Who is God?

How do our religion and service attendance and participation habits reflect our image of God? Have you thought about it?

Let’s say you attend religious services because you feel bad about yourself and you feel as though you need to seek forgiveness or set things right. Might this mean that you see God as a parent figure that will decide whether or not you get rewarded or punished (either here or in the afterlife)? If it weren’t for this understanding of God, would you still feel bad after failing to act in the ways you or your religion have deemed appropriate?

Along the same lines, maybe you don’t attend all that frequently because if God is loving and forgiving he/she’ll understand the trials and tribulations already and there’s no real need to rehash things at a service. You can think about what you are doing at any time and an all present God will know.

Maybe you go to service to worship/adore/thank God? Do you think an all powerful, all knowing God needs thanks and adoration from his creations? Why do we need to adore, worship and thank God? Is this a reminder for us on how good we have it and what if things turn bad in a Job sort of way? Will we maintain our motivation to give thanks or is our adoration contingent on our well-being? So God created you and if you worship, thank and adore him/her, then you will be rewarded with eternal happiness if you don’t it’s hell.

Do we really think everything we have is a gift from God or does our behavior reflect that God has been pretty good to us and we need to tip him/her to keep things going in the right direction? Here is a little something for you God now keep those aces and tens headed in my direction.

How about the age old question of what happens with people who do not believe and worship as you do (or don’t at all as the case may be)? Did God create humanity and reserve eternal life for Christians or Buddhists or Muslims? It doesn’t seem like you can have it both ways, either there are multiple religions (ways?) to eternal life or there isn’t. If there isn’t then one has to seriously wonder whether you are playing on the right team or not given the number of different options. If there are then one should feel compelled to examine the different options to find one that is most effective in helping one treat one’s neighbor as oneself (which seems to be one of the more universal themes in religion).

I am not sure there’s a point in all of these questions. I guess I was thinking that we need to understand why people do or don’t attend religious services and work with the results. I also think that we need to be clear about our understanding of who God is and develop a lifestyle that is consistent with this understanding. Organized religions have created some very elaborate and complex rules and practices that define God different ways. In delving into why people do or don’t chose to more fully practice their chosen religion, it seems there needs to be a link between the religion’s understanding of God and why the religious activities are important. And so in the case of my parish who is trying to get more people to attend Mass, can we link our understanding of God with the benefits or reasons of mass attendance? If the people who we want to attend mass don’t have the same understanding of God, then it seems that we either need to change their understanding or change the service.

Mass it matters?

What is the value of attending a religious service regularly? Our parish has asked and attempted to answer this question. The idea we had is that if we publicized why the service matters for a wide variety of people, the people who aren’t attending might take notice and start attending.

While I think this is a wonderful idea, I am not sure how effective it will be in changing the habits of those who don’t or periodically attend. The testimonies of the individuals are varied and on-balance very good. However, I am not sure the 65% of the registered members will respond to their messages though.

I guess what I am thinking is that if the people who faithfully attend religious services behave differently than those who don’t, that would potentially be a motivation for getting more people to attend. So if the people behavior, attitudes, actions and lifestyle of those who attend are judged to be better by those who occasionally attend, then the occasional crowd would probably start showing up.

What sort of behavior, attitudes, actions and lifestyle hallmarks would you expect from someone who attends services compared with someone who doesn’t? Can they be defined or seen? You’d think there would be some outward sign. “Look at Joe, he seems like he is almost always at peace with the world.” “Sara is so compassionate about those in need and she really enjoys helping people.” “Johnny is a great father, husband and balances work, play and service to the community.” Are these the sort of people we would conclude attend religious services regularly? Are there fewer people like this who don’t attend services (statistically do service attendees behave more morally than those who don’t)? Finally and most importantly, do you think the people who don’t attend or seldom attend actually aspire to one of the above lifestyles?

I have a new theory about religious service attendance – people who don’t attend don’t want to change. If they do want to change, it might not be the change that occurs at the services. Services don’t typically make people thinner or richer or more popular or more attractive which are the types of changes many in our culture desire. The problem with religious service attendance is the carrot that is offered isn’t the one that society says will taste good. People are better off spending their time and energy trying to make money or look better and not try to endeavor toward a positive experience in the hereafter.

While I’d like to think we can change this scenario, I see it as a huge uphill battle. I think part of the problem is that attendees lives aren’t sufficiently differentiated from those who don’t or seldom attend to make a compelling case to attend. Maybe we need to worry about making the service have a compelling impact on the lifestyle of the attendees to attract people.