prplmtngal wrote:It amazes me all these "Christians" that seem to forget one of Christ's biggest messages was tolerance. If he came back today, I'm sure his rabid followers would be the first ones nailing him back up.
How fucked is that?
You think it's fucked up? Imagine how it is being a Christian!
Finding a church that isn't homophobic is one thing. Not too tough, actually. Finding a church that isn't homophobic, but also isn't focused on fighting a pro-gay agenda, that's harder.
I'm not saying I am anti a pro-gay agenda. But I don't think that should be the #1 focus of a church, or at least not of the church for me. It shouldn't even be the #5 focus.
It seems like many if not most of the gay-friendly churches I've been to have had a lesbian minister. I remember one (up in Lakeview, I think it was) where I went within a couple weeks after Sep 11th, where the most memorable thing about the service was the lesbian preacher talking about the war, and her partner up in the front row reacting dramatically to some of the things she had said.
Finding a Christian church that isn't anti-gay, and isn't hyper-pro-gay is doable, but not particularly easy. Finding one that meets that requirement, and then meets all the other ones as well (i.e. not pro-war, not super-new-age-hippy, not too racially homogenous, not all old people, not all kids, etc), well if anybody's got any line on the dream church, let me know. I have to have been to at least 30 or 40 different churches.
It's like this forum... for all the dreamy things about this forum, there are still things that make it undesirable for each person. For many people, that would be Matthew, right now. For others, it would be me. Or there's gotta be like one guy out there that doesn't like Faiz (how that's possible, I can only theorize). But there's always something you find to be non-ideal.
In a church, it's understandable to want to hold it to an even higher standard. Every sensible person will realize that to expect perfection is folly. But to want something awfully close, that seems a fair request.
Finding that church is fucking hard.
Finding one that hates on homos and is pro-war is easy. Finding one that wants life to be all about love and sunshine and is massively-overly-idealistic and not so realistic is also easy. Finding that one in the middle that's just right, NOT EASY.
One thing I really like about the recent onslaught of Matthew (who at this point I'm wondering if he isn't just a character that's being acted out, at first well and now poorly, by a recurring troll whose name starts with a "TheM...") is that when I'm quick to start typing a message pointing out to him how his aggressive and non-humble nature isn't in line with who he claims to be... it reminds me of shortcomings I have in common with him, that same one included. And almost every time, I've caught myself doing it, and held my tongue, and thought about my own issues. Which I appreciate that he does that for me.
Hating any person is a bummer. But hating any entire group of people is deplorable. Sad. The group of people that I can think of off the top of my head, that I too-easily can "hate" are thug gangstaz. It's so hard to think about why they are how they are, what forces are at work, and so easy to see them as scum. Same goes for religious zealots, or yuppies, or whoever you wanna hate on.
