Religion and Sociatry

[CGayle]

I don't think religion is the problem; it's people.  Religion does not function without the people who sustain it.  It's how people operate within it and how open to change social structures are...or what kind of leadership can navigate change in large systems.  

We need ritual for life, for the spiritual experiences of life...for rites of passage, for seasons of the year, for the mysteries of life and death, for spiritual practice...religion can offer a structure for these practices. Every culture in the world has come up with it's structures for attending to these spiritual aspects of life. Fighting over it is an old us-them dynamic that is part of humanity's evolutionary challenge, a challenge that goes beyond religion.  But when religious institutions do it, the hypocrisy is painful, and it can do damage to us spiritually, personally and socially...in a place we do not expect abuse or hurt, like we do not expect it in our families....but alas, there it is.  Our religions need healing, just like our families do.  

The cultural conserve keep some religions stuck in the dark ages.  They do not renew, become closed systems and become corrupt, become split (eg antiabortion people wanting to kill; or hating the other...contra to all spiritual messages).  

>From my experiences within the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities, there are continuums in each from the extreme cultural conserved, or fundamentalist, to progressive, to those wanting to bring in creativity, healing and spontaneity.  I think the continuum is a universal human dynamic...and is the path of change.  And as change progresses, the conserved hold on tighter to the old (and the system becomes ill).  The pendulum swings back and forth, and each time swings eventually for further progress. 

Today I met with a woman rabbi of a diverse congregation of over 400 households to find out about her vision, b/c when I have visited the congregation several times recently, I was shocked (pleasantly so) to experience people as very much more welcoming, the community in dialogue in deep and personal levels in services and a smaller group I attended, and a renewed openness to spirituality that had not been there before.  Her vision and leadership has had an impact in many ways.  The change from a closed to an open system turns out to be from the past year the community being in dialogue about "what does it really mean to be welcoming?".  It didn't just happen.  There was intervention...and a process in community that took some time, not just a sermon on being welcoming.  I was so impressed.  Here is one example of sociatry.

Cynthia 
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