Frustration. That's the only word I can think of. And I mean the "I was going to get my haircut tomorrow but I pulled it all out" kind of frustration.
I have found some serious peace in avoiding the topics of church and religion in my writings lately and my hair has grown thick and lush. My stress levels have dropped and I had recently approached a mentality that some people might describe as sanity.
Then another teacher was suspended for reading a book to kids. Then there was a similar incident that hit a little closer to home. And finally a blog post I read today:
http://donmilleris.com/2012/03/21/the-christian-movie-establishment-vs-blue-like-jazz/
I can think of very few messages right now that could be more needed by the modern evangelical movement in America than the one portrayed in the movie Blue Like Jazz. I cannot think of one evangelical Christian in any corner of the United States that does not need to see this movie.
As the rolls of churches plummet as people pass on or, as in my case, walk away, there seems to be no introspection in the movement. There is no intention of changing the very behavior that drives us from the church. There is never that moment of looking into the mirror and asking, honestly, "what are we doing wrong?"
As for the misrepresentation of what is and is not in the trailer for the movie, you may view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GOglQgyxYkI
And the context is so very important. Because what our young protagonist faces in this movie is real. It is not the milquetoast world of Christian cinema. These are real problems that real people (LIKE MYSELF) are facing out here in the real world, with real doubts, real fears and real characters. We aren't facing the pliable villains and Velveeta story lines that show up on big screens at churches all over this nation. We are up to our necks in reality, searching for God in a world growing ever darker while you face your giants and fireproof yourselves.
And then comes something like this. A chance to bridge the void, to reach those of us that look at the church and say "Hey, I saw one of these before." And, like ol' Mick Dundee seeing "I Love Lucy" come up on the screen say "Yep. that's what I saw." Click. You turn away, unwilling to look at yourself and seek a real answer to the question "I wonder why he/she won't come to church with me?"
Really, it's ok. Don't watch the movie. Blackball the people that made it. Don't invite us to watch THIS movie with you. Just knock on our door again, offer us the "plan of salvation" again and invite us to your Sunday school class again.
Who needs hair anyway?
Sam, however many cylinders there are here, you are hitting them all. Excellent writing, honest insights, and words every evangelical zealot should consider.
ReplyDeleteWhile people leave organized religion faster than anyone can tabulate and two generations of young people find nothing compelling in those little inbred enclaves to be worth their attention, the answer of many (God, is it most?) evangelicals is to blame the devil, and his minions the atheists, humanists, (and the current fave) "those gays", declare war on the culture, poison and polarize the political landscape, and ignore the very gospel they claim to propagate.
I'm with you, dude, walking the other way as fast as I can.
And I can't wait to see Blue Like Jazz.
Great stuff dude!
Allan, thanks for what amounts to a fitting epilouge to my post. You added things I was thinking but that just didn't find their way to my fingers!
DeleteHey Sam,
ReplyDeleteI am pretty well out of the loop on this one, except to share this quote from a rather famous theologian in my little corner of The Church: "When theology is false, then Christianity is reduced to activities." - Fr. John Romanides
Unfortunately, my very Dear Friend, you and thousands of others, are the result of false theology. It began in earnest in the 11thC with Anselm of Canterbury, the Roman Bishop of Canterbury, and his seminal work Cur Deus Homo...Why God Became Man. You can read it here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-curdeus.asp
Anselm was a product of his time. And by using his medieval legal construct, that only a peer or greater could ameliorate for a wrong done to someone of rank, he answered his own question by promulgating substitutionary atonement, AKA, satisfaction theory: Jesus died to assuage the wrath of God for our sinning against Him; a peer to God, Jesus, dying to atone for Man's affronting the God of the Universe. Man was unable to do this since Man was not a peer.
Anselm lived at the time of The Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Church (1054) which brought about the final and, so far, irreconcilable split between what is now known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism/Protestantism. We've been studying this history for the last six months at a Sunday evening book study at my Parish so I can recommend a couple of books, if you like. But the upshot is this:
The West got all hung-up on legalism (Remember: Calvin was a lawyer!!!). Even today, if you ask your typical American what is of primary importance to them, they will most likely answer, "Justice". But, in the East, if you ask a typical Greek or Russian or, after enough years now, Me ( ;D ), the answer would be "Love": Love of God, Love of neighbour. And these two world views have their direct links to the towering theologians in their divergent histories: Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas versus John the Gospel Writer, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus.
It's the difference between seeing God as a God of Justice who demands reparations from Man or a God of Love who wants relationship with Man. I now go to a Church that has, for 2000 years, promoted the relationship thing and shown me a God of Love and Mercy: Lord, Have Mercy.
So what's my point? You and Donald Miller, and everyone else in the post-Evangelical wilderness are railing against something that is, well, heretical in it's very foundations. Again, "When theology is false, then Christianity is reduced to activities." - Fr. John Romanides and that's exactly what you have: Sunday School, invented by DL Moody in the 19th C. Small Groups, mostly mandatory these days, invented in the mid/late 20thC. Men's Prayer Breakfasts, Women's Ministries, Awana, and so on ad nauseum. Keep folk distracted and they won't notice the paucity of truth, the sleight of hand going on over here...
TBC
The so-called Sinner's Prayer was first used in 18thC American Revivalism (although Paul Bunyan has one in "Pilgrim's Progress"). DL Moody, Billy Graham, and Campus Crusade picked it up because it was a handy tool to use for large-scale groups. But it's not Biblical. Whilst a "Roman Road" tract might have references for each of the steps along the road, generally, the last step, the Sinner's Prayer, doesn't have one...because that's not what Scripture teaches. Scripture teaches baptismal regeneration...not a Roman Road and Sinner's Prayer. Salvation is a journey, not a private prayer, done in secret, as an individual. That's decisionism...not Christianity where 3000 are added to their number, to their community!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, when I converted to Orthodoxy, no one asked me about my sins before I joined the Church. It wasn't much of an issue at all. When I went to the catechumen classes with David, again, the issue of personal sin was rather minor. It's about my heart, my understanding. Not my sin...which is considered as missing the mark...not dental decay on my soul.
But I digress...
Sam...you and every other Evangelical in this country has been sold a bill of goods. And I am sorry for that. Leaving the Church, however, isn't the answer. Nor can you fix the existing structure f it's a house built on fetid swampland. There is a "third way"... And the smells and bells and other outward trappings aren't the point. It's a change of thinking; a change of heart and mind and thinking...a true renewing, a 180-degree turnaround.
Prayers.