Father Cornelius was a Catholic priest in the Central District of urban Seattle.  The people of his parish loved him.  He was a popular community leader.

His ministry career came to a shocking finish in the Spring of 2002.  An enormous scandal shocked the Catholic Church to its core.  Father Cornelius was among the many priests who were removed from the clergy for pedophilia.  His was a case of sexual abuse of altar boys and other male children over the span of many years.  He was not alone in his compulsive behavior.

The church world and the non-churched world alike were rocked by wave after wave of shameful revelations of clergy misconduct.  Like the confessions of televangelists Jimmy Baker and Jimmy Swaggart a decade earlier, these new exposures of failure among religious leaders was disillusioning.  Many people abandoned their churches and their faith in disappointment.

Add to the religious scandals the fact that the world lives in fear because of religion-sponsored terrorism and you begin to realize why organized religion is regarded with distrust and disdain today.  The events of September 11, 2001 will live long in our memories.  Muslim extremists encouraged and trained by their radical mullahs (clergy) crashed passenger jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  Thousands of innocent people were killed in what amounts to a religious war. Religion is once again exposed as a well-used sanctuary for selfishness.

In fact, it is still one of the favorite playgrounds for egoism.  This tragic reality is nothing new.  Recent events vividly illustrate how deep and all-encompassing our self-in-control obsession really is.

The universal pattern of religion among all people groups indicates the memory of God. The need for God is still in us all.  What we do in our ingenious pursuit of self-will is tame God.  We open a file on the computer screen of our hearts for spirituality.  It’s a compartment, separate from everything else.  It pleases us to dabble in the realm of pious sentiments and inspirational uplifting ideas.  But, it’s only a file, to be opened and closed as needed.  We still control the God category.  That’s why religion always breeds hypocrisy.