I’m a Christian, and I also believe in the power of reason. I don’t think anyone is convinced to switch sides on any of the culture-war issues based on emotional arguments that simply escalate into a battle of “who has the loudest voice.”
I believe that the American Christian church of today has been bamboozled into thinking that it is enough to be against abortion, and that as long as we stop that from happening, the rest of our lives can remain indistinguishable from someone who has no power and no life of their own. An American Christian has a different vocabulary and a different habit for 11:00 on Sunday mornings, but what else is different?
The early church succeeded, I’m told, because of the love the members showed each other, and the love they showed outsiders. I know it’s probably a whitewashed history, and there were probably the same unstable people back then as now, but the history doesn’t show that the unstable, loud, vitriolic people really did anything to advance the cause of Christ or the kingdom of God.
I came to Christ because of one thing: I was told I was accepted and loved. I was embraced. I found a place, for me.
It puzzled me then, and puzzles me now, that the church I read about in the scriptures and in history has been reduced to sitting in a building being told things, and then going out to get more people into the building to be told things.
I think a person who has encountered the living Christ would reflect his love, his power, his forgiveness, his understanding, his healing, that they would be that source to others.
I get it that people are in process on the journey. We all start from there to get to here, and we hope to get beyond.
I do hold my Christian leaders to a higher standard, however. I hold them to the standard of leading me and others into demonstrating that we are members of the kingdom, into participating in our society, leading people to wholeness, showing them what a strong, confident, loving individual and congregation can actually _do_.
I just don’t care any more to hear words in a religious box. The words are fine as a teaching aid. But surely–SURELY–church and religion is more than just sitting in that box on a Sunday morning.