The President of the country, the Archbishop of Dublin and Journalist John Waters all attend the Communion and Liberation gathering in Italy this week. The President commended the Archbishop for doing a good job. The Journalist commended the gathering for providing liberty to speak and the Archbishop exercised that liberty in a penetrating way not always possible when speaking on his home turf! Using the opportunity of the late Cardinal Newman’s Irish associations he delivered a trenchant expose of the ills of his church and lamented over the fact that after 15 years of catechesis, young people remain theologically illiterate. But it was his use of the term “Civil Religion” that was so helpful in revealing to a large extent how things are. Referring to the Irish situation he said, “The Church provides a unique space in which people, even though secularised, can share the events of their lives and find a ritual to express the more profound human experiences of joy, sorrow or fear. However, if the Church becomes just a place where lay persons gather to celebrate human experiences without a deep reference to God, then this civil religion ends up by being empty and does not respond to the search for God who is missing in the lives of many.” The flip side of this is the bane of the “nominal” Protestant. This is the secular person who pays for his religious events as they take place and, like the Baron’s will, bequeathed “100 guineas for the repose of this eternal soul”! What does the Bible have to say about all this? It is hard to find in the pages of Scripture anything to address this muddle. The Bible speaks of those who heard the message of the Gospel and were saved. It speaks of those who were not and others who followed but went back into the world. In all of this language there is clarity of where people stood before God. With the advent of infant baptism the lines have been blurred. Multitudes have been swept into the churches in a numerical competition makes the recent Bankers scramble for clients seem elementary! The result was foreseen by Jesus when he wondered, on his return, if he would find faith on earth. (Luke chapter 18 verse 8). It is faith that precedes baptism (Colossians chapter 2 verse 12) that safeguards the ordinance from misuse. The result might be a much smaller church numerically but it is the way of the Bible. (1Corinthians 1 verses 26/30). Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Nominal or civil religion has no place in God’s kingdom. Put your faith in Jesus.