Why Religion?

From time to time I’m asked “Why religion?”  I have found different ways to answer the question, trying to make it accessible for the questioner.  For example, a child asking the question might receive the initial response “Well, you know my religion is so important to me that I used to ride my bike to church even when my parents didn’t go! It’s a place I always felt safe, special and alive.  A place where I could question and also try out some of my own answers. ” An adult seeker might receive an answer like “This is the place that calls me to be a better person and to participate in making our world a better place.  The YMCA helps me work out my body, my religious community helps me work out my soul.”  A parent would hear “It played a central role in teaching me to value lives and to live my values and I wanted that for my children too.”  Regardless of how the answer came out, I know now that my religious home was always the place that taught me what it was to be the best human being I could be.  In relationship with other people.  All other people. 

In each of these examples, I always hope the question leads to more conversation.  Anyone asking is likely to be assessing their own relationship, or lack of relationship, with religion.  As a person who has found religion to be so formative and a pathway toward a co-creation of a better tomorrow, I want to be part of that conversation every chance I get!  Our lives today are so filled with things that engage us in consumerism, achievement and self care.  We seem never lacking for shopping opportunities, improving our job, academic or social status or toning, healing, sculpting and primping our bodies.  But what of places and activities that engage our souls? 

·       What reminds us to walk into the mountains and let the mist kiss our faces?  What whispers to us ‘go into the wild and let it remind you that you belong?’  What shouts out take off your shoes and let your toes wiggle in the sand?

·       What activities pull in people of all ages, all genders, all cultures & ethnicities, all affectional orientations, all abilities, all social and educational levels and says you are all welcome & worthy, let’s dance!  And what group does so even knowing they will fall short but has the courage to look and say who are we excluding and how must we change to make it not so?

·       What place calls us to the still place beyond the quiet that we may sit with the mystery of creation that connects us all?  What helps us be still and listen to our best inner self and the force that calls us to be better?  What helps us to forgive ourselves and others and begin again in love?

·       Where are we able to hear the voices that call us beyond what seems to be ‘our world?’ The voices that say “Our destiny is connected and a wound to one is a wound to all, what benefits the least among us is a benefit to all and together we can and must build a better tomorrow?”

This is the religion of my past, present and future.  It is the religion of my great-great-grandparents and I hope it will be the religion of my great-great-grandchildren.  It is a religion that honors the ancient dance that says we each belong, perfectly imperfect creatures that we are – but also calls us onward, holding us in the uncertain transformation we must deliver ourselves to each and every day.  Why religion?  For me, it’s all about salvation.  Mine. Yours. Ours.  How about you?