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I’ve been trying to find a way to articulate my feelings on Christian churches breaking public health orders to gather during the pandemic.
Full disclosure, I’m a minister's daughter who grew up very actively involved in our church. (a longish thread...) https://twitter.com/GlobalBC/status/1346900726597955584
Full disclosure, I’m a minister's daughter who grew up very actively involved in our church. (a longish thread...) https://twitter.com/GlobalBC/status/1346900726597955584
Growing up there was a lot of noise about how to be a good Christian (a word I’ve begun to avoid as I decide how to access my own faith as an adult) and I realized that there were two key approaches you could take.
The first approach to Christianity was through love. This one is instinctive. A deep desire to engage with the God they believe in and emulate the love and kindness he’d purportedly demonstrated to themselves and others around them.
These are the people that show up when you need them. Listen without judgement. Accept you for who you are without an effort to change or inform. My Dad is one of these people, and he’s awesome. (Not to say these people always get it right, but who does?)
The second approach was through fear. Stringent rule following & reactive shaming if you failed to live up to “Christian values” (A set of loosely interpreted guidelines touted as absolute truths.)
Follow the rules, you’re a good Christian. Don’t and you might not go to heaven.
Follow the rules, you’re a good Christian. Don’t and you might not go to heaven.
It’s a spiritual pyramid scheme. A top down, seemingly merit-based set of targets that are actually impossible to achieve. And it’s criminally easy to get caught up in.
If you’ve ever played a video game, it’s like getting trophies. They're often crazy hard to get, and once you get them you realize they actually hold no value (other than the satisfaction of obtaining them and bragging to your friends that you got 100% completion.)
"Christian Values" vary widely depending on the church, but the system is the same. Follow the rules, earn points. Wait until marriage to have sex: points. Don’t swear: points. Don't murder: points. Insist on your divine right to gather in groups in a pandemic… points?
This is where it breaks down... because the same people who laud an impossible set of rules as the way to achieve spiritual enlightenment are the ones that refuse to follow the rules laid out by countless public health systems.
And that’s because the refusal to stop gathering in person despite ALL the evidence that it is unsafe isn’t about protecting religious freedom. Or individual rights. Or preserving faith.
It’s about power.
And whoever makes the rules has the power.
It’s about power.
And whoever makes the rules has the power.
This exact hypocrisy is the reason I left the church. The church I'd been going to (not my dad's) had become focussed on power instead of love.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned since my departure, it’s this: power is the opposite of love.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned since my departure, it’s this: power is the opposite of love.
Anyone who’s ever loved deeply knows that it’s one of the most powerless feelings you can experience. The complete surrendering of control to something else. You’d sacrifice anything for it. (Like I would for sour skittles.)
I doubted my faith a lot as a child. So much so that I once asked my Dad how I could obtain irrefutable scientific evidence that God existed and the Bible was true, so I could lay my doubts to rest.
His response? I didn’t need to lay my doubts to rest. Ever.
His response? I didn’t need to lay my doubts to rest. Ever.
He, as a church leader, told me that my doubts were essential checks and balances to our beliefs. Instead of dismissing them, he told me to engage in them. Think critically!
If someone at church couldn’t handle my questions, there was a a problem (He’s really one of a kind!)
If someone at church couldn’t handle my questions, there was a a problem (He’s really one of a kind!)
Though I walked away from the institution of the church some time ago, it disturbs and alarms me to see how many people using the word “Christian” are falling in line with the fear-power route, at the expense of the love-sacrifice route.
What greater expression of loving your neighbour could you think of than actively making the ONE sacrifice that would keep them safe? Staying physically apart. Not emotionally. Not spiritually. Just physically.
(For people who actively teach their kids that Jesus lives in their heart, they seem pretty fixated on a brick and mortar building.)
And it seems like the people making the rules are running unchecked. Definitely unbalanced.
And it seems like the people making the rules are running unchecked. Definitely unbalanced.
It breaks my heart to see people using the word Christian and then choosing to seek power instead of choosing to prove their love.
This is not the the Christianity I was brought up to believe in. Nor is it one I’d ever return to.
This is not the the Christianity I was brought up to believe in. Nor is it one I’d ever return to.
I can only hope as people take stock of their actions over the course of this pandemic, they realize they've lost sight of the only two most important commandments according to the best seller they put in the back of every pew: Love god, love your neighbour.
Because I suspect if the version of Jesus I read about existed today - the radical, inclusive, socialist, table flipping, poet - he’d be all OVER digital church...
And he'd definitely be wearing a damn mask.
And he'd definitely be wearing a damn mask.
