys
in the military? Yup. 2000+ years ago!
Obviously, religion has usually done a BAD job of portraying God. Why? Well, the ignorance & prejudices of men get in the way. As a matter of fact, this is such a problem that if you read the Scriptures, you'll find that God's solution to doing things right is to possess the body of the people who are yielded to him, & do the job Himself! This theme of "possessed by God" is recurrent throughout the scripture as the only means where God's will gets done. Problem is, too many people who claim to follow him are not Possessed by Him. Instead, these rebels insist things like "we have the whole Bible" with which to figure things out. If that was so easy, why are there hundreds -- if not thousands of religious sects all claiming to be the "way" based on their Biblical interpretations? According to their own Bibles, FACTIONS are a sign of failure...which of course, should be self evident in any group trying to accomplish something - when division nullifies their efforts. .
The Apostle Paul wrote about people who were not religious. This is what he said: "(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)" - Romans 2. Those of you who aren't 'religious', but G0Y, have already proven that the requirement of the Law of Moses against Anal-Sex is written on your heart. You've become a "law unto yourself". That doesn't seem like an oppressive religion to me? You? Of course, what does it mean when you violate your own conscience -- break your own rule? Or, what happens when your conscience is clear, but you've still managed to do the wrong thing -- perhaps unknowingly? Hmmm? If you know about LAW & JUSTICE, anyone who finds themselves in such a situation has a serious problem. How can you fix the past?
Where "religion" falls short is in it's complete lack of ability to solve that problem, the problems it spawns & fix the aftermath. Religion sets you on a path of busy work trying to atone for that which you cannot fix. Consider it: If you punched someone in the nose & broke it, how does saying 1000 "Hail-Mary's" fix that? Religion is built on a fraud. However, there is nothing about saying those "Hail-Mary's" in the Scripture. That's something man made up. A fraud on a fraud! Remember above where I wrote: "Well, the ignorance & prejudices of men gets in the way."? What did Jesus himself say about repetitious prayer? "Now when you pray, do not use vain repetitions [or, many meaningless words] like the Heathen, for they suppose that they will be heard by their many words." - Mat 6:7 If Jesus own words show us that the Catholic Church (the largest & oldest sect proclaiming itself 'Christian') members act like a bunch of HEATHENS when they pray, -- this should be a wake-up call about 'religion' in general! To follow Jesus, you need to be willing to lose your religion! Sound ironic? Jesus himself said: "You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life. " - Luke 14:26
Basically, you can strip away the building, books & externals.
Without those, religion ceases to exist, but a relationship with God is
independent of those. This is the message Jesus carried. it is written:
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews
claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do
know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they
are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his
worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
- Jn 4
So then: Jesus himself said that those who worship God no longer need be "in Jerusalem". That was a profound statement because prior to his coming, the ONLY PLACE to worship the one true God was in Jerusalem! Ironically, Jesus made it possible to have a relationship with God anywhere you are at -- without needing to be "religious" about it! For people weary of the demands of "religion", this is great news! We don't need their stink'n 'program'!
Spirit & Truth. Faith & Love. Intangible & unscripted! It starts with SPIRIT (see Acts 2 -- especially v. 38-39). As long as the Spirit dominates, God seamlessly leads into all truth. How do you think G0YS.org happened?
- Good day