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Beyond religiosity

“...I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them! ...Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. Instead let justice flow like stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.” — Amos 5:21-24

Incurably Religious

Theologians often say that human beings are incurably religious. No human civilization has ever existed without the marks of religious life. In fact, some historians believe that the death of most civilizations was caused primarily by internal religious and moral decay rather than external aggressions.

Religious philosophers believe that there is that nature in human beings that continuously longs for the divine. St. Augustine says that we are made for God and that our souls are restless until they rest in God.

The atheists, who claim that they don’t believe in God, are actually affirming their faith in a different understanding of God. Atheism as a religious philosophy is a reaction to the traditional theology. For instance, when the atheist German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared that God is dead, he was actually criticizing how Christianity reduced the living God into a dead ritual. That’s why he challenged the Christians in his time to show that they are redeemed so that he would believe in their redeemer. Nietzsche believed in a living, dynamic God. When Karl Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, he was actually criticizing how Christianity was made to justify social injustice and made people blind to the reality of oppression and exploitation. Marx believed in the God of freedom and justice.

Indeed, religion can become so mechanical and habitual that it loses its meaning and significance. Hence, there is a need for us from time to time to look beyond our religiosity and try to discover God’s will and purpose in our contemporary life.

Prophet Amos

The Israelites possess a remarkable religiosity. Their history as a people could be meaningfully understood only in relation to their faith in God. Such religiosity became very much pronounced in Prophet Amos’ time. They claimed that Yahweh their God was with them. They had elaborate religious festivals and offered fattened animals to Yahweh. Israel then was under King Jeroboam II, a very capable monarch who maintained a strong army that provided the country’s peace and security. No wonder Israel at that time was said to be at the height of its power and prosperity.

However, there was a poor shepherd named Amos from the small town of Tekoa in Judah, who viewed Israel’s situation from a different perspective. He looked at it from the point of view of the poor people of the land. Yahweh called him to be a prophet.

Prophet Amos tried to measure Israel’s notable religiosity, economic prosperity, and apparent security in terms of the people’s covenant relationship with Yahweh. He perceived the religious observances as insincere. Prosperity was limited to the rich, and worse, it fed on injustice and oppression of the poor. The nation’s security was more apparent than real.

Thus, with passion and courage, Prophet Amos preached saying, “You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grains…You persecute good men, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts…The Lord says, ‘I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them…I will not accept your offerings…Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. Instead, let justice flow like a stream and righteousness like a river that never goes dry…Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is. Then, perhaps the Lord will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive” (Amos 5:12-15,21-24).

Amos’ Message for us

What do these things got to do with us? Israel’s situation during Prophet Amos resonates very much with our own situation today. Like the Israelites, we, too, are a very religious people. In the Cordillera alone, we have more than two hundred sixty-five new religious movements aside from the traditional religious groups. Despite the economic depravation suffered by the poor and the continuing insurgency in the countryside, government authorities still claim that we are peaceful and secured and growing economically.

Perhaps, we need a prophetic vision like that of Amos to look beyond our religiosity, our apparent security and seeming economic prosperity.

The story of Prophet Amos is saying to us, first of all, that our religiosity should not separate us from the grim realities of this world. Our religiosity should express our fears and hopes as a people. It should not make us indifferent and complacent, but rather it should lead us to do what is right and just.

This reminds us of Ms. Filomena G. Asuncion, a deaconess of the United Methodist Church who joined the struggle of our people and was killed in the process. Her life is a living criticism as well as a challenge to our religiosity. When she was at Harris Memorial College, she used to say, “Joining demonstrations is not a godly act. That is not part of our church work. Leave that job to others. Our work is religious in nature; it is to take care of souls.”

However, after some years of immersing herself in the life and struggles of poor people in the countryside after graduation, her perspective on church mission and ministry radically changed. She later on described her work in this manner, “We experienced harassment by the military. We were branded subversives. They questioned our missionary programs and activities. But I told them that this is what the Bible says, and this is my Christian commitment: to help educate, organize and mobilize the people for genuine change. My plan is to continue working in the countryside at my own risk.”

Lumen had gone ahead of us. But she left us Christians a disturbing message that all our religiosity would remain like a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal, if it does not lead us to the task of letting “justice to flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes.” We cannot duplicate Lumen’s life, but in our own small way we could also be channels of God’s justice and righteousness in our present time. #

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