I have been reading a few liberal theologians as of late, and to be quite honest I have found them to be a breath of fresh air. They do not treat the questioning of tradition as though it were heresy. Maybe it is the lack of belief in a literal and/or eternal hell that gives them such patience, but whatever the reason they do not see any need to give the "right Christian response" to the questions people of other faiths or the people of no faith have been asking for centuries; nor do they need to instill fear or belittle their readers with shameful rhetoric should their readers be asking these questions while wrestling with their Christian heritage.
I have not been comfortable with identifying as a Christian for a while now. I am fine with follower of the way of Jesus or something similar...but, for me, Christianity has become such a loaded term.
The weekend before Easter Kevin flew to North Carolina to work and I flew out with him in order to visit with
Hugh Hollowell and his wife Renee (together the two of them head up a fabulous ministry doing incredible things:
Love Wins.) We happened to be hanging out with them on Sunday and decided to join them for services with a Mennonite congregation. We loved it. We reminisced for a short while about the few weeks we went to Living Water, a Mennonite congregation in the city of Chicago, but our reminiscing quickly turned to lament as we discussed the impossibility of being a part of their community life while we were still residing in the burbs. It was then that we remembered seeing a small Mennonite building in our little town and we decided that our first Sunday back, which just happened to be Easter, we would pay them a visit.
I poke fun at culture and at times find myself longing to throw off its constraints, but their was a certain excitement, perhaps in the cultural familiarity, about being in a church building with people who identify as Christians on Easter morning. I felt the morning pregnant with so much possibility...as if, for the first time, I was in sync, emotionally, with what I had grown up being told this whole day was about. If there was to be anything left in Christendom for me to hold on to...I was pretty sure I was going to find it that morning, amongst that group of people.
We found our seats upstairs; while our kids, excited to meet new people, were safely in their respective classes downstairs. There was a resurrection slide on the power point and while looking at it I decided to lean over and ask my husband about the importance of believing in a literal interpretation of the resurrection. My husband was trying to answer, but I found it hard to pay attention; the preacher had begun his sermon abruptly with proof texted verse saying very harsh things regarding disbelief in the literal resurrection. After making belief in the resurrection a "where you will spend eternity" issue, he then went on to say: if you do not believe in a literal interpretation of the resurrection of Jesus than you are not a Christian...but he didn't stop there...he went on to say: if anyone was not in agreement with his interpretation they could just go visit the Unitarians down the street (If I was brave I would have raised my hand and asked him for directions) ...or better yet just go home.
I am not here to debate literal vs. metaphorical interpretations of the resurrection, what I want to know is when did Christendom get so mean? How dare somebody stand in the pulpit and play on people's fear by preaching a Hellenistic construct of eternal damnation with little relation to any Jewish vision of Sheol and the after life (Dante's Inferno.) Also, there is a whole sect of people who are serious about the Jesus way, much more serious than some literalists I know, who passionately call themselves Christians while believing in a metaphorical view of the resurrection...who did that guy think he was to strip them of that label? Judge not lest ye be judged says to me: if anyone thinks being called a Christian is what gets you through those pearly gates then it would be wise to not go stripping others of the label because of how their beliefs differ...they will find themselves in that same position...only, according to their beliefs, it will really matter. As for kicking people out of the assembly who are having trouble swallowing what others so readily do, what happened to walking with someone? Jesus walked and taught his disciples for three years. I'm not even going to get into, with much detail, how hurtful a comment like that might have been to someone who affiliates closely or knows someone who does affiliate with the Unitarian church. What about building bridges with each other to better serve the community we find ourselves in?
I don't know, it doesn't look promising from where I sit. This conformity before community, to a set of ideologies, has got to stop...and quickly. Fear and hate don't draw people to you...not today. People want to be accepted where they are at...it is not about a refusal change, it is about a deep seeded need to be loved. Love people and then everybody changes...including yourself.
