Survey Says!

Ok, so when it comes to religion, was it really news that none of us know what we are talking about? I mean truly, there are dozens of denominations of Christianity just in my neighborhood. Am I really well-versed in all the rules and strata that make up those religions? Not to mention all the other thousands of denominations of Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhism - they all have thousands of denominations within their respective umbrellas, don't they?

And, truly, I highly doubt the survey findings that atheists and agnostics know everything about all religions and therefore are making a more informed decision regarding their faith (of intentional lack thereof).

So what exactly did the survey ask? What did the survey assume? I believe it assumed that religion is the same as one's faith. But mostly, what I run into among believers in Christ is that religion separates people from their faith - that the rules are arbitrary and impede their ability to create a relationship with Christ. That seems to be a national narrative right now: "Relationships not religiosity". More and more believers want to distance themselves from being associated with 'the church' because it presents itself as an institution that has arbitrary rules for the sake of being rules and feeding the coffers of the people who run it.

And that's the real news. That is where this spiritual battle is being lost right now. It's being lost because true believers haven't been fully engaged in the church since it's inception. As a result, hundreds of years and layers and layers of rules and practices that seem way removed from the Bible, have built an institution that seems like a stranger to a lot of people who are in love with Christ. The real news is that we people who are in love with Christ, need to help the church purge it's centuries of sin collection and rehabilitate it with Christ's guidance. The real news is that we don't know much about denominations because they seem irrelevant to God's will because we don't and haven't stayed close and involved.

We indeed are the church. We are the religion. But the corrupt institution represents us. Instead of wither and complain, we believers need to be more courageous and active in coming to the church's defense, and yes learn more about it. The more we learn, the more we can change it.

And then, and also, the more we learn about other religions, the more we can change God's global impact and rip holes in Satan's wide net which was re-cast yesterday with the news of this survey about religious ignorance among Christians while implicitly touting the wisdom of atheists. But we can't fight a world battle for God until we rehab ourselves as one called Christ's bride. It's all of our responsibility.