On Religion.

So as I sit here listening to a single episode of a podcast I can already see I'm going to be following for a while to come, I think about why I'm listening to it in the first place.  It's a Christian thing and it gets me to thinking about faith and religion and importantly the difference between the two. It's so easy for folks to lump faith in with the problems of religion and assume that because one has made some mistakes in the past, that the other must therefore be false.

 To me religion is a framework that helps in understanding my faith, it's dogma and rituals give a comfort to folks who may be feeling lost and or guilty about things. It's not the be all and end all, in fact Christ himself said that we could spend our worship alone in our own homes, that we didn't need to go to temples to proclaim glory to God. I like going out and standing with others giving glory to God. I enjoy having other people around me, fueling my faith with theirs and I likewise for them. It's the only time I enjoy being with other people, and it's the only group of people I can be with and not freak out.  I love the congregation of my local church, they've been wonderful and helpful and understanding  in a way nobody else has been. They've shown me a love that anyone else would have been uncomfortable with. I love them and through them I can learn to love other people as Christ asked me too. It's not religion that gives me the strength to love, it's my faith and people of my faith. But without religion I'd never have met these wonderful folks. Without the church I'd never have met them. Religion isn't what makes me a Christian, but through it I fuel the faith I have.

Sure religion has been at fault for some egregious problems in the past, the Roman Catholic Church has some serious skeletons in it's cupboard, other churches aren't without blemishes either. But everything can be traced back to the people involved. People abusing the dogma to get power, people using their position to hide crimes and worse besides. Any Christian will tell you people are flawed and we accept that the people in power within our churches are as fallible as the rest of us, even the Pope.

All of this means that religion shouldn't be used as a tool for blasting faith. If you're going to attack my faith at least use arguments centred on your issues with that faith, not with my religion and if you have issues with religion, make sure your issues aren't simply with the RCC, as so many people's are.