It's Sunday

Today is the Christian day of rest, the time to visit your church and do what your church of choice does.

This got me to thinking about the relevance of places of worship in today's society.  Do places of worship have a place in today's society?

Some argue religion has no place in society, which is not the point of my thinking, seeing as religion clearly has it's stake in societies all accross the world, however is the building as relative as it once was.

Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Temples, Stadiums (just kidding) can be found scattered accross our green land and are closed, or at least empty, for most of the time, are they under utilised or just redundant?  I have seen Churches turned into McDonalds and appartments, I have seen Synagogues turned into Mosques and even Arenas and school halls used as Churches.

So with all this interchanging and so called sacrilige what is the real purpose of these buildings of holiness?  If they are God's house why do we sell them when we can no longer afford the upkeep, doesn't God cover His own rent?  If they are just a place to gather, can't we just gather at the pub or community centre?  If they are holy why do they so easily change hands?  If they service the community why the gates, alarms, locks and closing times?

Today we get our religious teachings from the tv and internet, we can communicate our faith from our living room too the 4 corners of the world.  We rarely need to step foot into a place of worship for much and rarely do, unless we feel the burden of concience impressed upon us by our religious texts or leaders.  And if God did ask us to worship Him in these buildings why do they close down as frequently as they open?

I guess next friday I'll see if the Mosque can answer these questions, failing that Synagogue on Saturday and then Church on Sunday.  Thank goodness I have somewhere I can go to get answers to such important life questions.