Rethinking Church

Why is everyone so shocked that church membership is dwindling in numbers?

This very topic has been on my brain for quite some time...

Shockingly, over the Christmas holiday, I began to read the book "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown.

I came across a passage that really got me thinking...

Brown wrote, "From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to American politics- the name Jesus has been hijacked as an ally in all kinds of power struggles. Since the beginning of time, the ignorant had always screamed the loudest, herding unsuspecting masses and forcing them to do their bidding. They defend their worldly desires by citing Scripture they did not understand. They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions. Now after all these years,  mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been beautiful about Jesus."

And I could not help but think how true this has become in today's society. 

So many different faith factions, claiming to be Christian and "of Christ" and yet they find it okay to persecute, to ridicule, to preach to, to talk down to, to build walls up to separate themselves from others, and to speak from their pedestals and behind glass windows.

I think many faith-based denominations have lost their way and have become entrenched in their own politics, blindly saying that this is what Jesus was saying or teaching. Over the years, they have taken portions of the Bible and bent the sayings and teachings to their own will and set that as the "will of God" in their own minds.

Blinding themselves to everything else written in the good book.

Turning a blind eye to the suffering right in front of their face.

Hurling their opinions down from their judgement throne.

And in part defacing the teachings of Jesus.

It is sad.

It is not unifying in the least.

People are dying.

People are starving and cold and in need of humanity and assistance

We are cheering the proposal to build a wall to "keep people OUT".

And folks are seemingly okay with this.

We are appearing to be focusing on laws and rules that should separate parent from child, supporting deportation, try to erase what was set before, place people against people and attempting to lessen one race from another, one gender from another, one orientation from another...

...all in the name of Jesus.

...all against what our very forefathers strove to instill in our crude country's beginnings.

It appears nowadays there is a shift happening

If you are a member of the outcast society, you are cast aside. 

You are unworthy. 

You are unwanted.

A modern day leper.

And it is horrifying.

But at the true core of this holy man's teachings, he taught us to embrace each other as brothers, love one another, support one another, and help each other as best we can.

Remember your fellow man.

We each have different shoes on our feet and are on different journeys and we must embrace each others differences and find a way to live more harmoniously...

If only we all would listen...

And yet they are "shocked" because churches are phasing out, becoming seperatist or dwindling...

And folks are not rolling with the times and modernizing and paying attention to the folks around you.

I had found a wonderful faith community in North Little Rock in my Argenta United Methodist family....a once in a lifetime opportunity...

And I just have not found that here in NW Arkansas.

Granted I really have not tried too hard to begin this spiritual process once again because it is just that...

a process.

I am so trigger shy to anything else because of all the horrible shifts out there in America, all the false prophets claiming this, but doing that, all of the negativity, all of the righteous dignity thrown  toward the LGBTQ community...

And life happened and we moved and Mom and new job and such.

But hopefully in the next year I can find a place to call my spiritual home once again to build my faith.