On Faith and Religion

Many people speak about their faith and religion as though they are the same thing and they are not.

Faith is a very personal spiritual relationship with God and the experience varies with each person. Each person might define his or her understanding of the term god in a unique way and so may differ from one person to another. We often assume that everyone else has the same experience we do. There are also people who do not have any faith of any kind.

Religion is the organization of people with like minded expressions of their faith. We have a great many "religions" in this world. I like to believe that my church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is the correct religion. That is my opinion based on my faith in God. There are other opinions. Because of our differing points of view there are over 350 "Christion" religions and many non-christian religions.

The United States is blessed with freedom of religion. That means the government can not tell the individual what to believe, what faith group to belong to or how to pray. While we have been a predominantly Christian population there have always been other religious groups in the country and that include those with no religion at all.

Celebrate your faith and your freedom to express it as you choose.