What exactly does this term mean? In today's age of Wikipedia and online definitions readily available, the most commonly used definitions refer to a state of mind of reference to a deity or deities and the actions taken to demonstrate that state of mind. It is most commonly associated with an acceptance of dogma or doctrines on “faith” as opposed to reason, by both the faithful and the non-believers. Too the faithful, contradictions are meaningless while to the non-believer, it is a sign of mental weakness. Worship has become, to many struggling with these questions, an incorrect term for what they see as their “belief”.
In essence the term simply means (note most of the #2 definitions listed in various dictionaries) as reverence and honor given an individual or idea. This seems to be a more useful definition as it let's us address what exactly can earn such reverence or honor from individuals and societies. And in this form, it does not imply a lack of willingness to question the reasons such reverence is accorded any given person or idea. Such worship, if it is to be called that, must be continually earned in context. Honoring past deeds or valor need not be worship; reverence for principles upheld reflect on both the individual and the society that produced them.
The Christ, we are taught, brought a message of love, compassion and honor in ones own behavior. He had many lessons to teach and for this reason has been honored and revered in several major religious movements. When this devolves into worship, however, many loose sight of these teachings. Those promoting blind worship, “faith-based” worship of any idea or individual have sought to use “faith” to distort those teaching of love and kindness into excuses for war and oppression ever since the first organization of these doctrines. While most within these churches revered the message and actively sought to promote love, compassion, caring for the sick and injured, those who sought power over others used the movement to maintain financial and political power and amass great wealth over the centuries.
Worship is a distortion of those original teachings. Throughout His message, the Christ told his followers that the most important part of their relationship with their creator was how they treated one another. Over and over again He repeated this message, scolding His listeners when they failed to take the lessons the parables taught.
One cannot honestly say one is a follower of those teachings if one cannot feel compassion for others. To behave towards others in a dismissive or inconsiderate way is anathema to those teachings and to build an organization on them for personal profit is the worst form of hypocrisy.
To those faithful who struggle with the inconsistencies of their church or temples behaviors or teachings, and who see these contradictions for the hypocrisy they are, the choice to withdraw is not a socially acceptable one; most of their social activity revolves around either family/church events or work/family issues if they are active in a church of almost any kind. Questioning this status quo is seldom appreciated and tends to be discouraged. Many have left active participation in churches for this very reason.
But to the sincere seeker, the underlying message of love and compassion still resonates and has meaning. It is worth honoring if for no other reason that it is how we can all live together in peace and harmony; it is the foundation of Paradise for any sentient being. If there is a God and He cares at all for us, that Paradise has to be what the whole thing is all about, right? But the question has always been: How do we reach this place, this blissful existence many throughout history have promised us was the Purpose of God? The end goal, in these prophecies, is to join the Creator in this place where perfect peace and love rule for the rest of time, the perfect reward for the faithful.
What can this mean to us in real terms, in every day life? What would be the effect of having everyone seeking understanding, trust, compassion and love, not just while sitting in a pew but in every interaction with another human being, from their own children to the clerk at the convenience store or the bum in the street? It is only fear that keeps us from pursuing this goal in secular life. Fear of loosing out, of being ripped off, of not getting what you deserve, of being cheated on, lied to, or robbed legally by politicians and businessmen, all serve to limit the amount of trust we are willing to give others.
But it has to start somewhere, doesn't it? Giving the other person the benefit of the doubt costs nothing but some time, even if you discover it was unwarranted. If everyone tried treating others with respect, each of us would feel more respected. If each of us was willing to help out when we could, we wouldn't need to feel desperate when we needed help ourselves. If our government and society worked together to take care of the neediest, none of us would ever fear falling on hard times.
And if you feel that taking care of others simply makes them weak or criminal or lazy, then you have never really faced hard times, no matter what your story is. Those who take advantage of such systems do exist, but are a small percentage of those who need and rely upon assistance to make ends meet. Taking the support from those who need it on the off chance that someone might take advantage of it is not a very spiritual value, much less a Christian one.
Having values about life is another issue that has become muddled by this same attitude regarding worship as opposed to reverence for an ideal. If you truly believe that contraception or abortion or being gay or eating pork are spiritually bad for you, simply do not do any of those things and you will be “safe”. To force others to accept your belief as their own is no different a form of suppression than any other. If you want your beliefs to be respected you must start with respecting the differing beliefs of others and this means TOLERANCE. It is a key principle in the teachings of the Christ and to deny that is to deny the entire message of His time on earth.
To truly worship and revere the Christ and his message, we need to abandon all dogma that separates and divides us. We need to focus on the message and the actions that we revere and attempt to emulate those in every day life, in every interaction with others. We don't need to keep telling others why we are being nice and shoving our beliefs in their face; it is the opposite of tolerance to tell others that you only behave this way because “[insert prophet name here]” came into your life. As if a person couldn't have a cheery disposition or behave nicely unless one had this particular brand of faith in their lives. It is ultimately disrespectful.
And reverence of an ideal or person is a personal demonstration of ones respect for that person or ideal. That is true worship, not mindlessly adhering to a doctrine or dogma through “faith” and lip service to words. Actions, behavior are all that truly matter in the really real world. The judgment feared by the faithful will be based upon how they actually treated their fellow beings rather than upon what church they went to or what contributions they made. But that judgment will be brought not in an afterlife, but in how they live their lives today. Pain begets pain and misery begets misery. The more judgmental we are, the worse our world is for ourselves, individually and collectively.
We need to stop this vicious cycle. We need to see beyond dogma and into the actual teaching available to us from many religions. We need to not blindly take ancient writings as if they were written by the Almighty; they were NOT. They were written by men struggling to convey a truth and understanding of something they believed of paramount importance, but they were men (and occasionally women) like the rest of us and not deities, not infallible. We need to learn the difference between the teachings of the Christ and the hubris of the authors who related His story to the rest of us.
Every branch of modern Christianity faces the same problem today. The various church leaders have abandoned the teachings of their Founder for policies and tactics that are in direct contradiction to His teachings. Misogyny, prejudice, greed and intolerance were all things that He preached against directly to his followers. Where are they now in church doctrines? Where are the ministers and priests to rally the people to love one another as the Christ would have them? Without this foundation, the call for anti-everything legislation to embody their call to institute their belief system into law is simply one more group's attempt to establish a dictatorship for themselves. The Teacher wouldn't recognize what has been done to His teachings.
The churches have been steadily shedding membership, in spite of the apparent rise of the fundamentalist types in government positions. The current crop of extreme types in government are, I believe, a temporary anomaly and one that has already begun to be reversed as people come to realize just what a bad idea it really was. The truly faithful are not comfortable with the extreme positions being pushed through various state houses and are beginning to push back in state after state. The churches, if they are to remain relevant at all, must begin to speak for the same people that the Christ spoke for, and speak to the same ideals of tolerance, love and compassion for their fellow human being, regardless of race, religion or any other difference there might be.
That is the simple message that the Christ brought to humanity. The rest is just delusion.
In love,
Jim