A friend for years whom my wife and I met again this past weekend at church said that she was almost embarrassed to be there.
This is because someone had recently told her that Christians who go to church do so only because their spiritual lives are so inadequate that they need the group experience to sustain them. If they were mature Christians, he reportedly said to her, they would not need to go to church because they could successfully relate to God on a one-on-one basis.
I do not know how anyone could be more mistaken. Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, is communal or it is not at all.
For this reason, people who have nothing to gain or lose either way often distinguish these three "Hebrew Religions" from the various "Hindu Religions," such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, by labeling the first cluster "historical and communal monotheism."
Sikhism, an intentional blending of the Hebrew and Hindu perspectives illustrates the point. Neither "Hebrew" nor "Hindu" as such, it is an intentional marriage of the two.
To say that the "Hindu Religions" are not communal is a also a mistake; however, they are communal in different ways. Their communities give birth to and nurture the quests of individuals whereas in the "Hebrew Religions" individuals give birth to and nurture the journeys of communities.
"Quest" and "journey" sound different and this is because they are. Although such differences are more about "more/less" than "either/or," because the relationships between individuals and communities are always interactive, the differences that many have noticed are actually there.
This makes choosing a synagogue, church or mosque a very important matter for a Jew, Christian or Muslim. Some of these local religious communities are healthy and some are sick and the more one interacts with either of them the more healthy or sick one becomes.
As the news amply establishes, sick ones are dangerous. This is why "Believer Beware" is even more important "Buyer Beware!"