preach

Dr. Minter and Benny T made some comments that I feel I need to comment on.

For all that it disappoints me on a seemingly daily basis, I cannot and will not give up on the church.

Every summer, I watch teenagers meet to talk about how they, as young Christians, feel about the world around them. They're at an age where their parents' views are being either accepted or rejected as their own views, and I think it's important for the ones who are shaping up to be, for lack of a better word, liberal to see examples of adults who have liberal views and a strong faith. It's important for those kids to see that I don't just reconcile my political beliefs with my faith, but that my (quite liberal) views are based on and strengthened by my faith.

If I gave up on the church, I'd be one less example of that where those examples are few and far between already.

So I cannot and will not give up on the church. I would encourage anyone who still has even a little bit of faith that hasn't been beaten out of them by James Dobson and the like to also not give up on the church. Rather, I think an effort should be made to take the church back.

There was a time when the church was the biggest voice for positive social change. It can be again. It can be. I promise. Ben. Wade. Whoever else. Don't give up. Not all the way. Not just yet. Let's see if we can do something about it.

maybe if someone on tv says it

So I just read this article about how Aaron Sorkin, which contains some stuff I didn't previously know.

It also contains this blurb from Kristin Chenoweth, which should sound familiar to longtime readers of my chunk of netspace:

"It's getting to the point where I don't even want to call myself Christian, because the connotations of that word today are hate, non-acceptance, judgment — everything I believe Christianity isn't supposed to be about.

She goes on to talk about how the showbiz types give her a hard time about her faith while the "faithful" have turned their backs on her because her views don't line up just right with theirs. The more I think about it, the harder that part seems to hit home. I can't work on my faith within the church, because I feel like my point of view is growing more and more unwelcome there. I can't talk about my faith with many of those closest to me, because they can't separate it from the thing that the church has allowed itself to become.

It's more than a little bit frustrating. All of it.