Out On A Lim - Granite Grok

Out On A Lim

CHristian Cross mp3 playerChaeyoon Lim has published an article in the American Psychological Review that… "substantiates that it is not really going to church and listening to sermons or praying that makes people happier, but making church-based friends and building intimate social networks there.”

So all that stuff about God, that’s just window dressing?

“Our study offers compelling evidence that it is the social aspects of religion, rather than theology or spirituality, that leads to life satisfaction,”

"In particular, we find that friendships built in religious congregation are the secret ingredient in religion that makes people happier.”

This looks like a conclusion looking for research to support it.  But has Chaeyoon really gone out on a Lim? 

I can’t count the number of self declared "regular churchgoers" that I know or have met in my life who have no idea what it actually means to be Christian, or take away any meaningful lessons from the experience.  I see them struggle with life as if completely unequipped to handle even the simplest challenges.  Every new book, idea, plan, or program that comes along is the next path to understanding and happiness.  And for a few weeks or even months they think they have found it until it collapses under its own weight.

Church as a social mechanism, without real faith, is no different than any other substitute belief system–be it sports, hobbies, your career, that special someone, hero or celebrity worship, self obsession, campaigns and causes, zealotry, or any other of the choices we make in life to fill the godless vacuum with anything and everything but an honest faith in God.  At some point, one or more of these things will let us down and lacking any real foundation upon which to stand we may stumble or even fall.  At that point, we may blame everyone but ourselves, when as is more likely the case, we are the ones at fault for our own condition.  We are to blame because we refuse to acknowledge that human beings are flawed, as is everything they create–including the belief that the power of fellowship is what makes Christians truly happy.

True Christians can be happy in their faith anywhere at any time, independent from wealth, power, influence, association, occupation, or circumstance. But that is not to say that friendships do not make us happy.  They are essential to our social nature, and for many people function as a kind of religious support group when the world seems aligned against them and everything they think they beleive.

But the social community itself is not the same thing as faith.  It is no more evidence of faith than wearing a crucifix, showing up at church, or carrying a Bible.  These are transitory things meant to help us focus true faith through association.  They are meant to remind us of our faith when the path becomes rough and we find ourselves confronted with fear or doubt. 

So has Chaeyoon Lim successfully documented the declining role of true faith in religion?  Maybe, but I suspect we will need a larger sample.  In the mean time, if you do not yet have that real sense of faith, do not be discouraged.  Faith is a journey not just a destination.  And no matter what you may believe, it provides inner peace which in my experience cannot be duplicated any other way.  I know.  I have tried.

So what Chaeyoon Lim has done is to observe something that in some cases may be true, but that may serve to erect another false God for people to worship; that the community is what you really need, not all that junk (in the case of Christianity) about Jesus.  But this fails to explain the power of faith in the absence of the community.  It ignores the ability of the human being to grasp inner peace lacking things and associations. But it may also signal a sea change in the ability of people to hear their own faith calling them over the noise of the modern world, a problem that is as old as society itself.

 

Image source: mattstone.blogs.com

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