Organized Religion Is Corrupt!

In regard to Mary Valle’s essay “The Cock Crows,” Darrell from California writes:

I am not Catholic and I am a Jew who has been in and now out of organized religion. Organized religion with its financial needs for buildings and paid professionals, its rationalizations for history and present conduct, and the people in it choosing in very degrees to numb themselves to these realities, is for many of us a difficult to impossible place to take the God/spiritual aspect seriously and enjoyably. I think Ann Rice left the organized religion aspects of Christianity so that unencumbered and unfettered, she could embrace the God/spiritual aspects of her religion. This is my case. And projection or not, I think it is the case of many people. I understand the line is thin. There are many people on the other side who have the same frustration and angst. I think they tend to be more community/group oriented people who get more out of the social interaction and social structure that any church, synagogue, or other provides. And that is enough to keep them in. For myself! anyway, as a loner generally, the social structure of religion neither defuses nor negates the alienating power of the religious structures doings. It in fact, makes me feel more different and left out.

To which Mary Valle responds thusly:

1. “Darrell, I feel ya?”
2. “Darrell, I, too, feel the chafe of institutions. But sometimes it’s nice to participate in arcane rituals with other people.”