When I think of the religious spirit in our church, I remember the fifteenth birthday party of my youngest girl, Michelle. We were celebrating it in the SUM of the church and had about fifty people invited. It was quite the affair for our family with music and cake and even a video show of the life of my daughter to celebrate her becoming a woman. The fifteenth birthday in most Latin cultures is a special one and always deserves a special celebration.

And it was a wonderful time of celebration, even though everything didn't go as planned. I had two videos to show. One was about the relationship of Michelle with her older sister, Melanie, who was quite the comedian and played a lot of tricks on her.

The other was about the life of Michelle herself. The problem was that somehow it got deleted before I could show it. To this day, I can't find it or recoup it. I simply don't understand what happened.

But the real problem happened at the beginning when we were setting things up.

I had made arrangements beforehand with the church about what I could use and what I couldn't use. Our church is quite guarded about their "things" and this time was no different. The secretary had given us permission to use a pair of speakers that were not being used but at the last minute, the Pastor had decided against it.

The problem was that we found out at the last minute, and we had no other solution. This was an important, if not the most important element, in the whole celebration. It affected the music, the videos, the speeches, the whole nine yards.

I could tell you that the religious spirit was strong in our church under that Pastor, and I wouldn't be wrong. Whenever you make things more important than people, you are well into the religious spirit and people feel it like a strong undercurrent pulling them under, drowning them in trivialities and procedures. Yes, it's true but that isn't what I mean by the religious spirit in this case.

We had a young man who was from Africa, and he helped out around the church making sure things were in their proper places and keeping things neat and clean. He was polite and a good person. When the secretary told him that I couldn't use the speakers for our party, I got quite angry with him and simply disobeyed his directions. I took the speakers, hooked them up, and used them anyway. This was a Saturday, and I planned to talk to the secretary and the Pastor on Monday when they were in the office.

The problem was that I was deep into the religious spirit myself. In my passion for justice and to protect the celebration of my daughter, I, myself, became the source of the problem. The whole celebration was tainted with bitterness and resentment and the knowledge that I was going to get into even more trouble on Monday when the Pastor found out that I blatantly disobeyed her orders, even if they were unfair.

I wasn't thinking about what Jesus said to his disciples when he encouraged them to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, or remain calm under pressure and persecution. Yes, it was unfair and I'm not sure what would have happened to the celebration, but it was my religious spirit that imprinted itself in my memory of that day.

The religious spirit is not just for churches but, even more, for individuals. It wasn't just the Pharisees or the Sadducees as a group that demonstrated their commitment first of all to their religious institutions but rather individuals, leaders, and specific people who took it upon themselves to defy the Son of God who came to die on their behalf.

No, I was the source of the religious spirit, spouting all of the justifications, all of which were true but beside the point. The religious spirit starts with me and not with others or even the church. Above all things, it is important as you read this book that you read it with humility and not with anger or a passion for justice. Don't fall into the very trap that your church may already be struggling with. It is when you, and I, personally fight the religious spirit in our own hearts that our homes and churches stand a chance of recognizing and fighting against the religious spirit as well.

Corporate sin is a terrible thing, but it is made up of many individual people agreeing to sin in the same way. Change can start with one person and that person needs to be you (and I) simply because we are the ones reading these very words. God changes things one heart at a time. Let's start with our own.