Lets talk about... religion

Oooh, religion, the sensitive taboo topic avoided by most people and one that is regulated by OB markers set by the government on media. But I hope I won't be transgressing any of these rules as I give my take on religion. Religion, not just Christianity.

What is "The Truth"? Is there even something such as "The Truth"? Is it just a matter of perception? Why do we believe? I will be treading on thin ice here.

Lets talk about Christianity first. As most would know, I have been a christian for as long as I can remember. I did slack off from church for a couple of years but I was still christian and still attends cell. However, I'm not exactly the type that really buys everything the church says. I have my set of beliefs and way to serve and know God and sometimes they don't exactly coincide with what the church tries to promote.

One of these is ministry. What exactly is ministry? To me, I simply believe that its service to God. However, the church does seem to give a slighty different definition to that. The church probably defines ministry as "recognizable" service to God. That is to say, your service must be one that can be seen, can be recognized, can be acknowledged or it will not be considered as ministry. And these will include, ushers, traffic marshallers, leaders, musicians etc etc.

It may seem to be very inclusive, being such an extensive group and all, but it really is not. How about the faithful members? Those who simply serve God in their own little ways? Helping out at events, encouraging fellow christians, and most importantly, living a life that reflects Christ? Must you be a leader to serve God? Must you be a musician to serve God? I sometimes do find this policy a little flawed.

As you might have guessed, I am not in a ministry and this means that sometimes I will be left out from certain events in the church. It used to be the Tuesday prayer meeting, as if only people in ministries are allowed to pray, but they changed that. And now its the Konquerors conference, which they say its "exclusively inclusive of all who are in any form of local ministry" and I'm sure they don't mean the "unseen" ministry of faithful members. And they think its funny and witty to use "exclusively inclusive". Since when is the church meant to be exclusive?

You may ask me, "why are you still serving in church then?" Well, thats because I'm not exactly affected by these politics. I serve God the way I do and I enjoy it. I enjoy helping out where I can, I enjoy meeting new people and helping them when they need help, I enjoy worshipping God together with others.

Then why do I write about it? Its not exactly to complain, but rather, to show that not everything is set in stone, perfect, the one TRUTH that is to be beheld. That the church has its own little flaws as well, fallible and open to criticisms. Although God is perfect, I have to admit that Christianity sometimes isn't.

So, if Christianity is flawed and fallible? What then is THE TRUTH that everybody is seeking? I shall introduce here what is termed as "perception".

Perception is the way you see things. It is affected by yourself, your experiences, your knowledge, the people around you and your surroundings. Simply put, its your point of view. So if you are raised a muslim, you will believe very firmly that Islam provides THE TRUTH. If you are buddhist, you will believe that Buddhism is THE TRUTH. If you are hindu, you will believe HINDUISM contains THE TRUTH. And christians will of course believe that Christianity is THE TRUTH.

I am sometimes really thankful for the fact that I am living in Singapore, a place where I can witness first-hand the fervency and faithfulness of other religious people that might even throw my own into question. If I was in a christian dominant country such as the United States, it is of course easy to say that Christianity is the ONLY truth and get away with it. But in Singapore, you really need to put alot more thought into that.

If you look at it this way, there probably isn't any TRUTH going around. A will say B is not the truth, B will say C is not the truth, C will say A is not the truth. Its like a scissors-paper-stone game, endless and inconclusive.

If thats the case, if religions simply do not provide the truth but merely perceptions, should we all become atheists and believe that there is no such thing as the truth? I do not think so. Simply because I still believe that THE TRUTH exists.

What then is, THE TRUTH? It is something that we can never grasp but something that we can only BELIEVE in. Simply put, THE TRUTH is really that which we believe in. The truth is where our beliefs are.

How then do you reconcile the different truths going around because of different beliefs and religions? There is no reconciling. One belief is no more truer than the other. How true your belief is really depends on how much you believe in. Religion is not the truth, religion guides you to it.

That said, how do you evangelise? I believe that you do not evangelise with truth. That is to say, you do not go around and try to convince and reason and argue your truth to others. You live it out, you let your beliefs show in your life and lead others to believe with you and then they can find the truth for themselves.

I cannot begin to explain the logic behind the truth or even try to prove the existence of this truth. It is beyond me. Fallible, yes, because I am merely a human trying to understand a concept greater than I. What is fallible is not the truth, is not God, but is the one that tries to explain it.

But I can only offer this, that the truth is simply what you believe.