God is love. Without love there is no religion.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of La Croix International)

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Followers of other religions share Christians’ statistical concerns, but not their alarm. I can be sure of this since though now in Ireland – a European Christian land - I am still in contact with India where I have spent six decades of my adult life, and made many friends among adherents of other religions - Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist.

Evidence reveals that fewer and fewer Christians are into the practice of Catholicism, the most numerous branch of Christianity. Catholic publications indicate alarm at this trend, and with reason. Churches are empty, priests fewer, faith paling, and finances dwindling. I am a Christian, and I share a lot of the hesitations my co-religionists exhibit in this context – they themselves are less disposed to attend religious functions, even the hitherto obligatory Sunday Mass, but also in terms of their daughters and sons no longer attending religious ceremonies. Furthermore, smaller numbers nowadays choose to be priests or nuns or brothers, and buildings as training centres for this purpose are emptying. 

Be not dismayed, I am not going to go into a social scientist’s analysis of this phenomenon. Plenty of ink has been spent on that already, and is still pouring. 

Religion is usually considered a spiritual topic. Well, it is and it isn’t. Since The Stake!  is no longer fashionable, I am emboldened to look at the ‘isn’t’ part. 

My understanding and interpretation of religion is that it is a phenomenon whose adherents share a common interpretation of what in English is usually called ‘God’, and because they share that, they perform certain functions which have in common prayers, hymns, liturgies, buildings, and so on. In actually sharing these, they are bonded more closely together, and in fact they commonly develop a whole life philosophy arising out of these practices and texts. Furthermore, the sources of the wordings and interpretations they adhere to are often, maybe always, rooted in the writings and/or statements of some truly holy and wise person or persons. And because many such ‘wordings and interpretations’ are encountered in our various assemblies, differences are strongly emphasized. Thus, a Christian cannot also be a Muslim, a Sikh also a Buddhist, and so on. 

In the name of truth

Let’s get one item out of the way. I am a Christian. My ‘hero’ walked on earth and for various reasons was the source of what is today broadly called Christianity (his name in the scriptures is Jesus Christ). But he never set out to found a new religion. What he did do, and in a sense found himself doing, was realising that the fundamental reason for any human decision had to be not law, but love. This he preached and practised. 

Politics entered the field powerfully with the accession of a Roman Emperor Constantine late in the third century. He adopted Christianity. Cuius regio, eius religio – which roughly translates as, the ruler’s religion is the religion. It became wise to be of Constantine’s version of Christianity. Which meant lots of structures, laws, behaviours, rewards and punishments. And so Christianity became peppered with lots of punishments, characterised by a largely negative attitude to life, and an attitude of fear. Sin and torture were the normal vocabulary of its tirades. 

Education has helped people to realise the absurdity of this sort of religion. Various social developments have added to this realisation. Not least the Covid pandemic, global warming, sea pollution, the terrible earthquakes in Libya and Turkey, and the current Russia .v. Ukraine war. Add in the development of communication systems, notably the mobile phone, with its spread to every individual of unrestrained violence and pornography – our globe is in a tailspin. How ridiculous seem the threats of eternal punishment for petty transgressions, and the persistence of religious authorities in upholding such absurdities. 

And so, religious beliefs and practices have fallen off. Some have held on, characterising various religious minorities – and consequent alienations – protesting that ours is the true religion and all others are false – thus resorting to further hostilities, this time in the name of truth – as if such an absolute existed in our cosmic reality. 

What’s left? Love. That’s it. To me, that love is God, and such God as there may be – that God is love. Without love there is no religion. God bless.

Brendan MacCarthaigh, an Irish Christian Brother who worked in India for over 60 years, mostly in Value Education with senior classes and teachers, now resides in Dublin.