Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Organization of Organized Religion

For the last year or so, I have had a little saying that I have been using to explain what organized religion really is. It goes a little something like this:

"The purpose of an organized religion is to have an organization."

Organized religion has never been about God. It has never been about Jesus. It has always been about having the organization and nothing else. And honestly, everyone should agree with this. Why? Because without an organization of people, you won't have an organization! That doesn't mean people won't believe or serve God, it just means that they will be doing it outside of the organization. Organized religion... is entirely unnecessary... and it opens itself up to corruption.

Everybody is different. People think and believe in different ways. Not everybody is going to agree with the practices and politics of an organization. A church will often have a set of rules or tenet that their flock has to follow in order to be apart of it. For example: "Chewing gum during a sermon is irreverent."

If anyone disagrees with the gum chewing rule, he still has to follow that tenet in order to be a part of the church. If he refuses or is caught chewing gum during the sermon, this threatens to break down the organization, so it then needs to be addressed in some manor. The gum chewing offender should then be talked to and explained that he needs to stop or else there will be consequences. He also has the ability to leave the church if he chooses. If he stays but continues to chew gum, there is only one way to handle it: excommunication!

Excommunication is a long and friendly word which simply means that the horrible gum chewer is being banned from being a part of the organized church. This is actually not a bad thing. You may not think gum chewing is bad, but if the church says it is, then he really does need to be booted out. But then... what if the rest of the flock felt that it was unfair that the man got booted for gum chewing? What if they make complaints? What if the whole church ends up in an uproar over it? How does the organization cope?

Well if this organization was really based on the belief in God, it would ignore their outcries and shout out loud and clear that gum chewing is abhorrent and must be stifled during that very important sermon. But then everyone might leave. Sure, you might have a few people who preferred mints. But when the preacher comes out and sees most everyone has left... it doesn't really seem worth it anymore. Maybe they should just close down? You think? You think that's what should happen? Actually... yeah.

But that's not what is going to happen realistically. What is going to happen is that the pastor will fold. Tenets will change. Gum chewing will be allowed. And as time goes by the flock will want more things. They will ask that newspapers and books can be read. Video games can be played (with the sound off, of course). What about adding a restaurant to the church? That might be nice and convenient. And then politics. Soon, the church is not about a belief but how the organization functions to make people comfortable.

The point of an organization is to have an organization. If you don't concede to your flock, you run the risk of losing that organization. (Although what remains is actually pretty solid and noteworthy.) But since organizations must exist, they give into the demands of the flock and become, not something built upon religion, but of the desires of the humans of earth. It exists only to perpetuate itself. It is, at the end of it all, pointless.

I consider myself a Christian. I don't go to church. I do not have any desire to become a part of one of those soulless organized groupings. I honestly do not think they should ever have existed. When Jesus died, the curtain of the temple ripped in half. Busily afterwards, the priests did their best to mend it up and perpetuate something that God had deemed obsolete.

Yes, we are meant to gather together. Yes, we are supposed to share the Word. But not through an organized church. The temple is obsolete. We need to make our friends and figure these things out on our own. My group is called The Figments and has a total of zero tenets! No dogma either. We make things. We create things. And while we do it, we talk... and discover... and figure things out. We may be wrong... but the point is that we are doing it ourselves. We are free to do it ourselves. We are not a theocracy anymore, and God does not care if we join an organized local church!

As a small addendum to this blog, I want to point out that the Mormons do an extremely good job at excommunicating people when they fall out of line. I respect them, as an organization, for doing this. I still think their religion is rubbish, but if I lost my mind and decided that I needed to suddenly join an organized religion, they would be the ones I'd pick. They are good people and take their stuff seriously. Good on them! If only everyone else could follow their lead! Still, all unnecessary to begin with. Get out before they collectively convince you to become an atheist, if not already.

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