The Problem with Being Extremely Religious

       May 14, 2023

   Is it a compliment to be called “extremely religious?”  It’s that word “extremely” that trips us up, right?  We've all seen examples of extreme religion, and we know that it can be extremely wrong and extremely dangerous.  Think wars, bombings, terrorists, etc.  But then, who wants to be called mildly religious or religiously lukewarm?  I certainly don’t. 

   I hope you are keeping an eye on the Christian Nationalism movement.  It is a present day example of religious extremism.  I went to a conference last summer about Christian Nationalism.  Every seat in the room was taken.  People stood across the back wall.  Some sat on a window ledge.  According to many who study religious extremism, Christian Nationalism is one of the great threats facing our country today.  We saw them in action at the Capitol on January 6.  The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Baptist church and state watchdog group, defines Christian Nationalism this way:

 … a cultural framework that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.  Christian nationalism contends that American has been and should always be distinctively “Christian” from top to bottom—in its self-identity, interpretations of its own history, sacred symbols, cherished values, and public policies—and it aims to keep it that way.

But the “Christian” in Christian nationalism is more about identity than religion.  It carries with it assumptions about nativism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, patriarchy, and militarism.

Here are some of the characteristics of Christian Nationalism:

·        Approval of authoritarian tactics demanding people to show respect for national symbols and traditions.

·        Fear and distrust of religious minorities, including Muslims, Atheists, and Jews.

·        The condoning of violence toward Black Americans and a distrust of accounts of racial inequality in the criminal justice system.

·        Belief that racial inequality is due to personal shortcomings of minority groups.

·        Being “very uncomfortable” with interracial marriage and adoptions.

·        Holding anti-immigrant views.

·        Opposition to scientists and science education in schools.

·        And belief men are better suited for leadership roles in society while women are better suited to care for children and the home.  (“What Is Christian Nationalism?” At bjconline.org)

 If you’re not paying attention to the Christian Nationalism movement, I urge you to do so.  You can learn more about it at ChristiansAgainstChristianNationalism.org. 

   To be called extremely religious is not necessarily a compliment.  Extreme religion can lead to ignorance, intolerance, violence, and eventually war. Baptist professor Charles Kimball, who wrote the book, When Religion Becomes Evil, wrote, “It is somewhat trite, but nevertheless sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history” (p. 1). 

   All done by extremely religious people.  What is it that makes one person a saint and another a terrorist?  What is it that tempers passionate religious commitment so that it is kind, loving and giving, rather than forceful, angry, and violent?  And how do we embrace our faith with great zeal without taking on the harmful, negative characteristics of fanaticism?  We can say at least this much:  extreme religion must be accompanied by extreme humility and extreme honesty.

   The apostle Paul encountered the extremely religious in the book of Acts.  He was in the city of Athens, home to the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  Athens was like a university town, a place of learning and high culture, where the intelligentsia discussed the great ideas of their day.  But our text says that when Paul entered the city of Athens he was “deeply distressed.”  The language Luke uses here suggests a visceral response.  The city was “full of idols,” figures of stone and wood that the people believed to be gods. That was their religion, and they were extremely religious.

   Paul was a Jew, remember, and had disdain for idol worship.  He knew well the second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”  So, like a Pauline Socrates, the apostle Paul went to work, teaching in the synagogue and to anyone in the marketplace who would listen.  And I guess this was bound to happen.  The philosophers heard Paul’s teaching.  They were not impressed, calling Paul a “babbler.”  It’s an interesting word in the Greek language. It literally means “seed-picker,” referring to someone who picks up scraps of learning. To the highbrow Athenian philosophers, Paul was just another uninformed, unsophisticated, uneducated preacher of “foreign divinities.”

   Paul’s message didn’t fit their philosophy, so the text says they “took hold of” Paul—strong language—and escorted him to a place called the Areopagus, which was like an outdoor courtroom.  That is often the response of extreme religion, isn’t it?  It is intolerant of the beliefs of others and is quick to “take hold of them” if it can. At the Areopagus, they would hear what this babbler, this uncouth preacher of foreign divinities, had to say.  Then they would render their verdict on his message.

    Paul began with a compliment, calling them “extremely religious in every way.”  Nothing in the text suggests that he was being disingenuous.  When he entered their town, he observed all their idols, “a forest of idols,” someone has said (NIDB, Vol. X, p. 244).  There was even one altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.”  They were so extremely religious they worshiped one god they didn’t even know.  I guess they wanted to make sure they had all their bases covered!

   Paul then turned his attention to nature.  It was a real God, he said, who made a real world and everything in it.  God was not created by human hands or served by human hands.  No artisan carved God from stone or wood and set him on a pedestal in the city square.  To the contrary, God carved the world and everything in it, giving breath and life to it.  Could the philosophers honestly look at the created order without imagining a real divine Force behind it?  No piece of stone or wood could do that, regardless of how passionately one might believe.

   Paul then moved to humanity.  The real God who created the real world also created real men and women who populate the earth.  And notice the common characteristic the peoples of the earth share.  Don’t miss this.  This is why human beings were created.  Here is what Paul said:

so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

   Paul finished his sermon.  Some mocked him.  Yes, he was nothing more than a babbler, just as they suspected.  Others agreed to continue the discussion.  And yet a few others, including a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris, believed Paul’s message and went with him.

    It is not a compliment to be called extremely religious.  Extreme religion can be extremely wrong and extremely dangerous.  It can be fanatical, angry, and violent.  We’ve seen too much extreme religion.  However, it is a compliment to be called faithfully religious, faithfully devoted to the teachings of our faith.  The faithfully religious are humble, passionate, honest, loving, giving, serving, and always, Paul says, searching.  We are created to seek God, the Ultimate Truth, the One Beyond, the Holy Other, the Ground of Our Being.  We are created, as Paul said, to fumble through the darkness, to grope for, to search until we find.  Or, more accurately, to search until we are found.  Augustine was right.  God made us for God’s own self, and our hearts never find peace until they rest in God. This is not an American phenomenon or a Christian phenomenon.  It is a human phenomenon because God made us to seek God.  So, with extreme humility and extreme honesty, let us be faithfully religious.

Closing Prayer 

          Lord, our temptation sometimes is to run the other way.  So many are doing so much wrong in your name that we sometimes wish to distance ourselves from them.  Help us instead to find the better way.  Help us to model the way of Jesus your son.  Amen.