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| Cover of Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional |
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| Image via Wikipedia |
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| Cover of Karl Marx |
I mentioned some time ago that I have a kind of “favorite”
religion writer that I read every Saturday in the Detroit News. His spot in the
News is called: KEEPING THE FAITH and in it, he talks religion but in a very
new, non-doctrinal way that I find refreshing and hope that it becomes a new
approach to Christianity; more humanist.
Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker and
author and this week’s article was entitled TRANSFORMATION IS CENTRAL TO HAVING
A HEALTHY FAITH which is from his new book, THE JESUS TRIBE.
What interested me in this particular article is his mention
of a historical figure; Karl Marx. For those somewhat challenged by history,
Marx was actually German who lived and died in London, England and wrote his
Communist Manifesto at the height of the brutal industrial revolution. He had
no connection to the revolution in Russia
Anyway, he famously said that RELIGION IS THE OPIATE OF THE
PEOPLE which, in the current article, McBrayer agrees with somewhat. Marx
argues famously, that religion never “solves” problems, it just provides a
“tranquilizing” affect to the person experiencing the problem or as McBrayer
puts it: medicate our boo-boos and make us happy when we are sad.
He adds that many pulpits peddle this so called “sedative”
for your real pain and suffering; and I agree.
McBrayer then offers another “historical” figure in the name
of JAMES, the brother of Jesus who became the leader of the Apostles (Jesus
community) after Jesus was killed. This is historically true as documented by
evidence outside the Gospel accounts which tried to portray PETER as somehow
the leader of the group.
Anyway, JAMES has a letter in the Bible that has been to
some extent controversial throughout the centuries with Martin Luther actually
calling for the letter to be thrown out of the Biblical canon as a “false”
letter. The reason Luther was so against this letter was because, he felt, it
contradicted his view that one can “only” be saved “by faith alone”.
James posits that “what good is it that you have faith, if
your actions do not prove it?” In other words, what is good about believing
(having faith) when you live your life like an uncaring twit?
I can’t really go into the misunderstanding between Luther’s
belief and what James was saying because it would take too long but it was just
a misunderstanding, at least according to me.
So what is McBrayer trying to say here? Well to him faith
should not be just a “soothing salve” or a “spiritual tranquilizer” but a
“transformative power” that can enable us to actually change our lives for the
better.
Well I can kinda’ see where he is going with this BUT… I
think Marx was right in his assessment of religion in our society as an
“opiate” and James was right to say if you don’t practice your faith, your
faith is dead so I guess what he is saying is don’t use your faith only when
you are in trouble but practice it all the time?
Maybe I should read his book…
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