Reflections after reading a religious leader's post

I read something I loved today. It was written by a former LDS bishop Jeff Burningham. Here is some of what he had to say:------------------------- "I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that our religions have become too institutional. Those five years (as a bishop) meant a great many Sundays in an office listening to people tell me the hardest things in their lives. And I found that almost everyone who sat down already knew. Deep down, they knew what was true for them and what they needed to do next. What they were looking for was permission, or company, or someone who wouldn’t flinch at what they’d say. I loved that congregation, and like most faith communities, mine is wonderful. But I believe we can have more direct experience with God, and somewhere along the way many of our institutions started acting as an intermediary for that rather than a coach or a guide as we walk “the road less traveled” for ourselves. Faith was always meant to be transformational, but so many of us have ended up treating it as something transactional instead - attend this, check that, and the outcome is supposed to follow. We’re outsourcing our consciences to others, and drawing adversarial lines that don’t need to be there. I visited the home of Mother Teresa in Calcutta India a couple of years ago and learned that she didn’t draw those lines. When she was asked whether she converted people to her religion, she said she wanted to convert them to be a better Catholic, a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Buddhist. I think about that often. So here’s what I’d offer, from a guy still working on himself: Enjoy the benefits of your faith tradition, but take your faith into your own hands. Learn to hear your own conscience, and then do the harder thing and learn to trust and follow it. Nobody ever found their answer in my office because I handed it to them. They found it because they finally listened to themselves, and I happened to be in the room. And that was sacred to witness." ------------------------- I have had many thoughts along these lines but didn't put them into words as well as he did. I DO think things have become too institutionalized and I loved the phrase "outsourcing our consciences." This is across all institutions-religious, educational, even socially. People grab onto mantras, phrases, and beliefs that become widespread without taking the time to really dissect information personally and come to individual conclusions. Just to kind of blow this up into a bigger realm, when I was studying economics, my professor introduced me to an article about different veils. It's called "Slavery and the Eight Veils" by Don Harkins. It touches on why humanity is blind to being controlled. I think about it for a while and apply it to a lot of things I see, get busy with other stuff, and come back to it every now and then and try to keep it in mind. I wish it were easier to find like-minded people.