Can Your Child be Too Religious?

This was the question posed by a recent online article for Time Magazine. The answer, apparently, is Yes. "Religion can be a source of comfort that improves well-being. But some kinds of religiosity could be a sign of deeper mental health issues," writes Francine Russo. From my perspective, what is disturbing about this opinion piece is not the claim that some expressions of faith could be signs of mental instability. I do not know many Christians who will find controversial the idea that delusions, hallucinations, or seeing and hearing things that are not present, could be signs of mental health issues.

More concerning to me was what was assumed about the role of religion throughout the article. The author simply takes for granted that religion is only valuable to the extent that it provides people with a source of comfort and well being in their everyday lives. The final paragraph of the article is telling. After describing a young girl who had received treatment for anorexia, the author concludes:

 "After psychological treatment that included a spiritual element, she not only recovered from her anorexia, she developed a more positive view of God, of other people and herself. Instead of being weighed down by guilt and anxiety, her spiritual life became a comfort and joy. And that’s the role that religion should have for people of faith."

Here we have proudly embraced the idea of religion that Karl Marx famously disdained: Religion as nothing more than an opiate for the masses. Gone is any idea that Religion actually can express ultimate truth, and thus that one set of beliefs may be better than another. Gone is any idea that guilt over sin can be a good, even a necessary thing. Instead, we are called to believe whatever works to help us feel better about ourselves. If other people (even our children) believe something different - even completely contradictory - no problem. After all, it doesn't matter what is actually true as long as it "works for you."

 

Just three days after Easter Sunday, all Christians should all be acutely aware of what a load of baloney this view of religion is. Either Jesus rose from the grave on the third day or he did not. If he did not, then far from bringing us "comfort and joy," our Christian faith makes us pathetic people who ought to be particularly pitied by others. If he did, however, that changes everything. It means that Christianity is not fundamentally about bringing comfort and joy into our present lives (although it often does), but about being saved from ultimate death in eternity. It means that Jesus really is who he said he was, and that he really is the "way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In a culture that is has increasingly adopted the "whatever works" view of religion, may we have the wisdom and the boldness to continue to insist that it really does matter what a person believes.