Friday, May 16, 2014

Failing Faith

The greatest failing I have found in what we call "Christianity" is the inability of those in community to confront one another's actions with responsible compassion for the person and the full community. There is a difference between judgement of a person's character or morality and confrontation for actions which are harmful to the community. It is this lack of definition that I believe continues the cycles of abuse even in the most religious "Christian" cultures.

Our bodies are born as animals with the ability to embrace a higher level of life. The Sacred Spirit enables us to rise above our animal instincts. The purpose of Jesus' life seems to me to show humans how to act in the spirit of a community, creating a heaven on earth through fellowship as families of intention. The trend to create huge church "families" is, in my opinion, harmful to the intimacy required to have responsibly compassionate communities. We must open ourselves up completely to interact on a spiritual basis. Unfortunately, hiding one's most vulnerable self and hypocrisy seem to be the norm in the mega church environments.

Real families have rules, and they confront each other when behaviors are harming anyone in the community, including harming of oneself. Lying, cheating, and bullying behaviors harm the full family. They break trust. When people gather to witness weddings or baby blessings, they are supposed to be signing on to help in supporting the inclusion in the boundaries of the family and greater community entered into with the rituals. How many take the rituals as including oneself in the support network for those being blessed by the church community?

I believe we have lost the meaning behind the rituals and have abandoned the true meaning of church family. We are simply a bunch of strangers mindlessly mouthing scriptures that have no bearing on how we live our lives as committed community. For this reason, many people have turned away from religion and are seeking The Sacred Spirit in their own neighborhoods and networks of friends.