Jesus... Not Religion?

Where I live here in the deep south, many of the non-denominational Churches have begun advertising various "Worship series" with the tag line "Jesus... not religion!" Signs with the word "Religion" with a circle and a slash through it have popped up in quite a few places and the banner pictured to the left is currently replicated on one of those hundred feet high electronic billboards along the interstate. The idea presumably, is that not only can an individual Christian can have a personal relationship with Jesus outside of the context of of organized religion but that organized religion or denominational affiliation is actually detrimental to our individual personal relationship with Jesus. I have a good mind to attend one of their services to experience the details of their teaching myself. Rest assured that a good shower with a bar or strong soap will be waiting for me as soon as I get home.

That these Churches simultaneously started pro-Jesus, anti-religion programs begs the question of whether they are themselves participating in some form of loose, anarchistic religious affiliation. The sheer number of simultaneous anti-Religion programs implies either a central soure of doctrinal and pastoral content or a minimum level of inter-churh collaboration in terms of content development and sharing.

And as far as religion is concerned, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is most likely a duck.

According to their website, the Evangelical Church Alliance was founded in 1887 "..to offer an alternative to the Theological Liberalism that had seeped into the church." The website states, "Throughout the years the Evangelical Church Alliance has not wavered and has held fast to the Word of God and high standards." The ECA also licenses and ordains ministers and pulishes the Tenents of Faith which appears to be a generic sort of creed.  So the ECA fights doctrinal error, ordains ministers and publishes a creed?

Waddle, waddle.

The ECA's worldwide umbrella organization is the World Evangelical Aliance, whose website claims to represent 600 million Evangelical Christians in 128 countries. Part of their mission is "Providing a prophetic and proactive voice into the worldwide church in relation to theology, missiology and mission practice, through strategic consultations, training seminars, publications and other initiatives." Many documents are available from their website including "A Statement on Prosperity Teaching" and "Foundations of Faith", a guide to justification, salvation, baptism and other doctrines.

Quack, quack.

I find it difficult to believe that a dozen churches within fifty miles of each other simultaneously conceived of and executed a series of worship services with an identical theme, anti-religion or otherwise. The content must come from somewhere! I have no idea if the Church's in my area which simultaneously offer identical worship content are members of the ECA or WEA but the very existence of non-denominataional umbrella organizations, licensing and ordination boards and centralized sources of doctrinal development, especially in light of the sudden and simultaneous introduction of common worship content within a small geographic area, leaves me with little doubt about the need for "Religion" in spite of any anti-relgion theology.

Where does that leave the Catholic who for whatever reason, feels that an authoritative source of doctrinal content is not to his liking and is considering bailing out of the Barque of Peter for the percieved freedom of non-denominationalism?

You may want to bring some orange sauce to have with that duck.


-Tim-