When is religion good? When is it bad?

Religion can find you cracked or leave you cracked. I teach world religions, and perhaps I’m a bit cracked for doing that, too! Religion has everything in it from soup to nuts. But there is also a lot of good in religion, as well as the bad and the crazy.

How do we tell the difference? When is religion good, and when is it bad?

The criterion seems simple: religion is good when it’s a blessing to human beings; it is bad when it is a curse to human beings. Religion is good when it serves humanity; it is a curse when it oppresses humanity.

Religion is good when it sets people free to be fully human, as God wishes them to be. It is a curse when it enslaves people, bullies people, and destroys their humanity.

Every religion has a bright side and a dark side. Every religion has good in it, and yet every religion can become demonic. Whatever is good can be twisted into the demonic. Religion becomes demonic when it ceases to serve people and, instead, hurts people.

The question today is not whether or not religion will survive. It will survive. The question is: what kind of religion will survive? Will the world be blessed by a religion of service, love, and compassion? Or will the world go down in flames with a religion of anger, retaliation, and violence?

Speaking as a Christian, I can’t think of God without thinking of Jesus. My God is the God of Jesus Christ. This is the God who is not just “up there” in heaven but who came down to earth. This is the God who loves all humanity and who suffers with us, just as Jesus suffered on the cross.

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Here is an important principle. Religion was made for humanity, not humanity for religion. This means that all religious laws and commandments and institutions are to be judged by how much they serve humanity.

People are more important than religious laws and commandments. People are more important than doctrines. People are more important than creeds and religious institutions. God wants to save people, not religion.

No religious norms or institutions are absolute. No religion is absolute. Everything is to be judged by the criteria of love and service to humanity. That’s when religion is good for the human race.