... and the firstfruit of religion is emptiness

I like to think of myself as a pretty tolerant person when it comes to my faith ... I see lots of room for diversity in how people relate to God, the ways in which we worship, etc. You don't have to do it my way -- even if you attend my church. As a matter of fact, much of the time we won't do it my way, because I know that what works for me might not work for the people I'm worshiping with. Feel free to worship God in your own way.

But there's a strain of Christianity that I find myself becoming much less tolerant of lately. Throughout my life, I've seen it expressed well. It ruled at the bible college I attended, the churches I used to go to ... in the lives of many, including myself. The following of Christ has been turned into a maze of rules and regulations. Loving Jesus has been reduced to following a set of laws. And my peers and friends have reaped the consequences.

Don't get me wrong ... I know they/you/we meant well. (I am talking about the conservative evangelical/"independent fundamental" tradition) I know the goal was to be the most sincere, most devoted, most right Christians we could be. But somewhere along the line, we got so obsessed with a particular culture (perhaps, ironically, the one ingrained in a certain generation's mind as the ideal time in America's history) that we lost any hope of keeping our faith connected with the rest of our lives. This is probably not as true for my parents' generation, and certainly not for my grandparents. That's because they still had a connection with the culture they were so bent on preserving in the church. But the rest of us were faced with very limited options... we could leave the church, or we could be one person there and another person the rest of the time. Or, we could completely disassociate ourselves with the rest of the world and only function in that highly churched environment.

But it gets worse ... because of the disconnect between the church and the rest of our lives, a whole generation has grown up in these churches with no concept of what it means to have a God who who is relational -- who interacts with them and who loves them and is present in daily lives and who likes rock and roll and loves a good party. Church is a thing people do. God is someone who is out there. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But it doesn't do anything in our gut, and we're not exactly sure how it ties in with the rest of our lives. And so, this religion of hymns and suits and skirts and good behavior has succeeded not in developing vital spirituality, but in producing a spiritual emptiness in the lives of its children.

I haven't always felt this way ... even after deciding that culture wasn't the place I wanted to be. I knew that different people need to worship in different ways. But now I am pursuing the call God has given me to minister, and I am doing damage control. Thanks be to God that he has given us the chance to make a difference in people's lives, and to pursue true spirituality in community with others. I believe there is life after religion ... and it gives everything that religion ever falsely promised and much, much more. It's found in authentic relationship with God and with each other. And I want it more and more each day.