Opinions

Can religion become a business?

There are very many things in life that are said to be self-evident to every normal human being, everywhere in the world. These include, for example: when you get hungry, you should find food and eat; when you feel thirsty, you should find water to drink; and if you feel sleepy, you should get to some conducive place and sleep. Those sensations and the self-evident responses that we ought ordinarily to give to them are however only so, generally speaking. They fall at the most basic level of our existence as human instincts and the natural responses to them. However, man lives his life at five possible levels of his functional existence and operation. However, these are of course onlyif he manages to develop him/herself up to those other levels of existence as well.

The instinctual level of our existence belongs to the lowest, carnal, physical and obviously animal level of our existence. However, if we are also developed up to the level of our ‘hearts” (meaning our emotional, mid-brain or developed subconscious levels of ourselves), of our minds (cerebral, intellectual), of our spirit, or of our soulful levels of existence, it will be obvious that we should give a response to every instinctual sensation; but it does not necessarily mean eating at once, or eating anything at all, when we get hungry;, etc!

In the light of the above, it is usually said to be self-evident that human beings ought to love one another; and that genuine love cannot (and should not) be bought with money. No one should sell love; and any love bought or sold, must obviously be a fake love! At a still higher (or indeed, highest, soul-full) level of our human development and function, we also learn that God is love; and obviously, nobody may buy or sell God! This last fact leads us straight away to the very reason for the subject of this brief discussion today. Spirituality is the culture of personal life by which any human person explores the reality or otherwise of the existence of God as well as all the metaphysical realities of our lives. We learn of these, master them to the highest level possible; and if God or something like it is discovered there, we do well to develop a personal and responsible relationship with that God as well as all the other living persons in that realm. By and large, spirituality is a most personal thing; and nobody tries to sell or buy it – and are usually unable to do so, if at all genuine.

However, at the outer dimensions of our spirituality, we may agree to organise this within groups of people who would seem to be seeing these metaphysical realities in the same way or be easily persuaded to do so. At that point and in those circumstances, we call the culture that is emerging therefrom by the word of religion. Hence, religion is group spirituality as may be explored, lived and shared as a community and actively relating body of believers. Again, it would appear to me that it is also a given or taken fact, that much as spirituality as a personal culture or at least way of life is usually healthy and easily agreeable and respectful of other people, religion as group spirituality often does the exact opposite of what spirituality usually does. Religion is well known to be one of the commonest causes of enmity between peoples (rather than love), of hatred, other-undermining or even intractable wars; than what true spirituality usually does. There are very many other negativisms that are associated with religion; for which reason so very many people would be ready to throw away the baby of religion with the bath water of its religiosity!

It is in the realm of these evils of religion that we have the problem that is the topic of this brief discussion. If religion is truly about God, can the founding or running of it yield itself to a profit, money making, business or enterprise? Do people or can people buy the knowledge of and/or relationship with God with money; and can/may they sell it for profit? Can the founding of religions or faith communities be entered into as a business, money-making, “prosperity”-inducing enterprise; or should it be a charity, a loving and so priceless service, through and through? In these regards such wisdom statements come readily in mind: “you received without giving, so give without seeking for payment”!

If a religious body establishes any other religion-associated human service – schools, health care or social service institutions – should they not be as much as possible also charity programmes? If they decide that it be other than charity institutions, should they not register it and exemplarily follow the existing civil laws concerning such businesses? If they refuse and run such religious organisations as money-making and mundane profit-making enterprises, would the government of such a place not be failing in its responsibilities if they fail to regulate such a religious outfit as every other business or for-profit enterprise? Should such obviously fake religious bodies not respect such a government and comply with the given regulations, except there are aspects of it that are truly inappropriate? Will they refuse to be so regulated and still fail to see that in so doing, their sin has become double?

I have posed these questions because we are dealing with matters of spirituality and religion. Nobody’s answers to any of these questions needs to agree with any other person’s. However, all the people are responsible for the answers that they give to the questions and the lives that they live thereafter them; for they will each have to give account of those sometime in the future, here or hereafter, in the metaphysical. My prayer is that all those who read these discussions and/or share it with their friends will think deeply about the answers that they give; and that these will be of good to them when the time for these comes.