Religion vs. The Teachings of Jesus

This past Sunday our study group read and discussed material from Chapter 24 of Bishop Spong’s book ‘Jesus for the Non-Religious’. In that material Spong points out the difference between religion and the teachings of Jesus.

Religions, Spong explains, are not about a search for truth, they are rather the human search for security. The need for security, of course, comes from our human anxiety, which stems from self-consciousnesses and the knowledge of our mortality.

" It is an act of enormous courage to embrace what it means to be a self conscious
human being. It is not easy to live with the awareness of the unrelieved anxiety that is the mark of human life. That is why human beings are almost inevitably religious creatures. Religion meets a desperate and chronic need in the human psyche and has, therefore, a tenacious hold on human life itself. Self-created security is, however, never real. The fact is that religion as it has been traditionally practiced has never provided genuine security, but only its illusion. Most religion has in fact served as an opiate for the people."

The teachings of Jesus, on the other hand, speak nothing of security. They speak of breaking down tribal barriers, overcoming prejudice. He invited his followers to walk in the fullness of life; to love others, to do unto others, as they would have others do unto them. These things were not about security; rather they were about living a fully human life.

But how do we separate the two – religion and the teachings of Jesus – after two thousand years of co-mingling ? It is the religion and its dogma that need to be examined and updated and purged if Christianity is to survive. The teachings of Jesus remain solidly intact.

That’s what I think… but then I could be wrong….barry e