Church has been a major part of my
life for as long as I can remember.
Raised as a Southern Baptist I have never been a member of another
denomination, sect, faith, or other religious group. In fact, I can only think of a few times when
I have even attended a church service other than Baptist. As a child, our family attended services
twice on Sundays and were faithful attendee’s of the Wednesday night suppers
and prayer meetings. I was involved in
youth groups, Training Union and Sunday school; if it was church sponsored, I
was there.
Like so many of my generation after
leaving the nest, my attendance in church activities waned and slowly
died. Sin is so much more fun, but guilt
takes the fun out of sin after awhile.
The guilt drives you back to the church as you realize the emptiness of
the party life. The responsibilities of
parenthood draw you back as you do not want your children to grow up as godless
heathens. Of course, the fear of eternal
damnation in the Lake of Fire is a pretty good marketing tool as well.
I grew up in the church. As an adult I matured to the point where I
became a church leader Ordained Deacon, Sunday school teacher, Outreach leader,
Ministry leader, the traditions, values, theology, doctrine, and worldview of
the Baptist Church pulse through my veins.
I toyed with the idea of full time ministry, even taking a couple of
college credit classes from Liberty University.
Confident in my own salvation I
preached the Gospel whenever possible and more importantly I became a prayer
warrior. I tried my best to be prayerful
in all things, to pray without ceasing, to ask so that I might receive. My prayers were for heavenly things, peace on
earth, and wisdom for our leaders, both spiritual and political. I prayed for my family, my pastor, my Sunday
school class, my co-workers, my neighbors, and I named them all by name. I prayed for my own forgiveness and that I
might forgive others.
At the risk of sounding self
centered or arrogant, I begin to notice that other members of our congregation
were not a serious about the faith as I was so I worked harder as a teacher and
leader.
One of the jobs I took on was
leading the Levite Ministry. The
Levities’ were volunteers who showed up early on Sundays and Wednesdays to
help prepare the church building and grounds for worship services. We unlocked doors and turned on the AC. We made sure tables and chairs were set up
and trashcans were empty. We policed the
grounds for trash and debris. I thought,
this is the perfect way for committed Christians to show their faith through
their works. We can come in an hour
earlier than everyone else comes, go about our business, be a blessing to
others, and serve the Lord humbly. Too bad there were only about two other souls
who saw it that way as well.
We tried to establish a ministry
for parents, because I knew from experience that raising teenagers was
challenging to say the least. Having
teenagers in your home can cause one to renounce religion and enlist in the
French Foreign Legion. I knew for a fact
that several families had teens that caused their parents grief and I thought
we might minister to the needs of those parents, but the program died for lack of
participation. I was becoming disenchanted.
The pastor wanted the deacon body
to assume a family ministry where each deacon shepherded a number of families
and the deacon would tend to that small flock.
Hospital visits if needed, prayer request, spiritual guidance and other
various and sundry task as needed. It
was a major flop. People did not want visitation,
at home or in the hospital, and they damn sure were not coming to us with
prayer request unless it was financial.
People were always ready to admit they needed God to provide them with
more money.
Another idea was a ministry to
assist the elderly, the single parent, navy wives whose husbands were serving
our nation in uniform. We thought the
deacons could volunteer to do odd jobs for members of the church or the
community who had a need. We could mow
the yard, rake, wash the car, clean the house, take an elderly couple to the
store, just some little service that somebody might need to make their life
easier. But alas, the faithful followers
of Jesus just could not find the time to perform even the simplest of task for
their brothers and sisters in Christ.
A deacon brother and I tried to
institute a food closet for the homeless and transient who came to our church
looking for a meal. The other failures
had been disappointments. This one made
me angry and was probably the beginning of my questioning of our claim as
Christians. The reaction of the deacon
body and some of the other members of the church body to “those types of
people” lingering around the campus was revealing as to just how “faith”
affects a person’s everyday life. I
concluded that faith had little to no effect on the lives of most of the
members of our church.
I began to pay attention to the
cars we drove, the clothes we wore, the homes we lived in, even the vacations
we took. We were a very wealthy
congregation living in affluent neighborhoods.
I looked out of our Sunday school class window at the parking lot one
morning and just identified a few of the cars our class members had driven to
church that morning. Just a handful of
folks had driven cars that would have a collective value of more than a quarter
of a million dollars, yet we could not make church budget on a weekly
basis. Hell, we could not even recover
the cost of the morning doughnuts and coffee from the donations basket.
However, the most glaring
deficiency I saw in our congregation was the astounding lack of knowledge of
the Bible. The book we claim to hold
most dear and most sacred was scarcely read by most folks who carried it around
on Sunday mornings. This fact was
evident in the inability to articulate theological positions based on scripture
or to even point to a chapter or verse to support what they were sure was a
gospel truth. They just could not tell
you where it was in the Bible, but they knew it was in there. God helps those who help themselves;
cleanliness is next to godliness and all that sort of thing you know. But they sure as hell could tell you where
the verses are that said God hates queers, or that God will destroy those who oppose
Him.
Many of the biblically illiterate were
long time Christians. Some served in
leadership roles alongside me. I
understand that many folks find the Old Testament somewhat of a tough read, but
these folks were not even versed in the most basic of Christian Doctrine from
the Gospels. I was shocked to discover
that the Sermon on the Mount was a revelation to some of these folks. I mean, if you are going to call yourself a
Christian, you should at least be familiar with what Jesus said and
taught. Even those who deny the Divinity
of Christ, such as Thomas Jefferson and Gandhi, thought the Sermon on the Mount
was great moral teaching.
The final nail in the cross of
conviction of the emptiness of today’s church was the 2004 presidential
election. At the time, I was a blood red
republican and had been voting republican since the Reagan Revolution, and I
voted for George W Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Nevertheless, I begin to question this insane notion that somehow
Democrats were not Christians, or at least not “real Christians”, or not the
right kind of Christians. My parents and
grandparents were some of the best Christians I ever knew. They were kind, honest, and humble people and
pretty conservative when it came to social and political issues. But they were being demonized by the rabid
right wing as something they were not, and never had been. The church had fallen back onto a philosophy
that had worked for it throughout the ages.
Attack those who believe differently than you do. Marginalize those who hold differing
opinions, paint as enemies of God and of the state those who would dare to
question the popular orthodoxy and dogma, and define anything that is different
as evil.
My academic background is in U. S.
history and in religion. I am certain
that my experience as an undergraduate and graduate student helped bring about
this change in me. My Christian brothers
and sisters will say worldly and ungodly influences polluted my mind. After all, public education is one of the
great enemies of today’s Evangelical mindset.
I had a family member tell me that all schoolteachers were some kind of
godless, socialist, America hating scum.
This went over well with me since I was in graduate school at the time
earning an advanced degree in education, and that my daughter and son-in-law
were both public school teachers.
As I read more and more about
church history from a secular point of view, how the church had reacted to
trends and ideas throughout our history I begin to realize that organized
religion is little more than a political system designed to seize and hold
power. The British used biblical
passages to support the Divine right of kings to rule over subjects. The American colonist used the bible to
support their call for freedom and self-rule.
The bible provided both north and south support for the various
arguments for slavery and freedom. Even
Lincoln noted in his second inaugural address the following truth.
Both read the
same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let
us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered.
That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.
Dr. King turned to
the scripture during the Civil Rights movement, while the bigots and segregationist
also used scripture to try to curry favor with church folks. As Lincoln said, God cannot be for and
against the same things.
In my view the church has become
politicized to the point of spiritual paralyzes. This is one of the reasons our founders
forbade the union of church and state, to prevent the tyranny of the majority. The church itself cannot even agree on
theological and spiritual truths and doctrines, hence the various sects and
denominations. How then are we to
live? What gives one group the right to
say what acceptable behavior is for a community or a culture? I reject the notion that the foundation of American
law relies on biblical or Christian doctrine.
The Founders were a diverse group of believers and non-believers alike. Instead, I have adopted a more Jeffersonian
view that religion is more a private matter between one person and his or her
God.
There are indeed many good people
of faith, of many faiths, that interpret the various scriptures in many ways, but
the basic tenets of the monotheistic religions have a common core, to treat
others as you would want to be treated.
To be kind to those around you to seek justice and mercy and to walk
humbly before God, and as Jesus said, “If
you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even
sinners love those who love them!” (Luke 6:32 NLT)
We must remember that Jesus saved
his most vitriolic comments for the religious leaders of His day. The Pharisees rejected any message that
challenged their narrow and legalistic view of religion, much like today’s
American Christian and the associated churches.
Jesus was the original liberation theologian. His message was so radical, so anti-religion,
so far outside the accepted dogma of the day that He paid for those views with
His life.
Therefore, I have retreated from
today’s church and from organized religion.
I seek spiritual solace in the still and quiet voice of God. I pray in my closest and try to do my good
deeds in secret so that only the Heavenly Father sees. And as I leave the albatross of religion I
have stopped to shake the dust from my feet and remember that Sodom and
Gomorrah may get a break on judgment day.
No comments:
Post a Comment