Return to the Encounter Vol. 12 Home Page
The October 18, 1997 episode of the TV program Home Improvement contained an interesting look at modern views of religion.
The teen-age son Randy becomes a volunteer in a hospice. The elderly woman he is assigned to help urges him to think for himself. He decides that he no longer believes in "organized religion".
His father, Tim, tries to argue Randy into going to church. He says that he was forced into going to church when he was young even though it was boring, meaningless ritual and that he is a better person because of it. He says if you go to church, God gives you credit; if you stay awake, God gives you more credit; and if you actually understand anything that is said, you get even more credit.
Tim takes his concerns to an Episcopal minister, who points out that Tim goes to church and spends his spare time building a hot rod, while Randy doesn't go to church but spends his time volunteering at the hospice. Tim draws the conclusion that it is okay for Randy not to go to church since "volunteering at the hospice is Randy's church".
Later in the show, Randy's patient becomes more seriously ill and refuses to see him. His parents suggest he pray for her, and he agrees--though he still refuses to go to church.
There you have Hollywood's view of religion. Organized religion is bad. Prayer is good. And the Hollywood representative of the Christian church (the Episcopal minister) says that it is okay to not go to church as long as you do good deeds.
Clearly Randy is right to think for himself. It is the responsibility of every human being. And Randy is right to reject Tim's definition of church as boring, meaningless ritual that somehow earns you credit.
But is this really the choice we have to make as human beings--service to others and prayer on the one hand, and meaningless church ritual on the other? Is Hollywood really presenting the options fairly?
Consider Randy's religion. Randy prays--but to what or whom? What kind of answer can you expect if you don't know whom you are praying to? Consider also Randy's volunteer work in the hospice. This is pictured as superior to meaningless ritual. Sure it is. But according to whose standard? Hollywood's? Randy's? Tim's? The animistic tribe in the East Indies that sends its seniors out into the jungle to die of starvation alone?
Where did Hollywood and Randy get the idea that there might be a God who hears prayers and cares enough about people to do something in response? And where did they get the idea that it is a good thing to love other human beings and to provide care for the weak and needy? Why, from organized religion, of course. Well, not just any organized religion--from Christianity. Randy (and the Hollywood writer) have probably been in a Christian church--and they must have picked up something that was said in or around all that meaningless ritual.
Not every religion has this understanding of God. Far from it. Some religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism) don't really have a God, a Supreme Being. The ancient Roman gods were cruel, immoral, undependable, ignorant, foolish, weak and mortal. Some New Age philosophies and Native religions say there are many spirits, who may be cruel and in conflict.
So is Christianity as an "organized religion" bad? Well, there may be churches run by people like Tim which have so focussed on the organized part that they have lost the religion part, the meaning of it all.
But Tim's meaningless ritual should not be confused with real Christianity. Christianity is not an organization. It is a meaningful opportunity to connect with the true God. Christianity is the one "religion" that makes prayer and service to others meaningful--and even possible.
Trying to figure out God on our own is difficult--and potentially very meaningless, as meaningless as Tim's ritual. Christians believe that God--the God who really exists--has revealed Himself and what He wants us to be through Jesus Christ and through the Bible. In the Bible, God says that He is all-powerful; that He knows everything; that He is moral, truthful, just and loving; that He wants to forgive the bad things we have done because of His Son, Jesus Christ; and that He wants us to know Him personally and try to be like Him. That may be religion, and Christian churches may be an organization that teaches people what God has revealed in the Bible--but it is certainly not meaningless.
Return to the Encounter Vol. 12 Home Page