REM didn’t just create an anthem; in the title of the epic song they put their finger on something vital. There are times when ‘my religion’ needs to be lost.
One of the constant messages to the people who took God for granted – read, for example, Isaiah 1-39 – is that sincerity is not enough, serious religiosity can be dangerous, that vision can be confused with fantasy. So, for example, thinking that God is there to make my life complete, to protect me from the contingencies of human living, or to exempt me from suffering, is a form of religious assumption that needs to be ditched. In the same way, reducing God to some sort of tribal deity is to create an illusion that needs to be abandoned.
The trouble is, we usually don’t have the courage to ditch religious fantasy. We don’t often take out our assumptions about God, the world and us, and examine them. So, it is left to trauma, loss or shock to shake us up and compel us to take a brave look at what we think matters and why.
But, losing dodgy religion can be a gift. Far better to live with reality – however messy or risky – than to live an illusion.
Generations come and go. And I discover that I am not the centre of the universe, after all. But, like any individual in any generation, I am called to be faithful to God’s way of loving, living and learning in my generation, recognising that mortality sets me free to live and die without fear.
March 26, 2020 at 8:51 pm
Good point that bad religion that takes God for granted needs to be lost, religious fantasy needs to be dropped.
But that is nor what the REM song was about. “Losing my religion is southern US slang for losing your temper, having a tantrum. People probably thought Jesus was losing his religion when he cleared the temple court.
March 26, 2020 at 8:57 pm
Which is why I referred to the title of the song, but not its content.
March 27, 2020 at 7:52 am
Thank you. I have lost count of the times that people have tried to shore me up in times of difficulty with well-meaning religiosity, when what I needed more than anything was to ‘be seen and heard’. Thank you for pointing us back to Isaiah and the prophets. I also believe that some of the Christian mystics can help us to let go of our religiosity. It’s not easy to ‘wait’ and to live IN the emptiness, but it is part of our calling as Christians to live in the in-between- times… to be Easter Saturday people. It was also ‘good’ to see the reference to Rothley in one of your recent postings. A distant memory now, a moment of reflection on past times. Keep writing and inspiring.
March 27, 2020 at 7:58 am
Reblogged this on Andrew James.
March 27, 2020 at 12:06 pm
Thanks Nick, it’s certainly uncomfortable ‘ditching religious assumptions’ even when you’ve spent a good part of life trying to do just that in the messiness of pastoral ministry. I like Lauren Daigle’s song of the same title because her finding the ‘different’ is centred on a person which seems a good place to start.
March 27, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Excellent. Anyone who has had to wrestle with the realities of faith as applied to life and come out the other side with faith relatively intact will identify with this.