Dr Chuck Pearson

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March 12, 2005

How we get seen outside the Church

I have a friend-of-a-friend blog, The Airing of Grievances, that I find some fruitful deep-thinking things on from time to time. This post in particular just got an AIM response, four months after the fact, and I think someone may be trying to tell me something.

The hammer blow, written from the point of view of someone who's never had anything to do with the Church full-stop, is delivered with just a massive amount of accuracy and intensity:

To me, religion in the 21st century seems like nothing more than a clique of the cool kids in high school. The similarities: (1) Outsiders suck. That is, anyone who is not part of the group is essentially a loser and, in most cases, doomed to eternal damnation; whereas on the other hand, members of the group, having seen the cool light and all, will live forever in paradise so long as they stay true to the group; (2) Fear of independent thought. Being a member of the group you very rarely, if ever, have to engage in independent thought, because what is and what is not acceptable has already been set in stone; (3) Fear of outside ideas. Mingling with outsiders is highly frowned upon, because, after all, these outsiders may contaminate your mind with ideas that lead to the feared independent thoughts, thoughts that may somehow undermine all the stuff that's been set in stone. (A brief anecdote on this point. A good friend of mine comes from a family of devout Jehovah's witnesses. She is one of the sharpest individuals I know and was recently accepted to one of the top law shcools in the country. Her mother and grandmother pleaded with her not to go. The general basis of their pleas, "they'll be filling your mind with all types of crap." Speaks for itself; (4) Unchallenged authority. In most cases, the authority figure in the group reacts indignantly when challenged; a "how dare you question me" type of response; (5) Group members can do no wrong. When a member of the group gets himself in trouble, the rest of the group does its damndest to help cover things up. I could go on, but I think you get my drift.

Perhaps those of us on the inside can speak to the ways that any of the five above are wrong in our own experience. The problem, though, isn't the reality; the problem is the perception of reality that we face. All of us Christians, I think, can point to one or two of our fellow believers in Christ who have been examples of any of the above. (If you have never had a friend utterly destroyed because they were too different for the church they grew up in, or who got screwed over by a group of "christians" who were far more interested in keeping their little clique intact than reaching out to a broken heart, you have had a blessed life, and I envy you.) I really do think it's incumbent on those of us who are in the Church to bend over backwards to challenge those perceptions.

To that end, I dropped the following comment on that post:

There is a host of crap in the history of the denominations, particularly American denominations in the 20th century. It misses so much of the point of what Jesus actually taught, and what the first group of apostles actually lived out (see Acts, chapters 1 through 4, for the real stuff - further evidence that Jesus and the early Christians were really communists! ;) ).

I cherish the United Methodist Church, not because we have everything correct and all our ducks in a row - we don't, in many ways we're more screwed up than most - but because I believe the UMC makes the most honest efforts to get the core of the Christian faith right. You probably wouldn't be enamored with everything we're doing - the more liberal among us are bothered that we're prosecuting gay marriage issues as vigorously, the more conservative among go over the edge with the aid and comfort the denomination seems to give to the World Council of Churches, which has accused of supporting some unsavory governments in the past. But I've always believed when you piss off both liberals and conservatives, there's something right there. And the quality of person I see in the UMC gives me a great deal of hope for the denomination's future.

Regardless, if you are so bothered by the church, then get to know some honest Christians one-on-one. (If you'd like to get to know me and talk faith with me, my Yahoo screen name is sdytm and my AIM screen name is sdytmdumbyank - I'm happy to talk about my faith at any time.)

One other word of advice, if you seriously are wondering about American religion: Go to a small church. Work on a church building. You would be absolutely amazed how open most Christians are to new ideas when those new ideas come in a body that's willing to throw down and help out with putting down the new carpet, or putting new shingles on the roof.

In talking with Jeff tonight about how some kind of fellowship might happen, it occurs to me more and more that the type of Christians who think just left of center, and fall just outside of the conformity that most people associate with American Christianity - these are the type of Christians who need Church the most. Nonconformists feel alone. They need to know that they're not as alone as they think they are.

I need to know that I'm not as alone as I think I am.

Hopefully, sometime over Spring Break I'm going to be able to post a vision of what I want a church to be. If not a church proper, then a para-church that might be some sort of ministry to those who feel alone in their walk.

Because, after all, it all comes back - for me - to fighting loneliness. Because loneliness is about the single most awful feeling I've felt in my life.

: If you have an instant messenger thing, use ShorterPearson to get a hold of me these days. That screen name works on many of these networking things, too - most notably teh MySpace and Xanga.

Posted by Chuck at March 12, 2005 06:56 PM

Comments

Posted by: Nancy at March 13, 2005 02:10 AM

Posted by: Dr Chuck at March 13, 2005 08:00 AM