Why Religion Fails

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

G. K. Chesterton

Why does religion fail? Leonard Pitts writes in the Birmingham News today (March 16, 2009) under the title "Losing our religion: Why are so many people turning away from God?" Pitts is pretty much on target in pointing to modern day "organized [institutionalized – br] religion," and the fact that "God and religion are not synonymous," as major contributors to the growing lack of interest in religion and God.

There is no substitute for the simple, true Christianity revealed in the New Testament. It is not found in institutionalized religion, as Pitts well states; "Religion is what men and women put in place, ostensibly to worship and serve. Too often, though, religion worships and serves that which has nothing to do him [God - br], worships money and serves politics, worships charisma and serves ego, worships intolerance and serves self." It is for this reason many people have found religion difficult and leave it untried or having tried it turned away from God!

Maybe it's time for those professing to be New Testament Christians to wake up, not to smell the coffee and donuts in our assemblies (while that could, no doubt, be literal in some assemblies, I mean it metaphorically to refer to our view of the church as some kind of social club) but to heed the call to "preach the word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:2) We need to quit playing religion in our assembling and worship Almighty God. It is not about us; it is about Him! Until we quit playing religion in our assemblies, our lives will never seriously reflect the faith that turned the world upside down! Let your light shine.