It's hard to begin writing about Christianity and natural religion. It’s as if you know this party girl, loud and obnoxious, who always brings the drugs and never stops swearing. A woman who is drama personified. You walk into a room with her and fifty other people, and all you can hear is her! “Will you just shut up,” you think.
And yet her best friend insists that she is really very sensitive and has a big heart! “Right!” You think sarcastically, “that is the Christianity I know.” “Yes,” her best friend and most frequent apologist continues, “you just have to get her under the right circumstances.”
What are the right circumstances? It isn’t when you read the latest Christian scandal in the news. That Christianity has a problem with pedophilia and sex abuse. It also has trouble with boundaries, including knowing the difference between it and the Republican party. It loves to constrict the rights of women. Oh, and its history contains Taliban-like periods of repression against everyone you can name. Whew!
If you grew up in a Christian church that regularly made the news for any of the above, I am so sorry! However, there is no one Christian Church. Lately, Christianity has been getting attention only for its problematic side. But there are many versions of Christianity. You just have to look for what you want. The problematic Christianity I jokingly describe above as a party girl, well, she has a bunch of sisters who aren’t making the news. They are from the same family, but many are healthy, happy, and well worth your time.
Let's go through the elements of natural religion and see what to look for in a Christian church.
Element 1:Human-centered without being ego-centered.
A natural religion Christian church will maintain a serious-minded idea of what makes a good Christian.
It will have ways to grow spiritually through prayer, study, and good works. My brother-in-law belongs to a church where they have a centering prayer group. Centering prayer is a form of Christian meditation. His church has given him another way to become a better Christian.
I get nervous about churches that emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus. I know I am a bit of a killjoy. However, it would be easy to turn Jesus into a buddy who is an awful lot like yourself – then the ego has slipped into your religion in a very powerful way. Holding Jesus as a personal savior differs from loving Jesus and holding him as a model. If you love Jesus, you love his way of embracing and caring for the world, not your projection of him.
Element 2:Healing, Holistic, and Coherent with Nature and the Body.
The best Christian Churches are interested in healing this world. They take Jesus’s call to be peaceful and loving and apply them to modern life. They don’t try and solve present-day life issues with the ideas and methods from an earlier era.
Instead of condemning or shunning people because of their choices in life. They humbly educate themselves. As a result, they deal with:
Human Sexuality, by recognizing its variety;
Family Life by honoring all members;
Addiction by providing needed support.
There is no inherent need for Christianity to be anti-science.
Element 3: Grounded in Compassion and Morality
In the ‘90s, some Christian churches started putting “What would Jesus do?” on bumper stickers. It was a good question, even if it was mocked a bit. If a church regularly asks that question from the point of view of a modern Jesus, they probably can’t go wrong. Jesus had an open interest in people and a forgiving compassion for their faults. He sat down with tax collectors and conversed with ‘fallen’ women.
Element 4: Accommodates the Gamut of Belief: from No-God to God.
A Christian Church is not going to preach No-God from the pulpit. It is not in the Christian DNA, no matter how ‘natural’ they are. However, many Christian Churches are not very interested in your beliefs. Their pastors are comfortable with doubt, having seen it regularly among their congregants. Some of them have experienced it themselves.
Natural religion Christians have a nuanced idea of what God means. Again it has to do with the church being comfortable with modern life and humble about interpretation.
Element 5: Mild in Hierarchy and Light on Doctrine.
Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist, wondered what kind of organization was natural to humans? He studied shipwrecked communities to see how they organized themselves as they waited for rescue. These communities needed to come together immediately and make shelters, and forage for food. Sometimes they existed as a shipwrecked community for weeks or months.
These survivors often depended on leadership that came from the ships crew. The highest ranking officer would take over. If this leader was repressive in style and tried to keep the social hierarchy in place – the community did not do well. If a captain, or surviving mate adopted a less repressive leadership style, more people survived. What worked best was encouraging people with skills to use them, motivating people to sing and laugh together, and talking with everyone before making big decisions. All these traits resulted in what Christakis called a ‘mild hierarchy’ community. In no case did a shipwreck community survive without any leaders, but they did not do well under coercive leadership.
My best experiences with small organizations have been with ‘mild hierarchy.’ Churches, sanghas, hiking clubs, and social justice organizations – all work best this way. It is essential to feel you are a valued part of the community. After all, we can walk away from a repressively run church, we aren’t shipwrecked!
If a church is ‘light on doctrine’, it allows its members to have freedom in their minds about what they believe. When a Church has ‘mild hierarchy’ and is also light on doctrine, it generates a sense of mutually reinforcing respect for everyone. Both qualities require less policing by the leadership.
There are other qualities that I would recommend along with the five natural religion qualities. Is it a happy church? Do people seem to like each other and their minister or priest? Long standing internal fights sap the energy from a church. Look also, for a sense of purpose. What does the community stand for?
I’ll be doing at least two more posts on Christianity. One will be about St Bridget and her version of Christianity. The other post will be on how to navigate a big, old tradition. Inevitably you will disagree with some piece of any large tradition. How do you cope without damping yourself down?
I am open to other topics also – so shoot me questions if you have them.
Katie, I'd love to share this on Facebook----you make so many great points and describe my UU Christianity pretty well. BUT if I do, I'm sure to get some grammar nerd objecting to the headline. I think it should read "ARE Natural Religion and Christianity Compatible?" There are two subjects there and my internal grammarian feels uncomfortable with a singular subject verb joining two subjects. Did you have a reason for using IS instead of ARE that I'm just not familiar with?