Religion Versus Ideology
The Gospel Reading for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost records the Beheading of John the Baptizer, St. Mark’s Gospel 6: 14- 29. The tragedy in this event is the martyrdom of the innocent whose only crime was to preach one of the core values in the will of God, namely moral impropriety to a king who was determined to live an immoral life. A secular value that reflects a contradiction to the gospel imperative in that it rejects the importance of human love and care for the other.
John’s most profound role was to be the forerunner to Jesus in the words of John, “I baptize with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me….” (Matthew 3: 11-12). His death reminds us of how much the world is intolerant with righteousness and of ‘the command to love one another as God’s loves us’ and ‘to do unto others what we would like for them to do unto us.’ It reveals to us how far an individual is willing to go in order to eliminate a fellow sister of brother in their quest for selfish preservation, power and control.
John’s greatest gift to the Christian community today is a classic demonstration of the need to remain faithful to our call from God – to remain steadfast, unmovable, impermeable, unshakable, committed and devoted in the face of evil and perpetrators of that ideology (I Corinthians 15:58).
I grew up in the late 1970’s and 1980’s in my home country Guyana where the ideology of communism and the concept of the Juche Idea were commonplace, where individuality was posited as paramount to a person’s destiny. God and religion were viewed as having limited to no role in influencing the human person for good and moral/ethical behavior. The church’s presence was very evident and palpably vocal in denouncing this fallacy. In that it viewed suffering and pain as more than an individual making or experience. It was very much a part of God’s overarching plan in salvation history.
The church’s spiritual, moral, ethical, eschatological and prophetic voice shared the central idea that “suffering is built into the structure of being” and, although it can be unbearable, people have a choice either to withdraw, which is a “fatalistic posture”, or to face and transcend it. Living in a world of chaos and order, everyone has “darkness” that can “turn them into the monsters they’re capable of being” to satisfy their dark impulses in the right situations.
The question that was asked by the church in that era of heightened ideological debate was, “What is the difference between religion and ideology?” It did so because “both of them are a system of beliefs, values, opinions and paradigms that help you shape your behavior and help to shape the world around you.” In that understanding, “religion and ideology are exactly the same”. So, what’s the difference? Here is a possible answer, “religion is when you have something beautiful within yourself that you have a desire or longing to share, and ideology is when you seek to impose your order on another before you master the chaos within.” In that order with ideology, you are trying to give something you don’t have. On the contrary, with religion you are sharing something beautiful in Christianity of course, that is Christ, the Holy Spirit, the way to the Father.
In this week’s gospel narrative, John the Baptist shares the beautiful thing he had living and breathing and the catalyst for his sacrificial self-giving even unto death at the cruel hands of King Herod – the LOVE of GOD. John gave his life for his conviction and for that, the Christian world honors him. As followers of a gospel that embodies calvary, we likewise are called and commissioned to live in the spirit of John the Baptist.
Against the backdrop of humiliation, mean spiritedness, hatred, inexplicable malice and the likes, John asks the Christian in the face of oppression and personal attacks to remain faithful and allow Jesus to fulfill his command. The promise to walk beside you as defender and spokesperson. At the end of the day, there is always someone to ‘bury your body’ or ‘to help bear the pain’ as John’s disciples did for him after his execution.
So, if you are sitting at home thinking, how am I supposed to evangelize – I am home bound or I live in a very Christian area where everyone knows who Jesus is in this place. How can I evangelize? If you could understand that evangelization is simply sharing the beauty of your faith, in my belief that’s what counts.
As one clergy in a sermon I recently listened to said, “in your baptismal vows you can share your rejection of sin, your love for the Father, your covenant with Christ, your savior and redeemer, your love for the Holy Spirit, your belief in the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. You may extol the virtue of respecting the dignity of every person and covenant to love others and to forgive those who may sin against you as God forgives your sin. Anytime you are able to share that with another you are an evangelist. You may not be wearing sandals; you may wear a second shirt, nevertheless, you tell out that gospel message because evangelism needs to be nothing more complicated than sharing the beauty of your faith”. The personal faith question put before us is, “What can I do more to evangelize in my life?”
I sincerely pray a blessed, enjoyable family time and cool summer to the members of our diocesan family, friends and God’s beloved children including all creation.
Stay strong! Stay encouraged! Stay blessed! God loves you and so do I!
Bishop San