<\/p>\n
\u201cReligion . . . is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God\u201d (A. W. Tozer).<\/p>\n
SOME DEFINITIONS OF RELIGION ARE SO ALL-ENCOMPASSING THAT THEY\u2019RE USELESS. A definition that includes everything actually includes nothing, so for today\u2019s reading let\u2019s work with something like the traditional definition of religion, summarized well enough by the American Heritage Dictionary:<\/em> \u201cbelief in and reverence for a supernatural power recognized as the creator and governor of the universe.\u201d Religion, in other words, consists of the thoughts, words, and deeds that are involved in a person\u2019s relationship with God.<\/em><\/p>\n This definition leaves room for the possibility of false religion. If God does not exist, for example, then a person\u2019s \u201crelationship\u201d to that non-existent God would have little point. But even if God does exist, a person might misapprehend the nature of that God or otherwise fail to properly relate to God\u2019s being, in which case that person\u2019s religion would be based on unreality. So it doesn\u2019t always happen, but ideally, religion is what we do when we\u2019re rightly<\/em> relating ourselves to God.<\/p>\n There couldn\u2019t be a weightier issue than the question of God. Considering the consequences of being mistaken, \u201creligion\u201d deserves our best thinking, certainly no less than the concept of \u201cspirituality.\u201d When we\u2019re faced with the need to do some hard thinking, however, it\u2019s tempting to dodge the issue and wave religion aside as a matter of mere tradition, as if one tradition were as useful as another. But traditions are not simply interchangeable. Many of us, for example, hold the tradition that all human beings are equal. Is that tradition no more accurate or useful than its rival tradition, that some races are superior to others? By the same token, after we\u2019ve described a certain religion<\/em> as a tradition, we\u2019ve still got work to do to determine if that tradition is based on fact or fiction, realism or delusion, honor or error.<\/p>\n Alexander Chase said it well: \u201cMore and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and fewer care about religion.\u201d Isn\u2019t it time to start caring about this thing that we seem to need so desperately?<\/p>\n \u201cReligion that is merely ritual and ceremony can never satisfy. Neither can we be satisfied by a religion that is merely humanitarian and serviceable to mankind. Man\u2019s craving is for the spiritual\u201d (Samuel M. Shoemaker).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n