With Christmas and Hannukah in the past, we enter a new year of religious holidays. It is time for all of humanity – religious and secular – to give more thanks for organized religion.

In the coming spring, Catholics begin 40 days of Lent that lead to Easter – the highest Catholic Holiday. Jews head toward annual observations of Rosh Hashana, Passover and Yom Kippur. For Muslims, 2023 means new celebrations of Ramadan, Laylat al-Qadr and more.

Bashing organized religion has become mainstream in the United States, while active involvement in religious institutions has fallen to historic lows. Even people of faith often say they believe in God but have no interest in churches, synagogues or other constructs of religion that make news when things go wrong.

Indeed, organized religion is far from perfect. All human institutions struggle with corruption. All harbor evildoers who present themselves as paragons of virtue while conducting unthinkable sins in the cover of darkness. No person of faith should ever overlook the pain and suffering of those harmed by organized religions.

Average Americans hear more about the dark side of religion than they do the countless millions of positive contributions religious institutions and individuals make each day. That’s to be expected. The public has no interest in the millions of planes that take off and land safely each day. We have remarkable interest when one in millions crashes. Similarly, we take far more interest in one drugged minister caught with a hooker than the thousands of nuns who care for the poor with no expectations of gratitude or remuneration.

In 2023, let’s try to change that. Two Christmas-week Gazette articles should give pause to the growing legions of people who think organized religion does more harm than good.

One story told of a charity organized five years ago out of Pulpit Rock Church called Love Your Neighbor. The organization, and another called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, quietly work to solve a problem few know exists: “child bedlessness.”

Families take in children separated from their parents because of abuse, court order or an assortment of other reasons. The fostering households often don’t have enough beds. We’re told hundreds of children in our community sleep on sofas, dog beds and floors. Volunteers for the two organizations quietly build and donate beautifully crafted beds and bunkbeds to give the children rest.

Another Gazette article explained the unshakable joy and hope among attendees of churches throughout the metro area in the wake of a record annual murder rate and a massacre at Club Q. It told of a Presbyterian church that focused sermons on the losses needs of Club Q survivors.

Throughout Colorado Springs, religious organizations stepped up this year to help victims of illness, hunger, poverty and crime. Most of the region’s soup kitchens, shelters, food pantries and hospices are managed and staffed by religious organizations. Colorado’s largest hospital is Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. Catholic Health Initiatives, established by nuns, owns Centura Health and all its hospitals and clinics. Religious and secular health care giants work together to provide the world’s most sophisticated health care.

Organized religion plays a significant role in the lives of nearly everyone – believers and non-believers alike. It funds scientific research, medicine, education, charity and more, mostly without regard for the beliefs of beneficiaries.

Increasingly, we hear “religion is the cause of most wars” and other societal problems.

The Encyclopedia of Wars documents 1,763 wars on record throughout history. Of those, 123 have some nexus to religion.

A 2017 Heart + Mind poll found 51% of Americans consider religion “part of the problem,” while 49% consider it “part of the solution.” Be assured, the percentage who consider it “part of the problem” has grown in the past six years.

Pew Research found 45% of Americans who attend church weekly did volunteer work in the past week. That compares to volunteer work by 27% of those who don’t attend church. Among those who attend church, Pew found 65% “gave to the poor” in the past seven days. Among non-church goers, the number falls to 41%.

An enormous body of research shows that most charity in the United States comes from people inspired by organized religion. Every major religion professes the value of putting others ahead of self.

Georgetown University Economist Brian Grim, as reported by Philanthropy Roundtable, found that religious communities contribute $1.2 trillion in socioeconomic value to the U.S. economy. That’s more than the combined revenue of America’s 10 largest tech giants. It is bigger than the total economy of all but 14 countries.

Organized religion is not and cannot be perfect. Yet, overwhelming evidence suggests the benefits provided by churches, synagogues, temples and mosques overwhelm pockets of scandal. They deserve societal support and accolades, not avant-garde derision by an increasingly secularized culture.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board