Shalom everyone,
When we make the free choice to become a Follower of the Way, we cannot expect to practise religion in the same way that we perhaps have been doing up until now. The character and personality of the God we now worship should be reflected in the way we speak and act. Truly I tell you, someone who has come to know YHVH will reflect the awe, reverence and love they have for YHVH in the way they practise religion – with kindness, warmth, understanding and compassion. Even someone who is not of our faith will see that God is with that person.
When I received my commission from God, my calling, the issue of speaking against ‘bad religion’ was an important part of that commission; bad religion grieves God deeply. The issue of toxic religion – a way of practising religion which is ugly, harmful and destructive, and is ultimately offensive to God – is one of the issues that led me away from my former religion, and towards Talmidaism. Toxic religion perpetuates sociopathic values, and teaches them to each successive generation.
Toxic religion is the difference between someone who uses religion as an instrument of fear, to control others and keep those they disapprove of in line, and someone who uses religion as an instrument of peace and light, to encourage and uplift those around them, challenge others to make more informed and healthier choices in life, and exhort them to be the best version of themselves.
When you read, study and take to heart the words of Yeshua which scholars have deemed the most authentic, you learn about a view of God as a compassionate and loving Being, in whose presence you would feel accepted and embraced. You learn about a God who is tender, merciful and forgiving, who teaches us a concern for the poor, the vulnerable and the outcast, and who encourages a pious mindfulness on social issues, so that the least in society are not treated as disposable commodities or worthless trash. You also learn that the God whom Yeshua followed is a God who warns us about religious hypocrisy, and against the empty practice of religion by rote, without any concern for its true spirit.
If we wish to enter into the true mindset of what a Follower of the Way was meant to be from the very beginning, we have to abandon toxic ways of practising religion. There are some religious people who think that being nasty, ruthless, judgmental, angry and belligerent in defence of God is a noble thing, but in reality, these ways of practising religion only bring shame and dishonour to God; they spread darkness throughout the world, not the light of God’s Kingdom. Their way of speaking and acting turns people away from religion and from God, because they portray an image of God as an angry, tyrannical despot. Their behaviour is not like a city set on a hill, which cannot be hidden, but rather a Pit of nothingness, which becomes a snare for the unwary.
If we doggedly hold to these ways of thinking, then we are doing nothing less than cursing God; someone who behaves in this way is acting out the equivalent of hurling abuse at God. If we truly wish to become a genuine Follower of the Way, and truly become a citizen of God’s Kingdom, we have to learn to be kind-hearted, understanding, patient, and not look down on people who are different to us. This kind of piety draws people in, while toxic religion disgusts most decent people.
Some common Toxic elements of religion
I have listed a few religious practices here which can be labelled as toxic:
– joining a religious community for the sole purpose of using it to beat down or fight others, and to restrict the freedoms of those you don’t like, or disapprove of
– making the structure of religion into a rigid, authoritarian one, demanding obedience, so that it not only oppresses its own members, but also people who have nothing to do with your religion
– seeking to control people you have nothing to do with, especially people you will never meet, and will never affect your life
– focusing on the negative, punitive elements of one’s own religion (e.g. concentrating on hell, punishment, God as an angry dictator etc)
– you fail or even refuse to see the harm that your destructive beliefs are having on other people, especially those within your community
– the concept of freedom is warped and narrowly defined as, ‘freedom to agree only with me, freedom to only do what I approve of’
– demonising certain sections of society you don’t approve of, or the members of other religions, and fostering hatred of them
– seeing charity and helping others without want of reward as something evil and against God (i.e. calling good evil, and evil good, Isa 5:20)
– you believe that violence is acceptable if it is directed against people who have different opinions or beliefs from you
Someone who holds these types of views, will not make much headway in growing towards becoming a Follower of the Way, or finding the Kingdom of God.
A rightful and healthy mindset for Followers of the Way
Many religious people follow religion because they want something from God – they ask what God can do for them. They join a religious community, because of what it can give them. As for myself, I became a Talmidi because I wanted to seek out and do the will of our living God. I didn’t become a Talmidi because of how I would profit from the religion; I became a Talmidi because of what I might be able to do for God, and for God’s daughters and sons on earth. I also strove for the humility to realise that my will and God’s will were two separate things – and what’s more – to be able to tell the difference between the two.
Too many religious people nowadays think that whatever their gut tells them, that must be God’s will, and this is unfortunately one of the delusions of toxic religion. They think that God is whatever they want God to be, and such a God will always agree with them.
Yeshua talked about becoming like ‘little children’ (Mk 10:13-16). One aspect of that teaching, which someone who knows no Aramaic will completely miss, is that the Aramaic word for ‘little child’, talya, also means ‘servant’; Yeshua was using a deliberate play on words, something that only an Aramaic-speaker would have picked up on. If you are unwilling to accept the Kingdom of God like a servant – of God, as well as of humanity – you will never be able to enter the kingdom of God.
A servant seeks to do the will of their master or mistress. A servant of God seeks out and carries out the will of their Sovereign – YHVH. Unlike humans, God is a kind and just Sovereign, who would never ask of God‘s servants to do anything which is harmful, inhumane or cruel.
No one knows everything – only God
The arrogant, the vain, the prideful and self-obsessed will never find the Kingdom of God. Those who think that they are always right, and that everyone else is always wrong, cannot ever hope to discover God’s holy will, because if God’s will contradicts their own, they will not recognise that contrary fact as being from God. What they project to the world is not God’s will, but the flawed darkness within them.
If you wish to enter the mindset of a genuine Follower of the Way, you have to have enough humility to be able to admit, ‘I don’t know everything’. In order to become a Follower of the Way, you have to be willing to stop following the arrogance of one’s own heart, and be willing to start examining what God’s values and ideals are, and ask yourself, “Does what I do give glory to our Father in heaven? Or do my words and actions dishonour and shame our heavenly Father?”
Toxic religion shames God; engaging in toxic religious values is a way of cursing God, even if you yourself think you are doing the right thing. A true Follower of the Way cares about the reputation of God – how what they say and do reflects back onto God. A true Follower of the Way is willing to admit that they don’t have all the answers, because that is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. Cursing knowledge and wisdom is only cursing God, who is the sole Author of all knowledge and wisdom.
If we continue practising religion in the same way as everyone else does, what more are we doing than others? If we automatically see people who are different to us as our enemies, what are we doing any different to anyone else – don’t other religious people do the same? Then instead, do we wish our faith to be so respected and admired, that people will marvel at the God we serve?
The lamp of your eye can spread light all around, or it can spread darkness all around (Mt 6:22-23). The mission of a Follower of the Way is to spread light, not darkness.
Blessings
Shmuliq