How Practical Is Modern-Day Religion?

“I THREW the Bible in the den on my way to my bedroom. I thought I would never pick it up again or attend another church. I had been searching for about six years. Still I found no help.”

Ronald, a 26-year-old computer operator, had gone through some hardships and feared his life would fall apart. Religion seemed to be of no practical value to him. “I am through with it,” he said.

Many people, like Ronald, are disappointed with religion. How about you? Do you think religion has given people practical help and guidance to become better workmates, neighbors, husbands, wives, parents, or children? Has religion been a force for peace and unity among people? Has it helped them understand the purpose of life? Has it instilled in their minds and hearts a sure hope for the future?

Practical Guidance Lacking

In this complex world, people need wise, clear guidance. Can they expect this from spiritual leaders? In a letter to a magazine columnist, a woman complained:

“All we ever hear now in our church . . . for quite awhile now is love, love, love. . . . What ever happened to the ‘Thou shalt nots’​—‘Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal,’ and all the rest? We need to be reminded often that some things are No-No’s. . . . But we don’t even hear the word ‘Sin’ any more. It’s like they shun it as if it were a dirty three letter word.”

Evidently, some feel that their religious counselors have become too lax, too permissive. Such spiritual guides are weak. They are like a doctor who glosses over his patient’s problem and prescribes diluted medicine. What are some reasons for such failure?

Profession in Crisis

A person who is weighed down with his own problems is not going to be able to spend much time and effort helping others. Media reports show that an increasing number of clergymen are deeply encumbered with their own professional and personal problems. Here are some examples:

“While stress and burnout are common in many professions today, nowhere are they more critical than among the Jewish clergy,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Leslie R. Freedman after a four-year university study of the Jewish clergy.

“If I had a son, would I want him to become a priest? Regrettably, my answer has to be no,” contends a priest, William Wells, in a report on clergymen’s problems. Why not? He says he cannot encourage a young man to consider a profession so plagued by “conflict, turbulence, and uncertainties as the Roman Catholic priesthood is today.”

Priests in the Swedish State-supported Lutheran Church are also in trouble. A Swedish daily says: “Priests have psychological problems, which in severe cases lead to suicide. . . . The clerical profession is in crisis.”

Distracting Disunity

In those countries where the religious leaders are involved in exhausting and divisive wars, they are diverted from giving proper attention to people’s spiritual needs. They also have to share the responsibility for the loss of manpower and money that could have been used for people’s material welfare.

There are those in all parts of the world who have lost their trust in religion and become religiously indifferent. Loss of members and decline in churchgoing are reported from such places as Sweden, Finland, Germany, Britain, Italy, Canada, and the United States.

Are you among those who, like Ronald, think they are through with religion? And yet, could there be a religion that has proved to be of practical value to many? The following article will discuss this.