Specific Ranting
- May 31, 2003
- 4 comments
Russ mentioned in a comment on my last post that he would’ve mentioned something about Christianity as well. At first, I disagreed with him, but that’s because I believe his perspective of Christianity is different than mine. I believe he sees the institutionalized religion, while I see a lifestyle, a set of guidelines for life which are completely separate from church as many know it. I grew up in the former though, and I eventually grew disillusioned with all of it.
I haven’t been to a church service in quite a while because I can’t stand the format. It’s always the same. Everybody sing a few pre-determined “worship” songs over and over and over until it becomes a mass hypnotic mantra of emotions. That way everyone feels like the Spirit is upon them. Do they actually read and understand what the words are? How come most of the modern “worship” songs are more human-centered than God-centered? Lyrics like “I come before you”, “I give up all I have” or “I sacrifice my all” sound a lot like focusing on our deeds instead of focusing on God.
Afterwards, everyone goes to shake hands with someone “they haven’t met”, except that no one really does that. They always go shake the hands of the popular, well-off people. Or if they do actually shake your hand, they don’t really know how to hold a conversation. And they certainly don’t want to talk with you outside of Sunday service!
After all that’s over, the pastor will get up and preach about some story we’ve heard 500,000 times, from the same unrealistic perspective. Everything is so spiritualized, that no one knows how to apply it to their lives. They all just dumbly nod their heads and every now and then someone yells out, “Amen!” So they can seem more spiritual, of course.
Because the Sunday service is so disconnected from reality, the churches feel like they have to have Monday night Bible study, Wednesday night service, Thursday night choir practice and Friday night “Christian” bowling (whatever that means). There’s nothing wrong with getting together, especially to genuinely study the Bible, but many times it’s an excuse for a talking head to blabber their perspective and you to sit their and bask in their “keen insight”. No one seems to know how to genuinely live a Christian life. No one demonstrates the truths in God’s word.
Everyone is trying to outdo the other. Trying to look the most spiffy. Trying to “be someone” in the church, so they can be looked up to and respected by “the flock”.
It’s all crap. Not all churches are like that, but a whole lot of them that I’ve been to are very much like that. Nowadays, I can’t even make it past the worship service if it’s anything like I described above. I simply get up and leave.
I’m not saying I have all the answers. I’m simply saying I can’t stand to pretend anymore. I hunger for truth and I don’t find it in the organized church as it is now.
I wrote a lot more than I thought I would.
I do happen to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This is where we differ in our perspectives, but I do agree with you that His words and actions have been twisted and abused for 2000 years. Not all the time, and not by all Christians, but definitely by the Roman Catholic church and more recently by many evangelicals.
The way I see it, if Jesus wasn’t the Son of God, then he was a blatant liar, and none of His words have any value or meaning in them. If He is the Son of God, then His words have meaning, give hope and comfort and ring true with our spirits and with life. I can’t take some of His words and not others. It’s all or nothing, and because His words do all of the above for me, I believe that He is the Son of God. It’s a simple matter of faith. Nothing else on my part. I don’t have to do or be like anyone else in “the flock” to be a Christian. I just have to believe Jesus is who He said He is. Some find it easy to believe, and others find it very difficult.
Sorry to sound preachy, but that’s how I’m coming at it. There’s a lot more to Christianity than that, but what I just wrote above is the core of it for me and many, many others. The rest of my beliefs are built on top of that.
Russ
Carl
June 28, 2005
It is my strict opinion that Christianity began as a lifestyle and was molded into an institution by humans so as to serve our needs. It began as a group of 13 men and their leader. These men lived together, ate together worked together and shared everything they owned. They did not have set times for “church”, church happened because it was something they believed. It was not some mundane ritual they were forced to partake in. Nothing separated these men; not belongings, education, employment, nothing. These were common men that could see the truth in what they saw everyday. These beliefs were not mysterious (originally). The lifestyle that the apostles led was not difficult nor was it lavish. It was simply enough to get by. Not like today where you have all these ministers with six-figure salaries or higher. If I didn’t know any better I would think that some of these people become ministers just because their father did it and he made a good living. I hate religion but I believe in Christianity as it were meant to be. Okay, I’m done.
I believe you summed it all up quite well. Including your belief as to what my perspective of Christianity is. It’s not the set of moral guidlines that I have a problem with, my problem is with what Christianity has become.
I find this whole “Son of God” thing a bit hard to swallow, but I do believe that this man called Jesus had some great things to say, and great words to live by. Unfortunately, his teachings were hijacked shortly after his life was cut short, and used in evil ways to control every aspect of people’s lives for the last 2000 years.
People often mistake me for being a religious person because of what I have been told is my “moral sense of direction”. They are then shocked to find that it has little to do with religion. To me, it has to do with common sense. I just usually do what I feel is the right thing to do when I make decisions in my life.
Your description of life in churches has brought back many terrible flashbacks. Your words are nearly identical to the words I use when I tell people why I have nothing to do with churches and religion.