The play was in progress at the village theatre when the curtain was suddenly lowered and the manager stepped before the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it distresses me deeply to have to announce that the leading actor, our great and beloved mayor himself, has just had a fatal heart attack in his dressing room. We are, therefore, forced to stop the play."

On hearing this announcement, a huge middle-aged woman in the front row stood up and shouted agitatedly: "Quick! Give him chicken broth!"

"Madam," said the manager, "the heart attack was fatal. The man is dead!"

"So give it to him at once!"

The manager was desperate. "Madam," he pleaded, "what good will chicken broth do for a dead man?"

"What harm will it do?" she shouted.

Chicken broth does for the dead what religion does for the unconscious, whose number, alas, is legion.

*Anthony de Mello. Taking Flight.

Religion literally means "to tie, fasten." The word is related to "ligament." A ligament ties bones together and holds organs in place.

Religion in itself can be useful. Anything that serves as a spiritual ligament, helping connect us with - tie us to - Divine Presence, is religious. And no religious institution or its hierarchy, including in the church, can govern such freedom of Grace - though they often try. Ignore leaders who try to limit how Grace chooses to connect with you and hold you in place in Love. Ignore such arrogant and ignorant leaders.

A spiritual ligament can aid us to remain steadfast, giving form and stability to gifts, inclinations, and intentions. Spirituality, like all things, has to have form. That is a fact of living in this world of form and matter.

Yet, as the de Mello story shows, religion in itself is useless for spiritual life. And sometimes it does more harm to a person than good to be associated with a religion of lifeless form. And, often, possibly more than not, religion originally meant to keep us tied with God and firm in faith, becomes an end in itself - a status quo society.

This is a reason so many in our society are rebelling against "religion" and talking so much about "spirituality." Why? The churches, and their clerics, have more than not failed to utilize well religion as a way to deep spiritual fulfillment. However, laity are possibly as much as clerics to blame, for they fear spirituality, and sabotage leaders who seek to lead them beyond conventional forms of faith.

In this vein applies the wise and cutting words of Garrison Keillor: "Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car." The same fact applies to religion generally, and its practices.