Everyone needs something to hold on to, and it was Karl Marx who said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Ergo, people need religion to be their drug, their balm, their salvation.
It’s something that one gets hooked on that dulls the senses and leaves them in a dreamlike state.
Is that really what religion does to people, and do we really need it to exist? If so, why is the influence and impact of the church waning with declining numbers?
It’s a common cry among the church community that there has been a decline in the numbers of congregants participating in worship. Gone are the days when churches were bursting at the seams, pews were popping and overflowing, parson preaching from pulpit and much pleasure derived from the assembly as they raised a joyful noise unto the Lord.
At least that’s how I remember going to church in my youth, and we did so with religious regularity every Sunday. It’s an experience that we all looked forward to, plus attending Sunday School was as added activity that gave us great pleasure.
Now all that has changed, and even though churches are still being attended, the numbers just aren’t there as they used to be. Then came Covid that drove many people home with the alternative being watching the services online.
The fact is, many of the younger generation have lost faith in the church, and see it as just another money making enterprise designed to relieve them of their cash.
What is true, is that this declining attendance has impacted heavily financially on the church. The bottom line is, the church cannot function without money, and actually operates as a business. In fact, some young folks even say that many preachers are just there to make money without offering much in return. In some cases that’s true. When you look at the lifestyles of many preachers in the USA with their huge lavish mansions, fleets of fancy limousines, private jets and yachts, you really have to sit up and take notice.
But no one forces the congregation to give preachers their money, they all do it of their own volition. Give generously. Nevertheless, it does turn off some of the younger generation who treat church as if it was a pariah as they shy away.
Apart from this are the many diversions that the younger generation is exposed to. Sitting for two or more hours listening to someone preach is simply not their cup of tea.
“Too much hellfire and brimstone every week, I’d rather not hear that.” So they stay away. Then there’s apathy, as some people don’t care about religion as it’s neither here nor there to them. “Oh, I’ve read parts of the bible, and I have to wonder about those stories.”
Then of course there are the nonbelievers, people who have absolutely no use for religion. “It’s all hocus pocus to me, after we depart this life there is nothing.”
Even from the dawn of mankind, people believed in something. The Greeks had their gods, and so did the Romans.
Still, you can’t force belief, religion or attending church on people. It’s a choice that they have to live with. But here’s the irony of ironies, whenever people are getting married, they do so in a church or somewhere with a religious theme. When they are christening their babies it’s done in a church, and when that final journey is taken, it’s also done in a church.
For some people those occasions are the only time that they even enter a church.
The church is our moral compass, our conscience, our trust, our faith, our refuge. True, there are some preachers who give church a bad name, but they are in the minority.
“A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” Abigail Van Buren.
So opiate or not, religion is essential.
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