Church isn’t doing much good

By Jacob Wingard

The basic problem with Religion today isn’t that people aren’t the same or that there is some inherent difference in how society is run; rather, the big problem with religion is the same as it always has been.  

Asking human beings to selflessly serve their fellow man just doesn’t work, so suddenly the need to promise some sort of afterlife forms.  

Despite, my own beliefs that Christianity is real and that the word of the bible is the truth, I can not deny that many use the fear of damnation to their advantage.  Since ancient times, the Church has suffered due to strings of bigots who use their power in the church to advance their own ideals.  Humanity has seen this occur in the Christian Dark Ages, the Crusades, Galileo and the list goes on and on.   

The limited capacity of a human’s time on this planet is supposedly measured by a being high above us, watching our every move and recording them for when we are judged.  That very notion terrified and still terrifies many people today, creating churches, religions and various other forms of worship to many different god’s. But this in itself is a problem.  Faith on its own is one thing, but a religion or rather an organized form of it creates a ripe situation for people to be manipulated.  For example, in the Christian religion those who are faithful should tithe, presenting God with ten percent of their income.  This in itself is not a problem, as it shows penitence to the Lord; however, most churches actively encourage the donation of more than this ten percent.  

While this is not forced upon anyone, a slow change begins to occur in the Church setting.  At first the Church will present an idea for a new construction plan and it will be built. But once it is constructed, debt begins to pile on.  Instead of thinking they made a mistake or trying to solve the issue naturally, the church preaches solely on finding new members, tithing more or presenting new ways to gain more money.  

A church or rather a religion is meant to focus on God and not on the monetary value of the building. This becomes the basis of discontent, apathy and even anger amongst those who come to said Church; However, this isn’t my biggest issue with religion today.  In fact, my biggest problem is with religion and not faith, just to be clear.  Faith is active belief, following and obedience to the tenants of a certain doctrine of spirituality; religion is the organization of a spiritual doctrine that is conducted by a large group of people repeatedly.  Faith to me is something to be admired and cherished, obeying the tenants of the Bible, the Koran, the Torah or Buddhist doctrine is something to be held in esteem.  

Yet, religion isn’t about following those doctrines, it is about showing up to a building once or twice a week and being spoon fed what one person believes is the right way to view the bible.  The Bible is a text of ambiguity which needs to be deciphered by many and even then, it probably will not be completely understood; yet these preachers, pastors or religious leaders claim to have all the answers.  There is no definite way any one man or woman could know all the secrets of the Bible. In fact, the idea of a preacher in the first place seems backward to me.  

A meeting of numerous followers needs to be one that is centered around the exchange of ideas, presenting a single passage to a group of believers, then asking each of them what they think it means.  While there are implicitly stated commands in any doctrine, the necessity of understanding and trust amongst other believers trumps this. 

If members of a church are too busy fighting amongst themselves over who is holier or if the passage of Leviticus 12:3 is still valid in today’s world, then how can they spread themselves further?  In short, today’s churches are far too focused on money and prestige than actually spreading the message in their doctrines.