At Mass in Caloundra one Sunday earlier this year, a woman approached me to enlist my support in a devotion to Mary in which she was obviously heavily involved.

She was a visitor to the parish and so I made her welcome. She was very insistent that I become involved in her particular devotion, saying she was helping to raise many millions of dollars to build some kind of shrine in Singapore.

I tried to be polite, and at the same time to tell her that in the midst of a very busy parish, we were not involved in her particular devotion.

After mass, she started approaching a number of people to spread her message. Because of the confusion this can cause, I advised her that I preferred if she did not engage in such activities.

She was obviously a woman of great fervour and dedication, totally committed to her cause.

She told me that she met another priest once who would not accede to her request, and so she prayed that something would happen to him. She added, with great delight, that the priest had a heart attack within a few weeks.

She then told me that of I did not accede to the requests, I too would have a heart attack organised by herself interceding with God!

If I needed any evidence of the farcical and the faithless content of her particular devotion, she had just supplied me with everything I needed to disbelieve any integrity in her claims.

Experiences like this happen from time to time in our world and the times in which we live.

Fundamentalist people, who see things very much in black and white, usually want an easy, quick answer to address the dilemmas of life. “If you do things this way, everything will be OK!”

Unfortunately, there are no quick easy answers to serious and profound questions.

I believe that religion is particularly susceptible to this kind of thinking and approach.

I am firmly convinced that religion, as a structural expression of faith, is a valuable component in the complex business of human life. People of genuine faith make extraordinary contributions to the wellbeing of humanity.

I am also painfully aware of the extraordinary damage that “bad religion” does in the world today. Bad religion is often driven by out-of-control ego, paranoia and a weird vision of how a crazy notion of God relates with the world as something of a plaything or toy.

Bad religion is easily part of every faith movement. The extremes of Islamic fundamentalists come quickly to mind, and yet this aberration stands a long way from the essence of Islamic faith.

It might be more difficult for us to see the dangerous side of Christian fundamentalism, and yet let me assure you it is equally present and dangerous as Islamic fundamentalism.

It is true that it doesn't always take the same face as Islamic fundamentalism, yet in so far as it lacks the inclusive welcoming of all people taught by Jesus of Nazareth, it inevitably takes on forms that are destructive.

We go to great pains to make sure the food we eat and the water we drink is good and clean and pure. It would be nice to think we would go to equal lengths to make sure the religion we consume is good for us, and for all people.

Jesus identified easily the test for good religion “by their fruits you shall know them”. Matt. Ch 7 V16