Got Church?

Occasionally I still find myself nudged and prodded to attend church on my precious Sunday mornings. The service usually gets out before the football pre-game shows are over so I oblige from time to time. Our church, Southern Baptist, recently opened a new 5,000 seat facility, so I was eager to get a look.

Despite my being ardently anti-religion and anti-faith, the institution of the church intrigues me. Our new church, or maybe complex is the better word, looks like a cross between the Jerusalem Temple and a Busch Gardens ride. It's quite impressive. It made me feel quite happy to tell you the truth, to see such a great structure brought about by nothing but the voluntary actions of like minded people, freedom at its best, in a way. It's the sitting in church that provides the real lessons though, not the structure.

As anyone who attends a church will readily tell you, the church isn't the building, it isn't the preacher, although those help. The church is ultimately the people. The church provides something crucial to people that, to my mind, nothing else provides. what it provides is community, in the real sense of the word. A support structure that spans all facets of life.

A school presents different methods of living. A church tells you which is good, and helps you live it. Work provides you with money and achievement. Church tells you what to do with it and what it's worth. Sports tells our kids how to win. Church teaches them why they play.

The church sets foundational principles that so many people seem to lack. It's upon those principles, the Bible in this case, that people rally around. They come together every Sunday to study those foundations. They sing. They put on plays and skits. They send their kids to Sunday school to supplement their deficient public school educations. They have sports teams, social clubs and festivals. Half of what the church does has little if anything to do with God. So why do church going folk do it? Why do they attend just to sing some songs or go on a hay ride?

People are social animals. Combine this with the fact that none of us are perfect and you see why the church is such a vital institution. The community that the church offers helps people. They help people better understand their beliefs. They help raise children. They help take care of the elderly members of the group. They help when individuals struggle. They help people socialize and enjoy life. Where else but church do so many people volunteer so many hours to participate in choirs and orchestras? What other institution has people volunteering to teach kids and teenagers and referee baseball games? What other institution has people volunteering ten percent of their income?

I abhor most of the foundational beliefs that church's rely upon and teach to their members. But, having said that, I do feel that the role the church plays in the lives of its members is a crucial one that most, if not all, individuals could benefit from. This is why it saddens me so much to see that their is no real equivalent of the church in the secular world.

If their is one great failing of secularism, and it may indeed be a great one, it is its failure to recognize the human need for a social community and the philosophical foundations that community must rest on. In their quest to disprove the existence of God, they have failed to build their own self-supporting community structures. This failure has left those who find no truth in religion to wander aimlessly in search of meaning and purpose, truth and stability, leaving them confused, susceptible to false claims such as religion or subjectivism, and often creating individuals that are detached and ultimately unhappy.

The need for fellowship exists, even among the non-religious. I don't think that a secular society will successfully come to fruition until this vital need is met. I hope I am there to see that day, and will do my best to make it come to pass.

Fly Higher,
Icarus Goodman