Give Up Bad Religion for Lent (and beyond)

Warning, this is about religion.
Warning, this is not about a specific religion.
Oh, and I am trying to convert you.

I write this as one that has not blogged in many a day, and even longer if I ignore my satirical and music posts. So, what could bring me back?

Would you believe Lent? Would you believe Grammy nominated artist Frank Ocean? How about a friend and former pastor that came out of the closet as an atheist? Well, if you add the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh to the mix you will realize it takes a lot to get me back in the game.

While I am not sure if I will continue this writing endeavor here or move it to another blog (Patheos, give me a call), I am going to attempt over the coming days/ weeks/ months to write about my experiments with something I am calling Good Religion. What is it? Well, it is the opposite of what many of us practice… bad religion. It is the what the movement I have been part of for 15 years, led by names like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Diana Butler Bass and the good folks at the Wild Goose Fest, has been trying to journey into. As I have journeyed in and out of traditional Christian faith, agnosticism and emerging Christianity during the past decade plus, I have come to realize that many of those that have embraced Emerging Christianity, found a new belief system, left Christianity all together or embraced atheism have all been on the same journey out of Bad Religion.

There are many good folks out there documenting Bad Religion, folks like Matthew Paul Turner, Zach Hunt and Stephanie Drury. Each is doing yeoman’s work documenting the type of behavior that leads people of religion, and Christianity in particular by holding a light to the darkness of some parts of Evangelicalism and fundamentalism. However, to say that these groups have the market on bad religion is preposterous. There are very bad forms of mainline and progressive Christianity. There are bad forms of Islam (easily documented), Scientology, Hinduism, Judaism and yes, even Buddhism. This post and this blog over the next few months is not going to be another documentation of such.

However, it needs to be acknowledged that Bad Religion (no matter what tribe it is in) is killing us. It is what millions of people have left behind, including a huge swath of my friends. It is what I have been fighting since I was an eleven year old being told my baptism from the year before wasn't good enough because it was in a different Christian tradition and therefore I had to be re-baptized to join a Southern Baptist Church. It is what I tried to steer people clear of as a youth minister, pastor and church planter. Sadly, as I was trying to steer them to good religion, it was still part of an oppressive system and only technically better. This bad religion is what my friend who is now an atheist is fighting against, now on the outside looking back at the harm it did to him and his family.

And it is the religion I thought of when listening to Frank Ocean’s album a few days ago. I am a fan of Ocean’s music, even if I think his previous album was better than “Channel Orange.” That album, nominated for many Grammys, had a leadoff single called “Bad Religion,” a profoundly sad song by a gay man realizing that it’s a “bad religion to be in love with someone who could never love you.” He is not talking about another man, but about God who, according to his understanding of Christianity, cannot love him. Now some would say this is not true, but one cannot ignore his experience in the church, the church of Bad Religion.

So, as Lent begins, I am asking those that read this to spend this 40 days leaving behind Bad Religion, even if they are not part of organized religion at all. Most of us would say that we don’t embrace bad religion. We are smart. We are emerging. We are open-minded. We live in grace. We practice the opposite of bad religion. We practice good religion. Why else would we be reading this?

But, during the Lenten season (or whenever you want), I ask you to give up bad religion, or give up your notion of religion. In the past, during lent I have given up alcohol, chocolate, caffeine and cokes. I have even given up reading the Bible, the Bible itself, church and Christianity during lent, spending the time in the desert, trying to understand what I leaned upon and what I needed. But, at this time, I am evaluating my own beliefs, practices and understandings of the world around me during this time. Even though I am a fairly progressive person with an open mind and a view of religion that would scare the heck out of those that grew up with me (and not willing to share exactly what I believe, lest anyone write what I am saying off), I need to evaluate it in light of its impact on me, others and the world around me.

In fact, this is how I think we should evaluate. I am not going to give you a formula. I am not going to complicate this, even though it is terribly complex. I am merely going to ask all of us to evaluate our religion in simple ways:

1. Does it make us better human beings, or as a friend says (more human humans)? We may need to ask others to evaluate this (and please do), but it matters. I remember sitting in a Sunday School class at my parents’ church years ago. It was filled with a bunch of angry, scared 60-somethings, made bitter by life and scared of the world around them by talk radio. I remember thinking, if this is what I have to look forward to, I want out… NOW. Whatever I believe, does it move me forward towards love, acceptance, friendship, hospitality, etc?
2. Does it make those we are in regular contact with better humans? I was once asked if my friend Brian McLaren was a real Christian, based upon some of his perceived writings. I told the person, Brian makes me a better human being. He makes me want to be more like Jesus. To me, that was all that mattered. I need to practice something that gives hope/ freedom, but never the possibility of oppression. No matter your religious views, or lack of views, does your system make those around you better, more complete humans? Again, you may need to ask your friends and family.
3. Speaking of oppression, does it oppress anyone, whether its adherents (like Scientology has been accused, as well as forms of Christianity that have hurt women), its innocents (like a number of Christian groups) or those outside its walls (like many churches have done to those outside their faith or groups they shun)?
4. Does it make the world around you a better place? I believe spirituality and religion should make us better and the world better. Does your system make the world better, or curse the world that isn't perfect? I know plenty of angry progressives and Buddhists that embrace a dark religion of hatred (of those closed minded fundamentalists), that never make the world better. They just complain about the world in which they live. As the sociologist Dallas Willard says, “in a pluralistic world, a religion will be judged by how it treats its non-adherents.” Does your system welcome, love, embrace, and care for the other (even when the other is closed minded)?

Over the coming weeks or months, I will try to unpack some of this, along with some other ideas regarding what makes religion good or bad (and I will try to convert all of us to the notion of good religion). I will be discussing some of my other thoughts on a different way of expressing religion, one that takes on the ideas of Thich Nhat Hanh’s engaged Buddhism, which I believe can be translated well into Christianity  or any other belief system (a religion beyond belief, but not against belief).  I will think about Bad Religion and the potential for Good Religion (something I have been obsessed with for a long time) and I hope a few of you will journey with me and discuss.

For now, I leave you with a song.