What might have been lost

"Christianity has been buried inside the walls of churches and secured with the shackles of dogmatism. Let it be liberated to come into the midst of us and teach us freedom, equality and love." -- Minna Canth

One of the main reasons I left full-time ministry several years ago was because I felt suffocated by the "shackles of dogmatism". In the eyes of most Christians, being theologically curious is absolutely wrong. To openly question certain parts of Scripture, to doubt the veracity of particular Biblical stories, to nurture and accept people of other faith traditions, all of these things are frowned upon within the confines of the Christian church. Anyone who argues otherwise is deluding themselves.

I once had a Christian minister tell me that tolerance -- yes, tolerance! -- is the single greatest threat facing Christianity in the 21st century: "We can't just go around condoning inappropriate beliefs and behavior," he said, "That's not what Jesus taught. He is the way, and the truth, and the life." A different Christian minister, upon discovering my affinity for homosexuals and the GLBT community, cancelled my speaking appearance at his church. Within the hierarchy of the Christian religion, there is no room for diversity; either you fall in line, or you fall out of it altogether.

The Christian faith is a perplexing dichotomy. On the one hand, it teaches selfless love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness; on the other hand, it proclaims an entirely narrow, prejudiced, hateful, and self-serving message. Salvation is only available to a select few. Those who put their trust in Christ will be saved. Those who put their trust in science or Guru Dev or Allah will be tortured for eternity in a fiery furnace. Good works are useless (unless you're a Christian, in which case, good works are an overflow of your relationship with Jesus). Being gay is awful. Having sex before marriage is deplorable. Enjoying alcohol is despicable. The list of restrictions goes on, and on, and on.

It's no wonder that young people are fleeing Evangelical churches in droves and seeking refuge in the Anglican and United and Presbyterian faith traditions, in New Age books, in the teachings of Buddha and Ramakrishna and Tao Te Ching. It's no wonder that mainstream Christianity -- as we know it -- is rapidly dying. A religion that restricts the rights and freedoms of others (women and homosexuals, to name a couple) deserves to perish. A religion that is permeated by fear, guilt, and shame deserves be ignored. A religion that boldly proclaims, "God loves you... but if you reject him, you're going to burn forever", deserves to be abolished.

Is there a Christianity for the rest of us? A Jesus for the non-religious? I don't know. But I do know that people are longing for something deeper, for something profound. We are hungry for justice and truth and a spiritual experience that transcends reality. We are yearning for the Divine. We are searching, and seeking, and stubbornly clinging to our confusion. And we are hoping that someday, somehow, our thirst will be quenched.