When Karl Marx made his much paraphrased comment about religion in the nineteenth century he was describing the role that organised religion had on the lives of people in that society. This relationship is very different to the relationship that religion and society has today. Power, influence and personal devotion is for the majority of people today very different to then. Of course what Marx actually said was: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".
I wondered earlier today what is the opium of the people today? What fills the role that Marx identified being occupied by religion. I didn't take me long to come up with an answer! It seems to me quite clear that our celebrity obsessed popular media is the opiate that dulls the senses and interests people in frivolities and meaningless ephemera whilst promising engagement and meaning.
I believe that religion is today still the heart of the heartless world and the soul of soulless and this can best be seen in conditions where it brings hope in a real political and prophetic sense. I am encouraged by the growth of theologies that have bravely stand against dictators and systems of oppression. This incidentally could be interpreted to mean that I see religious people on Marx's side in this false dichotomy.
Religion's place in society is as diverse as there are many different people of faith. For me at best it is a prophetic ideal to critique the powers and principalities that rule this world. At worse it is still, as Marx feared, a soft mushy comforter for those who want to be diverted from the real world and bask in the false security of spiritual comfort based on feelings of well-being and health. In this way the false and worse examples of religion not only continue to be guilty as accused by Marx but also are complicit with the ultimately unsatisfying values of our consumerist society.
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