On a wet Sunday morning I went to church. This is my duty. Someone among the faithful few had placed a cushion in my accustomed place on the hard oak pew. This small thoughtful act of kindness recognized the intermittent pains in my ancient bones. It also expressed what religion should be about - small kindnesses in small places expanding to encompass the whole world.
I am perplexed when I see so many empty pews. Am I an antique creature left behind by a wiser society which perceives en masse that religion of every variety is an impediment to logical thought? Or is the withering of religious faith nothing more than an expression of thoughtlessness, of fleeting pleasures valued more than personal obligations and concerns for the precarious future of humankind?
No one with knowledge of history can deny that vicious conflicts between different brands of religion have led, again and again, to bloodshed. No one with an interest in international affairs can deny that there are brutal battles today that are caused by - or are purported to be caused by - differences in religious beliefs.
If every religion is nothing more than a collection of myths invented in order to explain the unexplainable, there is reason enough for abandoning our places of worship. There is more to Christianity, however, than the mysticism of the Immaculate Conception and of a crucified god-man who rose from the dead to redeem us all. Even if I reject the mysticism, I find in Christianity a practical moral code, advice as wise as modern psychiatry gives and wisdom greater than our sectarian law-makers display.
If the Christian moral code prevailed in the world, there would be no need for police forces, criminal courts or prisons. Moreover, there would be no need for those who care to reproach us for revelling in luxuries while elsewhere the world is blighted by violence, pollution, starvation, homelessness and disease. In Canada, there would be a more widespread realization of the horrors of the Indian residential schools and a greater willingness to make amends for the suffering they caused. The Canadian government attempted either to exterminate or assimilate the aboriginal races. Christian churches should never have become the instruments of government policy.
The Indian residential schools were intended to destroy a cultural heritage. The aboriginal religions were seen as pernicious beliefs to be rooted out and replaced by the true faith. I don't believe there is literal truth in the myths and legends of the First Nations, but there is beauty, truth and wisdom in them nevertheless. There is a moral code which would suffice if every last remnant of Christianity were to disappear.
When I emerged from the church last Sunday, the wind had subsided, clouds had changed from grey to white and the air was sweet with the emanations from rain-drenched vegetation. In my small corner of the world there was no killing, no starvation, no rampant diseases and no visible pollution. Thanks be to God.
