What good is religion?

I've not visited the Country Life Blog for a week or so, but have just found a post by Sue that reminds me of why I get frustrated by traditional church. Why, I ask, do we think there is something useful in special clothes, using different voices and words, meeting in special buildings and having special music.

Does it make us more like Jesus?

Is it going to convict us that the poor need to be fed?

Is it going to bring justice to the oppressed and down-trodden?

Will it actually have any impact on our lives, other than to make us spend a couple of hours once or twice a week doing the prescribed actions that we've been culturally lead to believe will help us be 'OK' with God?

This does not detract in any way from those that live sacrificial lives, working within the traditional churches. But, as many from the hierarchy of those churches have observed, they are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the general population, and the result is that people don't see the point any more. Christianity (rather than churchianity) is a living and vital thing, immediately relevant to all generations and all cultures. It touches us to the heart, guiding us in lifestyle, relationships and policy.

There are 2 things I want when I die.

That I will have served God in my generation.

That no-one will copy how I did things.