Hubris

I was watching a YouTube video today in which two people, one a liberal scholar of religion and the other a conservative, were discussing the decline of the Church in America. Both were members of Institutional religion all their lives and both, as you might imagine, were looking for ways to slow the disaster area that is church attendance. Not surprisingly, they were critical of the unaffiliated - those who said they had no religious affiliation. The conservative was also critical of those who identify as spiritual but not religious. Then he said something that really floored me. He said that it's fine to find God outside of institutional religion, but then people are obligated to bring that God back inside of institutional religion.

Huh?

I was gobsmacked by his hubris. Why would we bring what we found back into institutional religion? I agree that we all need community and that spirituality in particular needs affiliation with community. What he is suggesting however is rather like a car dealer who cannot find the used car you are looking for telling you that if you find it somewhere else you are still obligated to put a sticker with the name of his dealership on the back of the car. The hubris underlying his absurd claim lies in his apparent belief that institutional religion has the right to decide who can believe what and where they can practice their faith. In my opinion, the answer to the "why is the Church in decline?" question lies precisely in that kind of thinking. It reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail continuing to insist, after the loss of both arms and legs, that his battle is still ongoing.

I don't really care whether institutional religion lives or dies. What I do care about is that people understand that no institution or individual speaks for God. Nobody but you gets to decide how and where you will practice your spiritual path. Anyone who claims otherwise does not have your best interests at heart. There are enough manipulative hucksters in our politics and religion already. We don't need any more.