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Religious View Point 125

A Baptism In today's culture, the man in the street has a religious view point which is quite different from past generations. Previously, the norm in society was weekly commitment to one Christian denomination. Dr Reginald Bibby describes this modern view as "religion a la carte."¹ In our age of cash and carry Christianity, most people want to pick and choose from a religious menu depending upon their religious view point. They expect a congregation to provide a wedding, funeral or baptism without any real commitment of time or resources on their part to it. Some people shop around from church to church to get the best deal in terms of minimum involvement and lowest cost. They begin with their own denomination then look elsewhere. Beliefs or traditions are secondary!

Of prime importance is that the building picked out for a wedding will look nice on the wedding photographs! Walking into a religious supermarket, they expect to lift their rites of passage needs off the shelf depending upon their religious view point. Consumerism produces great problems for the congregation. The church traditionally views itself like a social club where members should stay and mingle, but society sees it as a corner store to pop into whenever one needs a ceremonial occasion! Clergy get very frustrated when promises made in order to get sacramental or pastoral products are broken by people who don't want the social club aspect of the church.

² Dr Reginald Bibby "Fragmented Gods."

"The Religious View Point."

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