Religion and Spirituality Test: Quick Quiz to Figure Your Faith, Relationships
Culture means the cult of what you worship: Who or what is most sacred to you?
The shattered man asked everyone which woman he should choose: The new love? Or the “lost love” who dumped him but returned?
“The one you can’t live without,” I answered. “You can’t pick one and keep talking to the other. Keep the one you can’t dump.”
The quickest test to determine your religion, spirituality, and relationship priorities: one question recognizing that culture means “the cult of what you worship.”
Whoever is at the very top, Number 1 on your priority list, the one person you can never say “no” to, becomes your “god.”
Your idol is the one person you love above all others. Your practical religion or spirituality is the one person or thing you always put first — your “go-to” action.
Rank your top three relationships to determine your religion, love
Our parish teaches a JOY ranking (Jesus, Others, Yourself), reminding us to always put Jesus first on our priority list, others second, and ourselves third.
The modern world’s “You’re №1” culture reverses that order, telling us to put ourselves first, then others. So, the ranking becomes Yourself, Others, God, or YOG.
Believing most sins start with pride, Father Mathias Thelen teaches us to say, “I am third” when we get too full of ourselves.
Most religions teach that God is the Creator of the Universe and everything in it. But people and things always try to grab our attention, a higher spot on the priority list.
“One of the most fundamental problems in the spiritual order is that we sense within ourselves the hunger for God, but we attempt to satisfy it with some created good that is less than God,” Bishop Robert Barron argues.
Who is sacred? Who is at the top of your priority list?
Relationships are often about fighting for attention, trying to move up on the priority list:
- Children. The 21-year-old made her newborn the center of her Universe, and her husband immediately felt like he didn’t matter. She readily admitted she loved her baby more than anyone, that all others would always come second. By age 25? She was divorced.
- Marriage. When you make “your beloved,” Number 1, your children can feel invisible. They need attention too.
- Money. Make your work №1, and you can lose your family.
- Tribalism. Many make ideology into a religion. Your political idol becomes a kind of “god.” The leader of the rival tribe becomes a devil. Tribal relationships encourage us to love our own and crush “the other.”
- Another Way Home. When your religion and spirituality are centered on God first? When your marriage is a triangle with both spouses looking first to God? Everything else falls into place. You aren’t fighting over who is №1 because you agree God comes first.
Cult of what you worship: What if you delete religion?
If you ignore or delete religion, you still have a list of life’s priorities, making someone the most important person in your world. That most essential person becomes your new “god” while your enemy becomes your devil.
Many atheists say they believe in “humanism,” putting humanity at the top of their list. Atheists reject God. Agnostics doubt God exists.
Some atheists, recognizing the importance of community, have even established atheistic “churches” where they can gather together.
The fastest-growing U.S. “religion” is the growing number of people who answer “none.” They don’t necessarily reject God like atheists (most “Nones” do believe in God, according to research).
Many say they are spiritual but not religious or that they believe in God but not religion. Many feel abused by religious people (even the holiest people remain imperfect and flawed sinners).
The “Nones” have other priorities on Sundays, other things they consider more important. This debate isn’t new.
The Bible references the debate of whether the priorities of God or humanity should come first in the Garden of Eden story: God gives His children a rule, and the serpent says if they reject His Word, they too can “be like God.”
“Every movement to make the world a better place has Christian philosophy at its foundation — even the movements that are atheistic,” Father Dwight Longenecker writes.
The Four False idols: Wealth, power, pleasure and honor
The term “Protestant” comes from the word “protest,” protesting your existing church by starting a new religion with your own set of priorities. When we select our set of rules, we invent a personalized religion.
Our self-made religion centers on that person or activity we hold most sacred, that person or thing that always comes first. St. Thomas Aquinas said there are four “false idols” we typically worship more than God:
- Wealth. Both capitalism and communism elevate the importance of work and making money. Workaholics love their work.
- Pleasure. We love happiness and fun. Addicts hold their addictions sacred, habits they can’t give up.
- Power. The more you control, the more important you feel. We sing “My Way.” We want to be “the one,” the most important. Like God?
- Honor. We all crave respect and love. We long to be cherished. Our egos need feeding. That need to be honored gets in the way of many relationships.
“Sensing the void within, we attempt to fill it up with some combination of these four things,” Barron argues. “When we try to satisfy the hunger for God with something less than God, we will naturally be frustrated.”
Our frustration convinces us we need more of that finite good. But little things have limitations, inviting “a sort of spiritual panic.” Eventually, “we can find ourselves turning obsessively around this creaturely good.’’
The Ten Commandants are a priority list?
The Ten Commandants can be considered a “top ten list” of who or what comes first. The priority list explains why the first three of the Ten Commandments are about putting God first. Others follow.
- The First Commandment: God must come above all others. “I am the Lord your God… You shall not have other gods besides me.” (Exodus, 20: 1–6). Again, whoever is №1 on your priority list is the one person you hold sacred, your religion, and spirituality.
- The Second Commandment: Keeping God sacred, holy, and first. “You shall not invoke the name of the LORD, your God, in vain,” Exodus 20:7).
- The Third Commandment is also about prioritizing God and one day dedicated to Him. “Remember the sabbath day — keep it holy.” (Exodus: 2:8–11). For centuries, people didn’t work on Sunday. Blue laws kept businesses closed, making Sunday about God and family (called “the domestic church).
The fourth commandment is about honoring your earthly creators, your mother, and your father. It’s the only commandment with a promise, saying if you respect Mom and Dad, “you may have a long life.” (Exodus 20:12).
The fifth through 10th commandments are about our relationships with others, barring murder, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting the gifts given to others.
“For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice,” Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote in On the Laws near the end of the Roman Republic in 52 BC. “This law is the right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions.”
Theologian Scott Hahn calls marriage and the family “the first society.” If we focus on putting God first, followed by a God-centered marriage and family for even one generation, he argues, “we would witness a transformation of society and have a Christian culture.”
Takeaway: Start your day with your productive priority list
Our most productive days start with putting the Author of the Universe at the top of our priority list. Surrender to №1. Then pray this straightforward question, “What do you want me to do?’’