Religion can be very complicated. There are some religions that focus on rules and lists of things you have to do and things you can't do. Other religions spend a lot of time on rituals and ceremonies that are supposed to be followed. There are even some religions that consider themselves to be non-religions but in the end they do the same thing. They require certain beliefs and certain actions for a member to ensure that he (or she, obviously) is in good standing. Personally I think this is all way too complicated.

I don't even like the word "religion" because it always implies all that stuff that I already mentioned. Western Christians like to use the word "relationship" instead of religion but I think that is beginning to carry just as much baggage. So really I don't have a better word to use.

In reality I think that religion really is just supposed to be how God and man relate. But we don't want to be all that close to God or we don't want him all that close to us. So we invent all this complicated stuff to make Him seem mysterious and supernatural and -- well -- distant.

This isn't a Sunday School lesson and I'm not a preacher so that's about as far as I'm going with this line of thought. But think about it a bit. Does religion really need to be all that complicated?

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