INSIGHTS
Compartmentalizing religion
"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank." (Woody Allen US movie actor, comedian, & director)
If my memory serves me right, it was Dr. M. Scott Peck the brilliant author of “The Road Less Traveled” who once assayed about compartmentalizing religion. It pierced some ritualistic religious hearts when he carefully expounded on the comical, but nonetheless frequent occurrence of an ostentatious faithful – the kind wherein religiosity is seen rather than substantiated (kneels, bows, struts, stands or what have you, before his Creator) for all the world to see. Mostly, the act is solely for public relations gimmick in a manner of speaking, rather than its not so easy objective simply and plainly called faith.
Peck, who is a renowned psychotherapist, even pointed to the cute creature you see in Church, Synagogue or Temple every Sunday who prays, like praying is running out of supply, in a saintly aura could be the same creature robbing you blind during Mondays, selling fake medicines to the community on Tuesdays, diabolically campaigning during Wednesday, and wantonly gambling till Saturday. is in a state of compartmentalization. Differently stated, creatures of convenience expertly tiptoeing the immoral floor at the expense of the moral high ground.
Taking a break from their revolting ways of thinking and venal pursuit of everything, not a few enlist, scandalously implore, mercilessly invoke religion as a balm to soothe their aching conscience by conditioning their minds, or more candidly, deceiving themselves for somementalreprieve. There are some benefits psychologically, from this mind game of telling yourself you're forgiven, absolution crystal clear, for it fuels the ravenous brain to keep on ravishing. Hideously similar to a sleazy politician who believes his own lies and treats money andpower as the end all and be all. Vividly aware of the moral vacuum devouring his existence butgravely seeks the devilish pleasure of it all.
Religion can equal opium in its hallucinating wonders. Profoundly, if we are hell-bent on the rituals instead of the substance we inevitably reduce religion to meaningless routine. Unconsciously replacing faith with formality.
If memory fulfills, it was U.S. Senator Barrack Obama, the brilliant African-Americanstatesman seeking the United States'highest office in 2008, who said it best that “Religion is not what you have, it is what you do”.