I am very aware that this post will probably turn into exactly what I hate. It can very easily go from a question of warning to a statement of irony. This frustrates me.
I’ve been a “believer” for 32 years. Unfortunately for me religion has not turned out to be like wine and better with age. I find myself endlessly frustrated with the process and ceremony of church, people that consider themselves Christians (sometimes the title is used as an identification of supremecy) and myself. To be fair I recognize that not everyone, or everything is bad but I continue to find things that make me want to dissassociate with the faith I’ve grown up in and have taken as my own.
I was at Fuddruckers this weekend with my cousin. For those of you that have never had the opportunity to go to Fuddruckers I would suggest it’s worth a trip to Saskatoon. The atmosphere isn’t the greatest but the burgers…well the burgers force me to order them way bigger than I need just because they taste so freakin good. Anyway (what’s an Evan blog without a rabbit trail?) as I was eating, something a group of people started talking about behind me caught my attention. They were talking about Katy Perry. I didn’t know this but according to these Fuddruckerites she at one point had a Christian music album with a song that spoke about her unwaivering faith in God. Then the conversation quickly turned sarcastic to say and now she kissed a girl and liked it. I’ve heard of Katy Perry’s past (similar to mine) and couldn’t help but wonder if she perhaps meant every word she sang back in the day. Perhaps her faith statement at the time was honest and heartfelt. None-the-less she has now decided to be a pop artist (I’m not making any statements about her faith position now because I don’t know..she has never personally told me) and sing about girls etc. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Christians ridicule her. The first time was a passionate, ultra spiritual worship leader at a city wide worship band practice. It rubbed me wrong then and rubbed me wrong now. Why is it so easy to sit on our soap box and judge? Why do we assume we know everything? Why do we assume she is a liar? And why do I feel it right to be rubbed the wrong way?
I was reading a blog post today about Mark Driscoll. In it the author attacked Mark for being a bully. I thought her attack on him for attacking others was ironic. Here it is: http://rachelheldevans.com/mark-driscoll-bully The crazy thing was she didn’t just want to attack him herself, she wanted all of us to attack him and write his church.
Honestly I don’t know a thing about Mark Driscoll. As a kid I went to church, as a teen I continued but found my local church service and youth group was the only relationship I had with main stream Christianity. Even with that my friends were way more interested in Pearl Jam and weed then they were Mark Driscoll or whatever other high profile Christian was out there.
Here’s the point. Why do we feel it neccessary to make people believe what we do? Why do we think we are so right and others are so wrong? Worse, why do we feel the need to police it? Is God not in control? Is God not who He says He is?? Is vengance not His?
Over the past few years I’ve really noticed this cancer type thing in our faith. It’s the idea that we focus on other’s sin and making them right before ourselves. Christians (myself included) have become more opinionated about non-essentials (Jesus is God, He died for our sins and was resurrected 3 days later…Love God and Love your Neighbour etc) then ever before. I’ve come to realize that it’s not Jesus that turns me off of faith. It’s them…it’s me that does. And I suspect that if me…a “lifer” is feeling the pain perhaps people searching for acceptance, grace and Love, the things we say we believe in are feeling it too.
I might blog in a bit about major issues within our society and Christian faith that are road blocks for me and I might not. The point is why are we (you, me, us as individuals) so important? Why do we think we are so good? And why do we feel the need to control others behaviours?
I’m not saying some behaviors are right..I’m saying perhaps our reactions are less God like then we think.
Trying Faith 