ON RELIGION

Organized Religion

Organized religion!  What a fearful phrase this is when one stops to think about it, and how calamitous that Christians should have to come to find themselves committed to its defense. That the church has a concern with religion – or with any other aspect of life – no one would doubt. That it must be organized – and efficiently organized – is equally clear. But that Christianity should be equated in the public mind, inside as well as outside the Church, with ‘organized religion’ merely shows how far we have departed from the New Testament. For the last thing the Church exists for is an organization for the religious. Its charter is to be the servant of the world.

Honest To God by John A.T. Robinson (1963), p. 133

Religion’s Task 

The task of religion is not to turn us into proper believers.  It is to deepen the personal within us, to embrace the power of life, to expand our consciousness that we might see thing our eyes do not normally see.  It is to seek a humanity that is not governed by the need for security, but is expressed in the ability to give ourselves away.

Eternal Life by John Shelby Spong (2009), p. 186