The wonderful Rabbi Lionel Blue often speaks on Radio 4′s Thought for the Day, and did so earlier this week.
He spoke so well on the need to grow in religion that I’m quoting the greater part of what he said below:
My flatmate at Oxford was a gentleman, who only lost his cool after I caught religion. ‘I can take your lows Lionel’ he said ‘and even your highs when you dance on tables- but I can’t take pious hypocrisy. Get another flatmate – I’m leaving!’
I sympathised- when you first catch religion a bit of you goes ahead of you and it takes years before the rest of you catches up. Its isn’t hypocrisy, just inconsistency because you’re trying to live on two levels at once. A little religious knowledge can be as dangerous as politicised, or uncritical religion. The news from the worlds trouble spots is the evidence, the Holy Land is one example. And even in Britain pious people seem to listen less these days because complexity is worrying, and dismissing other points of view is easier than understanding them.
Why does religion go so wrong? I’ve pondered this each year, on my August summer holidays when I start to prepare for the Jewish new year. Religion goes wrong because of simple but basic avoidances. You grow up but your childhood religion doesn’t so your religion dwindles into a fairy tale. Also as God is within you, to know him better you need to know yourself better too. But home truths are painful, so making God in your image and not you in his seems the easier option.
Absolutely right.
Seems to me we are required by faith to balance complexity in one hand and simplicity in the other. And it ain’t easy.
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So true, and a difficult truth at that. I’ve pondered the very same many times. I’m glad you posted this, thanks.
Well said. I loved your comment at the end. It is incredibly apt especially after my last two weeks of crisis. Complexity and simplicity are inherent in our faith. I wish more people could wrap their minds around that and accept it instead of trying to force things to be too simplistic. Easy answers help no one.
Thanks NWC and Maya. It’s funny, but I just threw that last remark in almost as an afterthought, it just came to me. But I’ve been thinking about it myself, and am convinced it’s quite important. And the trouble is, sometimes we have to use one or the other hand to do some other task, which puts us out of balance.