As you probably figured out by now I feel the same way about the Christian Church as I feel about water-boarding. Not a warm and fuzzy kind of feeling, more like a scream in the dark kind of feeling. My wife has a work friend who expressed wonderment that she (my wife) has no membership in a formal religion and yet is involved in the community to the extent that she volunteered at the Community of Christ thrift store. "Well I like what they are doing for the community and I can get past their theology." explained my wife. Now this friend of hers is going through a minor crisis of faith. Her church (and I don't know which particular Christian sect) is in the process of hiring a new pastor and most people agreed that a certain woman was the perfect candidate... until they found that person had a female partner... or as I would say 'her boat sailed a little too close to the Isle of Lesbos.' So they dumped the candidate, presumably in the name of God's love. Hurray for tolerance and love!
So I have 2 points to make here. First, you don't need to call yourself a Christian to help people. In fact I find that most Christians are self-centered in that they are interested in going to heaven and having everyone else go to hell. And that taints their service to their fellow human beings. It has been my experience that there are a lot of opportunities to help people. And sacrifice without the expectation of return is part of my definition of loving thy neighbor. Second, if you are claiming that your church is representational of God here on earth you had best be sure that your house is clean before you start condemning other people's houses. As an aside, most Christians will tell you that saying 'God damn' is taking the Lord's name in vain, a violation of the third commandment. My understanding of Judaism is that taking the Lord's name in vain is not cursing using the word God, rather it is saying things like 'God is on our side' as a justification of actions. I think the aforementioned Church is guilty of taking the Lord's name in vain when they rejected the lesbian pastor. I think that God would rather his/her/its church be inclusive rather than exclusive.
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Are we related? This blog hit the nail on its head as far as I'm concerned. I've been annoyed with the hypocrisy of many I know who are Christians. When my husband of 19 years commited suicide and left me with a mountain of debt that he had kept hidden as well as bleeding out our accounts and not paying his life insurance policy...resulting in my losing our house and having to raise our 3 yr old on a wing and a prayer...my born-again brother-in-law responded to the plight of my situation by saying these 'bad' things happened because I didn't pray enough or believe in Christ 'enough'. Meanwhile, the pastor of our church decided, because of the suicide he 'didn't feel comfortable', against doing the funeral service and only one older woman from the church we had done so much for bothered to call...no one came. I couldn't believe these 'good people' reacted by shunning me and my children for what their father had done....he was bi-polar not a serial killer, for crying out loud.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I don't go to that church (Presbyterian) anymore or any other church for that matter. I just live by the Golden Rule and, like your wife, do my good deeds because of how I feel not because it's going to get me into 'heaven'.
Great blog, I'll be reading more of your stuff and will be coming back to see what else is rattling your cage.
Thanks! Feel free to email me at nemoksia@gmail.com. I doubt that we are related but I'd be proud to have you as an honorary sister.
ReplyDelete-Grant