CREEDE HINSHAW: ‘Spot of religion’ smacks of desperation

I read a commentator last week who wrote that people attend religious services because “they want a spot of religion.”

Gee, that sounds a little on the breezy side.

I suppose some folks may show up at the religious location for a side order of scripture or a supplemental life lesson. A long-forgotten writer once described that sort of person as saying, “I’d like to order 50 cents worth of religion today.”

I concede that some people look for non-threatening, feel-good religious gatherings. A friend of mine who moved some years ago to Florida was faced with finding a new church. Because she had been a member of my congregation, I assumed she would seek a place deeply inspiring and intellectually stimulating. (You can imagine a smiley face in this spot.) I was more than a little disappointed when she told me that she had chosen her new church because they offered the best entertainment in town.

I’ve sometimes left worship having received only a “spot of religion,” but I’ve never sought a tapas bar-like religious experience. The faith quest should not be akin to a touch-up on a paint job, a 30-minute lube job at the garage or a Tik Tok video on spirituality, even though some religious institutions may offer little more than spiritual appetizers.

I hope I’m not out of touch on this, but If a harmless dose of religion is what society wants, we’re in pretty desperate shape.

Why do you attend a religious service? What are you seeking? What are you hoping to find? What connections are you hoping to make? And what kind of church would connect and inspire you?

I would like to think that people want, first and foremost, to be connected in some genuine way with the living God in the Hebrew, Christian or Muslim tradition. I would like to think that after a week of work, of anxiety, of disappointment, of confusion, of raising children or caring for parents or both, that people would want to come to a place where their heart, soul and spirit were lifted to the heavens, where it would somehow be possible to be mysteriously, wonderfully, surprisingly connected with the God of all creation. I further suspect that most of us want that genuine religious experience to be authentically connected to what is going on in the city and world around us.

People want something “of value” when they attend worship, and that’s more than getting a life lesson on a happy marriage or how to overcome disappointment, etc. People can get “life lessons” anywhere, and some secular sources are far more effective than the church. In fact, often the church offers trite secular wisdom gussied up with a little bit of scripture to make it “religious.” I’d call that a “spot of religion.”

My need for deeply moving religious experience may look different than yours, but I suspect few of us have time for trite, banal versions of faith.