The Religious Cover Up - David Cartledge

RELIGION - A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE:

Religion inevitably bends people out of shape. It changes ordinary human beings into distorted and distasteful parodies of real people. Religion is a poisonous and dangerous force responsible for uncountable human miseries. It is a substitute for truth—a counterfeit—a diversion.

Religious doctrines and ideals have been the cause of wars, massacres and murders, ostracisms, divisions and broken homes, shattered lives, suicides, and bondages more binding than prison walls or bars of steel.

In recent years the Catholic / Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland has cost the lives of hundreds of innocent people. A five-year all out war between Iran and Iraq had its roots in their abstract interpretations of Muslim doctrine. Christians and Muslims in Lebanon have been blasting each other into Eternity for many years all in the name of religion.

The fiery fervour called the Crusades stirred up by militant religious leaders during the Middle Ages with the motive of freeing Jerusalem from the Infidels is an apt example of the power of religion to destroy. Pillage, rape and murder were justified by the cause. Thousands of misled pilgrims took up arms and descended on the Holy Land to kill and destroy in the Name of Christ. (It is a notable thing that some Christians have recently felt the urge to retrace the steps of these violent Crusaders, interceding for the people who were offended, showing love and seeking forgiveness)

In fact, this idea that the end justifies the means is a favourite religious technique. Hypocrisy, lying and treachery are never far from the practice of religion.

Judas was an expert in these character traits and deceived his fellow disciples with his religious service, which was a cover-up for his thieving, treacherous ways.

RELIGION - INFILTRATES THE CHURCH:

All too often, the enemies of God are within the Church. Jesus said they were like tares sown among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) — the counterfeit Christian who is almost indistinguishable from the genuine child of God. Spiritual life would be so much easier if the identifying of religion was simple. But the false and distorting power of religion is not confined to heretics or unbelievers. It is all too possible for genuine believers to be seduced from true faith to manmade religious activity. It happened to a whole group of churches in ancient Galatia. Paul’s Epistle to them is a classic correction of the subtle, seductive power of religion to delude and distort born-again believers.

Man-made rules and regulations can quickly take the place of a real relationship with God. Traditions become established unconsciously but end up being unchangeable. No doubt there is an evil spirit behind religious traditions. There is no other way to explain the power of them.

FADING GLORY:

These man-made substitutes for the glory of God are aptly illustrated in the life of Moses. He went on top of Mount Sinai with God and returned with a face that shone (Exodus 34:29-35). But that manifested glory was not permanent. The Scriptures show us that Moses put a veil over his face so that the people would not see that the glory was fading (II Corinthians 3:13). This same chapter states that this is an illustration of hearts and minds which have a veil over them.

This is the great religious cover-up. It is an attempt to disguise the fact that the glory is fading and the presence of God is gone. The veil is the religious substitute for a real relationship with God—Church programmes and traditions take the place of prayer, praise and worship. The illusion is given that everything is just the same, but underneath the glory is gone!

PRODUCTS OF THE COVER-UP:

One of the results of faded glory and the religious cover-up is blindness of mind. There is no revelation. The Word of God becomes routine and meaningless. There is no understanding, no impartation of faith, and the

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