A few days ago I sent a comment/prayer-request to a megachurch.
I gave them a summary of my life's dips since the beginning of last year, and asked them their take on it.
After pasting a canned-text blurb about their church, proclaiming that theirs is a type of faith "that overcomes, and is not overwhelmed, dissuaded or defeated in any area of life", the reply from them ended with this personal snippet:
"our purpose is teach people to live by the Bible and the principles found in it, which will help them overcome in every area of their lives. God bless! webmaster"
Hmmm....
So I wrote back:
"do x and y will be the result.
Someone recently talked to me about the Way (as they referred to it) being about being fathered by God himself, not adhering to a list of principles (aka laws, codes, precepts).
They said following laws in the Old Testament is equivalent to people today following principles.
Living by laws (now called principles), they said, was scrapped by God a long time ago. Yet you're saying it IS about living by principles (formerly called laws).
Hmmm. Maybe that's why I can't get any synthesis from the various people I am inquiring of.
Real life for people not hovering inside a brick & mortar cocoon transcends formulas, which is why the Body largely talks out of their ass when formulaic approaches are trumped by God himself.
It's also the basis for hollow, empty comments which show the unrelatablity of 'church' to train-wrecked and piss-stained lives like mine. Wow."
So my response back to the webmaster is a microcosm of what I express on my blog. Transparent, straight up, wounded and wondering what the hell the Church is doing (cause it sure ain't about applying the salve of God). Disgust that the Church is largely dispassionate and self-absorbed inside their sanctimonious bubble.
Okay, to some of you this will be a surprise, and to some of you not.
Here is Sphincter Boy's reply back to me. Direct quote within the parentheses is exactly the response.
"James 1:14-26:
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[e] and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging tothe spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Luke 6:46-49
46 Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 47I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
That was the reply. No dialogue. No conversation.
Just throw a couple of Scriptures out, after a kneejerk lightning-quick search on biblegateway, and voila, the wounded inquirer is put in his place, to be heard of no more. Oh, that is unless he decide to start REALLY following Jesus.
I bet if I joined their church's "Believers Club" for $60 per month I woulda gotten a different reply.
Par for the fucking course.
Some might wonder if I just make up this ire out of my ass.
No, I do actually put transparent hurt out there to Christianity.
I'm not heckling, I'm just being honest that largely the Church couldn't give a fucking rip about people like me.
Like I've been saying a long time, if you don't fit the victory or blessing mold, or don't line up within "acceptable" behavior or language as determined by the World Honorable Organization of Righteous Eclectics Society, then you're the wounded robbed man on the side of the road outside Samaria.
Not so much even an "I'm sorry to hear of what's been your lot. I don't have an answer for what's happened to you, nor can I excuse what the Church has done, or more accurately, failed to be to you. I'm simply sorry."
Nope.
Gotta use Scripture and in essence say "fuck you, vermin."
Well, he got that part right. I am effed, and I am vermin by not only the world's standards but also by the Body's.
Interesting how in the very Scripture he threw in my face he said "I will show you my faith by what I do."
Yes, you have shown me you and your church's faith by what you have done.
Loud and clear, you have shown me.
Jesus, thank you that You are not like people who claim to be Yours.
6 comments:
All I can say is I'm sorry. Not in a I did anything wrong way, in a wow that is God-awful way.
hey bb,
The thing is, this is becoming (or largely is) the rule rather than the exception in Christianity.
There is no room or allowance for conversation.
It's "embrace our outlook and our attitude or else you are shunned, and not welcomed".
This stuff is like water off a duck's back. It's no surprise anymore.
This is what Christianity has become.
I'm just glad that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not confined to what man is doing in Their name.
I know what you mean. I go to a fairly liturgical church. I am not fond of the very ordered way things are done there. I also do not agree with some of their theology. Being non-instrumental, the die hards beleive this is a salvation issue...I know. Can you beleive it? But I listen to Jesus and he said two years ago "this is where I want you." But our best friend who was the minister has left and my husband says he's feeling dry. So there is a possibility that we are going to have to church shop in the near future. Everything you are talking about is what leads me to say...you know what, this is a relatively safe place, I'm sick of bs, lets just stay here. Yes I know that's lame and lacking in faith, but I just don't want to go and meet more Christians. I don't want to have to audition for a new social group. I like my friends from church. They are mostly not stoned on churchianity. I do miss being involved in the music, but it's hard to navigate that place without church becoming the Jesus Variety Show. Religion sucks!!!
"I don't want to have to audition for a new social group."
"...stoned on churchianity"
"...Jesus Variety Show"
classic
I have to go back to the original post, what would posess you to ask for prayer and make comments to a "megachurch"? You had to know what you were going to get there. I appreciate your desire for dialog, but something that I learned from my grandmother is, if ignorant people were thirsty to learn, and posessed a desire to learn, they wouldn't have become ignorant. What they are doing works for them...they are happy on their fluffy pink cloud...let the dead bury the dead and follow Jesus.
Don't get me wrong, I think exposing this sort of thing and discussing it is healthy generally. I am just not sure how healthy it is for someone who is going through stuff. It is very easy to sublimate anger over pain and grief into higher causes. I hope you don't think I'm waxing too psychoanalytical, but I know what it's like to be in a lot of pain and have a great deal of anger you have no place to put.
I know how much hurt you are dealing with. I really do. But don't forget, you went to a megachurch...but the "Church" is me and you and bunch of other people that know Jesus. I care about you, brother, and I say I am so very sorry... and you don't even have to send me 60 bucks. Didn't Jesus warn of people who would do mighty works in his name, but that do not belong to him?...This is par for the course. But we are the church, with our soiled hands and mouths, because Jesus says so and he's the boss of this house. We are preists too. Just because we don't have a whole bunch of marketing whoha to validate our existance, that doesn't invalidate what happens right here on this blog. The Holy Spirit will use what it will to do it's work, and sometimes that is a murderer, sometimes it's a donkey, sometimes it's a pharisee, sometimes it is a fool. Don't judge them, wipe the dust off your shoes and don't go back to that town anymore.
I'm praying for you.
hey bb, you are right on in your post. Trust me, it finally got through to me a few months ago, after an absence from brick & mortar church for a few months and then going back a couple of times that it was hopeless.
The last remaining optimistic part of me was like "okay, I've been gone awhile. Maybe the time has allowed things to sink in." Like I said, that was the remaining 0.000000013 % of my optimism about churchianity.
I wanted it completely dead, and it did die, which I'm glad for. When people are sober, complete death is the breeding ground for rebirth.
But most people in church aren't sober. They are high on the "never ending fulfillment" Jesus elixir, escaping from the reality of their own uninspiring and uninspired lives with some kind of Sunday morning fairy dust. Funny how Jesus says he hates actors...I won't belabor that.
Anyway, I didn't email the mega-c with ANY expectation or hope. Zero. None.
I simply wanted to see if my perception of rotten fruit beneath the outer appearance, just like the picture for this post, was true.
It wasn't just with them. I have NO expectations from church(es) anymore. And yes, just like you, me, other Followers, heck yeah--that's all there is.
This social club bullshit, aka church, with all the society-induced rituals and attitudes can go play in the traffic.
Your last paragraph is so beautiful.
One of the saddest things, I think, is how the church has embraced the idea that Truth is to be delivered through pomp, errorless and 'spectacular' productions, PhD'd "experts" with their diction lessons in delivery, elitism, etc...
Thanks for sparing me the sixty bones. heh heh
There's more 'research' in the works. One of which I've already heard back from. It started out the same, finger nails on the chalkboard, but it actually turned out cool in the end. Stay tuned. :-)
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