Each time I hear the phrase “In God we trust”, the essence of “Worshipped” not “Worship” comes to my mind. The present picture of our belief practices need not be mentioned, a clearly known fact, a common practice and an “Open secret”, that seems to make us look like impostors, in the name of being ‘Believers’.

It amuses me rather than it amazes me to always, over and over again through time to observe and see our readiness and often chose to be a critic, refuse and resorting to condemning one, a single person or even groups just because “we” and “they” have a great meaning in our social life. The differences in our approaches, views and ideas are often compelled by our own societal demands and necessities created by us. Appreciating condemnation and the readiness to accept one’s or a groups’ outspoken idea have degenerated the essence of “belief” among us.

I am not trying to point fingers at any individual rather trying to have a basic understanding about the various practices we have in our various ‘belief’ based institutions, our practices versus our moral conscience, traditional practices and logical thinking. It’s not that I accept the traditional practices of us to be wholly right nor am I propagating them; however, there are certain ideas which are far better in several day to day life situations.

The church in the present scenario, determines our societal presence, participation and social status. Don’t get me wrong on this, it is a fact that one’s social image is built by it, it’s an open secret everyone knows and chose to ignore yet have to face it. In the past, the church was even more powerful than the monarch, accumulating wealth as it grew in economic as well as political spheres. The Catholic Church, as it was and is known, disintegrated and gave rise to the Protestant churches in the 16th century due to belief and principles of denying the authority of the Pope, reformation principles of justification by belief alone, primacy of the Holy Bible and the priesthood of all believers resisting the lavish lifestyle acquired through massive accumulation of wealth. The churches among us, majority of them are of this Protestant sect.

Now, we need to have a fresh look and give a new thought into our various practices relating and regarding our belief. We as citizens, in a democratic country, have the rights to demand and question the accountability, participation and transparency of the government and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that all these values are in place and are delivered. Equally, it is the duty and responsibility of the Church and other ‘belief’ based organizations to ensure the free will participation of its members by being accountable and maintaining its transparency which is also an ethical and moral conduct. But, do we have that accountability and transparency in the organizational structural setup of our churches? Or are our churches open enough to accommodate and create a space to ensure the maximum participation of people? Or, are we just pretending to be accountable, transparent and inclusive?

The belief and practice of ‘equality’ has been, in my opinion, followed blindly without rethinking the present scenario of our society. In a society ridden by economic inequality, we try to make excuses based on our ‘belief’ to justify our deeds thereby creating a huge gap between families who have and those who do not, in fact, we are using the church or to be specific, our ‘belief’ as a shield to hide our various deeds, need not to mention, it’s an open secret everyone knows. So, the question now is where is that urge for ‘equality’ now?

It is an alarming situation that the present youths often elope instead of getting married in the church. But, having a deeper look into this unethical (again, according to our ‘belief’) act which we so readily are condemning and even ex-communicate those who commit the act from the church. Looking it from another angle, in equality approach, when everyone dreams of an extravagant marriage in the church, who does not? But where does the poor or the daily wage laborers fit in? The simple reason, in my opinion for this ‘eloping’ practice is the demand set by our society is too high now that majority of us are not able to cope up keeping in mind and knowing our economic condition(s) and the church’s failure to standardize and conform marriage within the members of the church prompting majority of the youths to take on eloping and evade shame and humiliation among their peers and from our own society. Yet, the church also fails to provide them counseling, spiritual and moral support rather “ex-communicating” them. Where’s our conscience now? Where’s the equality? Do we really trust in God, his power and love? Most of us will say yes but do we really think God will “ex-communicate” them for this? How about those of us who are hiding our several secret deeds?
In the organizational setting of our churches, it is a necessity that we form tiers and positions. It is true that we need learned church leaders for the smooth functioning of the organization.

Conversely, we are not able to maintain a gap between our “Social” roles and our “Church” roles. We may do whatever we want to do, practice and earn in every possible manner possible but when it comes to the question of ‘belief’, I think it is important that we distinguish our social and church roles and church roles not based on our economic or social status but on one’s ‘belief’, the true spirit of trust that will ensure participation of our social members, only then, I consider us to be able to use the phrase “In God we trust”.