My wife's church knows I'm not a member. I've my reasons and my own faith. I love my wife and if she wants to contribute to this church, fine. Heck, I've made the effort to help them out. Recently did come cooking for a church supper. They are people in my community and I want to connect with them in some way -even if they think differently than I do.
The problems start when the local church does events with other churches and organizations. Then I can often feel like an outsider. They talk different when they among who they think are their own. I've seen people who appear friendly suddenly close down when they find I'm not of their church. Doesn't matter that we've connected all day about other matters. Once the religion gap is known, the walls come up.
Interesting. They talk a great game of community, but what they really want is a community of people with exactly the same beliefs. Jesus would cry.
One of the things I've noticed is a lowered tolerance for people who think differently. There's less willingness to find consensus with other people. Perhaps the church goers should ally with peoples of other faiths or no faith at all. We shouldn't focus on dogma but on making ethical and moral decisions.
-Sixbears
You Can't Get Anything at Alice's Restaurant
8 hours ago
That's one of the reasons why I don't go to church. I find them to be little more than high school cliques, and they have their own cliques within as well (usually grouped by how wealthy they are). I got no need for that kind of "fellowship"...
ReplyDeleteMost of the local people aren't that bad. The new pastor, however . . . Well, those guys move on.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I had a real discussion about connecting with the nearby church just for the social glue. Came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the damage it would cause to our son. We both grew up going to church and the brain tracks are permanent - "God is real" is the default setting and that hurdle has to be jumped whenever thinking is required. Didn't want to saddle the kid with that.
ReplyDeleteChurch goers are mostly harmless. Irrelevant in the oil age (excluding the damage "dominion" causes) and once the powerdown gets in full swing and Jesus doesn't show up they may become human again. Forget the fundies - lump them in with MZBs as "targets" when they go ape shit and start exercising power.