Are You "Religion-Intoxicated?"

I have found an intriguing series of booklets published by the Upper Room in the early 1950’s (that’s even older than me!) entitled “Living Selections from the Great Devotional Classics.” Recently, I’ve read from the journals of George Fox who was the founder of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) in 1624. In one he is described as a “religion-intoxicated” person and this got me thinking. First of all, what is a “religion-intoxicated” person? Fox, at the age of 19, was offended by some “professors of religion” (a term he used for persons who received pay for their preaching) who indulged in a drinking party and he (Fox) decided to act as a public critic of the established religion of his day. Did that make him “religion-intoxicated?” Sounds more like, under conviction, he chose to take a public stand opposing hypocrisy within the church…but is that why he earned the label? After more reading one might easily come to the conclusion he had totally surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, even at the age of nineteen…perhaps that is why others called him religion-intoxicated. Regardless, I must say while I do not fully subscribe to the beliefs/doctrines of the Society of Friends, I do see how this man’s life influenced generations of people who claimed to follow Jesus…and many more of us should work to be labeled as religion-intoxicated…especially those of us who are professors of religion!