Juvenile Notions of God and Religion

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The following is from a recent display, called “Funny Notes from Little Kids,” on the MSN home page:

Dear tooth fareis: My tooth whent down the drane. It was an accident. Will you take this eyelash insted?

From Emerson

An arrow points to a circle Emerson made with his pencil. Presumably, he had placed an eyelash - or part of one – there.

We can smile because a child wrote it. If an adult had written it, it certainly wouldn’t have made it onto a nationwide stage unless it was part of a news story on adults who believe in tooth ferries and who had been denied an education, and we wouldn’t smile.

We adults try not to be childish or juvenile - except when it comes to God and religion. This is especially evident at Christmas time. We get caught up in the childish accidentals and miss the substance. Many of us also have childish or juvenile reasons for believing, and just as childish or juvenile reasons for not believing.

How many of us believers have moved beyond the “old white guy in the sky” idea of God, or of God, the scorekeeper who keeps tabs on our virtues and vices? How many of us still feel that God is going to punish us in some physical way for our misdeeds? How many of us still try to make “deals” with him/her (“I’ll go to church if I get that raise.”), much like children negotiate with their parents?

It’s no wonder many non-believers equate our faith with belief in the tooth fairy.

But how many non-believers, or people who have given up on God and religion, allow themselves to be influenced by the cultural climate and its indifference toward God and faith, much like teenagers who won’t wear warm clothes in the winter because they’re not “cool?” Or how many uncritically accept the negative stereotypes of religion and religious people, like children who are afraid of the old man in the house down the street because of what older children have told them.

Let’s face it. Many of us believe or fail to believe for childish reasons. So, for searchers of God, believers or not, what constitutes a mature faith?

Before getting to that, a disclaimer. I don’t judge anyone’s faith as immature or childish. That’s not my role, nor my point. Everyone’s faith, or lack of faith, deserves respect.

For me, however, an answer to the question about mature faith lies in two seemingly contradictory passages in the Christian Bible.

The first is from Mathew’s gospel, where Jesus tells his disciples they must become “like children.” The second is from Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Corinth. He writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

So, which is it? Should I be like a child, or should I “put the ways of childhood behind me?”

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Both, of course. Regarding Jesus’ words in the gospel, the Message, Catholic/Ecumenical Bible translates Mathew’s quote as “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in.” Jesus wanted his listeners to throw away the baggage of adulthood with its cynicism and distrust and return to the trusting, loving child we once were.

And without abandoning the loving attributes of children, Paul wants his readers to grow up. God is not to be found in the juvenile trappings of religion but in its substance, nor in childish “deals” with God nor in images of God that may not have changed since we were in the eighth grade. If we’re serious about the search for God, we have to do the work. We have to open our minds and hearts, seek out, and read and listen to whatever can help in the search. We have to reconcile our faith with what we know from science and the arts. And we have to remove the obstacles that impede it.

“...Follow some church members through the week," writes Eugene C. Roehlkepartain in Religion-Online. "Few will show any signs that they are Christians. They won’t read their Bibles or pray. They won’t work in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. They won’t participate in rallies to fight injustice or discrimination. People in mainline churches live lives unaffected by their faith. And part of the problem is that churches are not doing what it takes to make faith mature.”

The writer is talking about mainline Protestant churches, but my own Catholic Church and many other have the same problem.

No, a mature faith means first, recognizing God as loving father/mother, communicating with him/her, and accepting uncertainty and doubt as part of the deal. Then it means being the person and doing the things Roehlkepartain mentions, especially – in the case of Christianity – reaching out to others.

Does that sound anything like belief in the tooth fairy? Not even Emerson would think so.