Training Wheels

About religion, usefulness, and the gentleness of Love

I saw on FB an image that contrasts religion with spirituality.

Religion is shown as rigid, rule-based and external. Spirituality as free, intuitive and inner.

From the perspective of A Course in Miracles, it is easy to understand why this distinction appeals. The Course invites us to look beyond form, beyond ritual, beyond intermediaries, and to remember that the Kingdom is not outside us.

And yet…something in this contrast deserves to be handled with great care.

Because the moment we look at religion and think, “That is lower,” we are no longer in clarity. We are in comparison, and comparison is always of the ego.

This is not about who is further or who is more awake.

This is not about who has “understood” and who has not.

That kind of thinking may look spiritual, but it is simply another form of separation. And separation is the very thing we are being invited to release.

Religion, for all its human distortions, has served, and still serves, many beautiful and practical functions.

It has offered structure where there was chaos…..guidance where there was confusion….community where there was loneliness…..comfort where there was despair….and boundaries where there was self-destruction.

Not because it is perfect, but because people are not.

And Love always meets people where they believe they are.

Some people need an external frame, clear rules, a visible authority, rituals.

Some people need a father-image or something outside themselves to lean on, not because they are wrong, but because this is where they are finding stability.

And stability is not the enemy of awakening.

It is often the beginning of safety.

It is very easy to say, “Follow your inner guidance.” But what if someone does not yet trust their inner world?

It is very easy to say, “Choose love.” But what if someone is still ruled by fear?

It is very easy to say, “You are not a body.” But what if someone is still struggling to survive in one?

Love does not rush….does not correct…and does not look down.

Love adapts.

From the ACIM perspective, no form is ultimate. But that does not mean forms are useless. The Holy Spirit is endlessly practical. He does not wait for ideal conditions. He uses what is available.

A church. A prayer. A ritual. A rule. A belief.

Not because they are true in themselves, but because they can be used in service of healing.

And healing is always the priority.

. . .

There is also something to acknowledge: When we dismiss religion, ridicule it, or see it as “lower,” we are not seeing clearly.

We are projecting.

We are saying: “Not me, but them.” And that is the oldest defense of the ego.

The Course is uncompromising on this point: What I see in you, I have first accepted in myself.

So if I see ignorance, blindness or rigidity “out there,” I am being invited to look within.

Not to judge or to fix, but to notice.

This is not about defending religion. It is about honoring function.

Religion has helped many people not to kill, not to steal, not to abandon their children, not to collapse into chaos, and especially not to give up on life.

That matters.

Even if the theology is flawed or if the stories are symbolic.

Help is still help.

Of course, it would be dishonest not to acknowledge the other side.

Religion has also been used to control, to shame, to manipulate, to divide, to justify violence, to suppress women, to silence children, to persecute, to exclude and to create fear where love was meant to be.

Not because religion is evil, but because the ego is.

And the ego will use anything it can find.

It will use politics.

It will use science.

It will use relationships.

It will use spirituality.

And yes… it will use religion.

The problem has never been the form.

The problem has always been the choice in the mind.

. . . .

A Course in Miracles does not attack religion. It simply offers another way.

A way that speaks directly to the mind. A way that removes intermediaries.

A way that points inward.

And maybe the most loving way to see it is this:

Religion is one of the many ways Love has reached humans.

Not because it is perfect, but because humans needed something.

And Love is not proud. Love will use anything.

Even structure….authority…stories (true or invented)….symbols…..rules….

Even training wheels.

Not because you are a child. But because balance comes in its own time.

And maybe, just maybe, the real maturity is not in saying: “I don’t need that anymore.” But in saying: “I am grateful that it exists”, because someone else might.

And that is enough.

With love and light,

G.