"Can Religion Still be Useful?"

I borrowed the title of this blog from a video on YouTube by the same name delivered by Dr. Roger Ray from the Community Christian Church of Springfield MO. You can hear Dr. Ray’s sermon for yourself at https://youtu.be/ZnELmKvEpNg . While I enjoyed listening to Dr. Ray’s sermon and even found myself agreeing with a good deal of it, it is the title that has stayed with me. 

~ A comment I heard on the day following a funeral service made by the wife of the deceased. She said [and i quote] ‘This is my first day as a widow.’  Obviously the funeral rite was necessary in helping her begin to bring some closure.

~ People who never darken the doors of a church on any other occasion want to celebrate their marriage there or at the very least with a clergy person in attendance at another venue. There is something in both the place and the liturgy that speaks to them a way that City Hall doesn’t. They want to mark this important day in a special way.

~ A loca church held first communion for three young girls whose parents were immigrants from predominantly Catholic countries and wanted this rite for their daughters. 

~ Confirmation marks a passage from childhood into adolescence in many people’s minds

~ Religion in Life scouting awards are presented in the context of the church service by the priest. 

While arguments can be made that none of these reasons is the ‘real’ reason the church performs these rites of passage, I suspect that the need to mark rites of passage has always been there under the prevailing piousness of previous generations. 

If you have read the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, you will have experienced how another culture felt the need to celebrate their rites of passage. 

Although elementary schools now have graduation ceremonies from Kindergarten, and Secondary schools hold both Grads and Commencement ceremonies for their graduating students, although sport teams have their annual banquets honouring the achievements of the players, only the church offers these rites of passage within the wider community. 

In this society we still need religious rites to mark important landmarks in our lives and until we have a way of celebrating rites of passage within the wider community, I believe people will continue to turn to religion to do that for them. So yes, I would have to say that religion is, and can still be, useful!