Dear Methodists,
I like you. You care about some really dumb things sometimes, but you also care about some pretty important things. I wish you weren't so in love with the status quo, and you invoke Jesus' name far too often when it's really Paul you worship. But I still like you.
Most people hear the words "organized religion" and freak out--with good reason. I like to focus on the adjective: organized. (Unfortunately, such organization has hurt many many people for no good reason; but such organization can help many many people for very good reasons.) Religion is a human creation anyway. Aren't you striving for something more? When I'm around you I can feel you wanting to be more than just a well-behaved supporter of social manners and of keeping the church chairs looking pretty.
Except, you're often too polite and too scared to talk about what's really important, let alone act on it. Toes recover from being stepped on. Comfort can be regained after change. And you are far too concerned with what you deserve to have because of your goodness. But I join with you in organization because we are humans and flawed and I because I know you and I can do better. I promise to remind you of this if you remind me.
Love,
Tara
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4 comments:
Tara
This is a near and dear subject of mine so I think you a genius.
I am sad at the way religion has ruined people.
Anyway, this is a good love letter...but then they all are.
:)
Dear Tara,
Thank you for not taking the road often traveled by, that of Cliched Organized Religion Bashing. It is so easy, too easy, to blame religion for mass confusion, for our bygone trauma from early indoctrination. Religion doesn't ruin people. It's what we make religion to be -- what we as flawed, proud folkien make religion to be. Like you say, hopefully our affiliation with a church will help us to grow as individuals and to be more than we would settle for, usually.
I myself grew up Catholic, did the whole 12 years w/ the plaid polyester uniforms with the nuns. I guess you know I also went to Camp Allegheny where I hoped I could escape the Same Kind of Catholic Kids I Had Met My Whole Life. Needless to say, my greatest souvenir from Alleg.edu is not only my degree but also Lovey Loverpants for whom I married outside of both my race and religion. I jumped ship from Catholicism a few years ago, got re-dunked and everything. Now I belong to the Boston Korean Seventh-day Adventist Christian Church which is a long thing to write out on your tithe check and a long long name for your family to say and otherwise understand. But hopefully the heartache that my own conversion has caused my family will someday fade because hopefully the "organized" part of Christianity will be such that someday, we'll all be after one goal and denominations will not matter. That is my hope.
Thanks, again for your insights (and, I suppose for this vehicle to suddenly spout off about conversion experiences :). I love to read them!
Have a wonderful and blessed week....
Organized religion bashing is easy, which is mostly organized religion's fault. I just wish so many people wouldn't blame God and Jesus when it's very clearly people who should be blamed. I'm okay with the complaining, actually, but the complaining really needs to be followed by more action. What we deem so awful in this world could be made much better if we all did something about it. It's really that simple. I'll let you know when I figure out how to accomplish this....
I'm so glad I can provide venues for venting. Blog therapy.
The problem I have with religion is people tend to love their traditions more than God. Jesus addressed this in Mark 7:8,9 These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God's commands with their own man-made teachings...
This scripture speaks to me as a warning of how easy it is.
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