So, in the earliest days of this journal, I said one of my goals was to use it as a forum to discuss controversial and weighty topics-and there is one which, at this time, is weighing down on us like a Packer Tailgate Party on Jupiter.
It gets bandied about & touched on from time to time-including currently in a flurry of comments to Mixdorf's last post, but never truly resolved; and it is this: Cory, it must seem at times like we're out to get you on this whole religious thing.
Every time you offer up something from your Christian perspective, it must seem like we have a cynical, angry, or snide response. I think where the whole thing originates is that you have definitely been going down a road, religion-wise, that has taken you far, far from where you were a number of years back. I'm not saying you didn't have similar beliefs then, but it's the regular day-to-day influence of your church & religion on you that puts a lot of things in a slightly to very different context.
Your response to much of what you encounter & experience has become a religious one, which is very different than the humanistic response of PMix & me. We have been going down a different road these last few years and, from our perspective, much of the trouble in the world; from terrorism to domestic intolerance to people voting in elections against their best interests (which results in worldwide harm on a scale it is tough to comprehend) is as a direct result of people's religious beliefs. Not religion itself, mind you: it's similar to the "guns don't hurt people but people do" argument. It's the failings of people (accidental and otherwise) in interpretation of texts and teachings that causes the problems. In addition, the practice of attributing complex or difficult things to the supernatural dimininishes our society's ability and willingness to find human solutions to our problems.
The final puzzle piece of Mixdorf's & my concern over seeing a friend become ever more deeply involved with (it seems) evangelical activities is the witness we bore to the effect it had on my brother (now known as "The Fall of Kick Ass)." He was always a square, but it turned him into a square stick in the mud.
Please understand that I have known a few people (and known of a lot more) that are true credits to the Christian faith. And I do believe that more positive change can occur within the church than from without. But we need warriors for this battle, good and true. I simply ask you to proceed through sermons and Bible studies and other such experiences with a questioning, logical, and ecological heart. You will encounter many, many people in that journey who will (though they say otherwise) act like they have the answers. They don't. Truly ask "What Would Jesus Do?" And not the flaxen-haired abstinence-rally-attending Jesus, the real one. We love you, and we just want to make sure that, as we continue down our road of intellectual curiosity & exploration, we don't lose our traveling partner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Do you fear that I will drift away? I try not to get your faces about my beliefs, and if I do please tell me to back off. I do, however, tell you initially what I believe. I also hope that you don't hold it against me that I didn't vote for Kerry. You should take comfort that I didn't vote for GWB. I want to be a stronger advocate for the environment and I am making quality gains here at school. The Forester is still here and will always. We can have different views and beliefs, but I appreciate our differences and I think that it makes us better friends that we can share with each other all aspects of our lives.
Dan deserves credit for pointing out the elephant in the room.
I don't really fear that you'll drift away my friend, I fear that you are on the fringes of a cult.
You and I now share radically different views but are generally on the same side of things. It's a situation that many in the Christian community would find irreconcilable. I am an ethical and moral person, but I draw my beliefs from an internal source, rather than an external one. I do not believe that Jesus or the bible is the source of morality. This would get me a tongue-lashing from many people who attend your church. But you and I are far deeper than that, we know who we are.
My concern is for your mind, not your soul. Too many people, as Dan has said, attribute everything, good and bad, to the machinations of a supernatural being. In so doing, they relieve themselves from much of the responsibility of personal choice. If someone else is responsible for all the good and bad in your life, does that not make you a puppet? And if people who do bad things do it believing they are doing god's will, what are the repercussion? Too much evil has been done in this world because people believed they were doing god's will. It has poisoned the well for me.
In perhaps the greatest words of a great man.....
I do not pray that God is on our side, I pray humbly that we are on God's side.
Abraham Lincoln
Actually, I think you're very good about not being "in your face" with respect to your religous views, never think about who you voted for, and think you've been a really good advocate for the environment at your school. Add to that I think you do a really good job of taking it in stride when we take pot shots at contemporary Christian culture at large.
I think what it might be is that some of your newer things (teaching Sunday school, bible studies, Worship & Praise music) are things that have been part of the lives of many people that have freaked me out and/or with whom I've found that I have almost no common ground (e.g. Christian Crusaders for Christ in college).
We DO have common ground and I want to rejoice in it. And I definitely don't want you to drift away, so maybe I'd just like your assurance that if I start going after the "moral majority" from time to time, you'll assume that present company is excluded.
I already have. I don't just listen to praise and worship music, and I do more than just bible studies. Just want you to know. Don't be freaked out. I am just growing in my faith and I am getting inspiration and hope for the future. T-Clog has many hats.
Post a Comment