If Jesus came today, he would not be a Christian – should we avoid organized religion?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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I have one. If Christ were here today, one thing he would not be is a Christian. Mark Twain has said this.
So, does this reflect general reality that many of that organized religions deviate so much from the intentions of their founders that that the founders themselves would not be a part of the organized religions anymore. And therefore, even if we are inspired by the founders, we cannot follow the path the organized religions that are being followed in their name today. There are many statements which are which are insightful without giving full insight.
That means that if somebody can phrase something eloquently, we may tend to accept that whatever is being spoken by them is true. And it may be that a significant part of what they are saying is true. So, that statement may be insightful without giving full insight.
So, yes, it is true that on many occasions religions do deviate from especially organized religions which involve power and prestige and property often do get deviated towards materialism away from the spirituality that their original founders exemplified and expounded on. Anybody who studies the history of religions does know that if we consider the biggest institutionalized religion in the world today, that is Catholicism, then the kind of abuses and atrocities that were performed by the popes during their unchallenged rule in Europe where they were considered at a position higher than even the kings. Now, reading the history of abuse can make and has made many people born in Christian families and who consider themselves Christian to give up their faith.
And the point here is not to feckle out Christianity. The point is to highlight the reality that organized religions do deviate from their purposes. Currently, the Catholic Church is embroiled in a severe child abuse scandal wherein not only has child abuse occurred in huge numbers but also it has been systematically covered up to protect the erring priests and to push the grievances of the victims under the carpet.
So many people feel that they cannot be a part of such an organized religion where the purpose of religion which is to inspire people towards a more moral and a more spiritual life that is being so flagrantly violated and defeated even by those who are meant to be the proponents. Again, not singling out Christianity but using it as an example because it is the it is the biggest example of organized religion Catholicism within Christianity. We do have some very important and cautionary lessons to draw about how organized religion can affect people adversely and can deviate from its original purpose.
Having said that we also have to be we also have to honestly consider that is the original purpose of the founders if we accept in principle that their original purpose was good to inspire people towards the life of greater morality and humanity and spirituality if their original purpose is good is that purpose being better served outside organized religions? The mainstream society today is largely materialistic and in such a society it is often quite difficult for people to live a life of values. Most people are often very vulnerable to social pressure and because of social pressure they may end up conforming with the prevailing social cultural values which often value the same things which have corrupted religious organizations power, prestige pleasure, property So within mainstream materialistic society there is no cultural deterrent because materialistic society doesn’t have a strong sense of foundational morality So therefore it may well be that outside organized religion people may end up being more materialistic and more corrupted by the evils because of which they claim ostensibly to be leaving that religion and thus it is not there is no guarantee that just because one thing is bad that we can be saved from that bad by something else we may in fact be accepting something which is worse So therefore it is for us to recognize that a religion is ultimately a resource an organized religion is an organized resource now what purpose we use it for is up to us it is an example which could use us of a river say if there is a river that is moving, flowing towards the ocean and that river gets blocked either because of some natural blockage or some man-made blockage such as a dam then the river water cannot flow onwards and the river water is not flowing it often not only gets blocked but unless it is properly maintained and cleaned it can become very dirty and contaminated especially because it is not flowing so similarly it may well happen that when we start so we could compare a river that is flowing towards the ocean to be like the spiritual current which is meant to take humanity towards the ultimate spiritual reality that is God by whatever be the understanding of God in different traditions now while moving towards him it may well be that organized religion may create blocks for moving towards him whether those blocks be because of specific things that we understand or we don’t understand that means they may be because of external circumstances such as say atheistic governments which put restriction on religion or they may be because of self-serving officials within religious organizations administrators who divert or defeat the purpose of those organizations but the fact is if there is a simple small drop of water or a small rivulet for that rivulet to get to the ocean by itself is almost impossible now within the river also there is a fair probability that the river may get blocked that the rivulet may get blocked and may not reach the ocean but rivers have a strong force to them and they find ways to keep moving forward in spite of blockages and similarly if we look at the history of religion the biggest changes in religion have often have often happened from inside not so much from outside that means if you look at every religious tradition there has been within the religious tradition an active tradition of reform when Catholicism became corrupt there was the reformation that happened similarly within the if you see the Indian traditions and the Hindu tradition when the caste system became very stratified and rigid now there were movements within the Hindu tradition which challenged the caste hegemony so the bhakti tradition itself in many ways a reform movement which went beyond the literalism and the casteism and the ritualism of the brahminical powers that be and provided people a channel for expressing their spirituality through devotion and the bhakti resurgence in the medieval times is one of the most remarkable incidents in Indian history and it is the bhakti resurgence that contributed to fundamentally to the Hindu resilience at a time when there was oppression of Hinduism by invading Islamic rulers although not all such rulers were intolerant but many were and so just as a river finds a way in spite of blockages to keep moving forward towards the ocean so within organized religions also there are many sincere people who do find ways to keep moving forwards towards God towards the ultimate goal that the founders of those religions have taught so we could say that Mark Twain’s statement is true in the sense that Jesus would not if Jesus came now he would not be satisfied simply being a car carrying Christian a nominal Christian who has affiliation with that particular denomination but no strong intention to follow to mold one’s life according to the teachings of the founder of that denomination so yes that also Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita he says so this verse can be understood to say that if you consider Dharma to be external religious formularies such as religious institutions Krishna is saying that don’t let those stop you from the purpose of from their purpose and the ultimate purpose of life that is surrender devotion to God now when Krishna tells Arjuna it is not that Arjuna gives up all Dharma literally he gives up that Dharma which is unfavorable to his devotion and in this particular context the Kshatriya Dharma is favorable for his devotion and he adopts that so so rather than labeling religious organizations themselves as bad and this is not denying the possibility that some religious organizations may be so corrupted that sometimes reforming them from within would be very very difficult but the fact is rejecting organized religion because of the evils within it leaves us with disorganized fragmented and disempowered spiritually inclined people so who just may not be able to grow spiritually on their own at all so we could say religion is like the river bed and spirituality is the current of water that flows through the river bed and just because some water is in the river bed does not mean that it is automatically going to go to the ocean but the water that is in the river bed has a far greater chance of getting to the ocean than the water that is just on the plains or the plateaus or the mountains as a small trickle disconnected with the river so similarly by keeping ourselves constantly aware of the purpose for which we are practicing our particular religion we can move forward steadily without getting diverted by the any incidental corruptibility that religious organizations are prone to so just as the river finds its way towards the ocean similarly we can be like the current within the river we can be those people within the organizations who keep the purpose foremost in their minds and who keep pursuing that purpose irrespective of whatever whatever contaminations may have happened within that particular organization at that particular time Thank you