This generation shall not pass away

A friend of mine is convinced that by the middle of the century, fundamentalist Christianity in North America will be on the brink of extinction.

I couldn't agree more.

The reasons for this are plentiful, and the warning signs are obvious: Young people are increasingly rejecting the outdated faith of their parents. Science is continually teaching us new things about the origins of the universe. Sane, rational human beings are looking at their homosexual friends and neighbors and wondering, "Why, exactly, am I supposed to be afraid of these people?" The list goes on.

People are no longer willing to accept a belief system that discriminates against others, that imprisons the soul. Anyone who takes an honest look at the superiority claims of fundamentalist Christianity has no choice but to reject the religion. If the options are "accept Scripture as inerrant" or "don't accept it at all", most people will choose to not accept it at all. A third option -- "accept Scripture as a product of spiritual men trying to understand the world via myth" -- is hardly ever discussed.

This is my struggle, and the struggle of millions of others. We have come to realize that, despite all the good it accomplishes, fundamentalist Christianity teaches an entirely prejudiced and bigoted approach to life. We have come to realize that the notion of a loving God who mercilessly tortures people for following the wrong version of him is absolutely preposterous.

For some, it's a liberating revelation, a reason to celebrate and reject religion altogether. For others, the discovery is heartwrenching. Many of us still want to believe in an Almighty Creator. We still want to follow the Christ Ideal. We want to be part of a faith community that is inclusive and honest and true. We want to sing spiritual songs and psalms and hymns, to explore prayer and silence and meditation. We want to find common ground with Muslims and Buddhists and atheists and New Age practitioners. We want to grow in love and compassion and kindness. We want to experience a Sacred Romance.

And it pains us to see how how fundamentalist Christians -- the modern day Pharisees -- are murdering God, all over again.

Fatigue

"The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

And puts the glory out to hide

I watched a fairly remarkable lightning display from the balcony of my apartment last night.

Thunderstorms have always brought me a deep measure of joy and gladness. As a young child, I would cuddle up next to my parents in front of the big window in our living room whenever a major weather system blew in from the west. I'd watch the fire bolts dance across the night sky, full of awe and wonder and innocence. Dad would wrap his arms around me and cover my ears for the inevitable thunder crash and mom would just smile and laugh. She'd say, "it's getting pretty late, we really should get to bed", but dad and I would put up a fight and beg for one more minute, one more jagged illumination on the horizon.

Life can be hard, and lonely, and painful. Over the past few years, I've become increasingly cynical and jaded towards religion, society, and people in general. Since starting this blog two months ago, I've experienced a profound sense of isolation and brokenness in my personal life, and this feeling has intensified in recent weeks. My posts have been sarcastic, demeaning, and in many instances, angry.

Nothing really changed last night. I still feel confused and frustrated and lost. I still think fundamentalist Christians are insane. I still doubt God. But for a few fleeting moments, I recaptured that childhood sense of awe and wonder and innocence. For a few fleeting moments, I felt like a young boy, sitting on his father's lap, laughing at the beauty of creation. For a few fleeting moments, it was well with my soul.

For the Bible tells me so

An absolute must-see film.

Fear not

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." -- Anne Frank

If it be your will

There's something rather stirring about this performance, don't you think? Antony Hegarty is a 37-year old transgendered musician whose otherworldly voice should be appreciated by anyone with ears to hear. Watching him belt out this beautiful prayer (originally composed by Leonard Cohen) moved me deeply.

The lyrics, in full:

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

It's a shame that Antony's blatant homosexuality disqualifies him from 'following Jesus'. An utter shame.

Being poor

Profoundly moving.

Good riddance

"Those people who tell me that I'm going to hell while they are going to heaven somehow make me very glad that we're going to separate destinations." -- Martin Terman

What would Jesus not do?

Fantastic.

Breathe peace

"We say, then, to anyone who is under trial, give Him time to steep the soul in His eternal truth. Go into the open air, look up into the depths of the sky, or out upon the wideness of the sea, or on the strength of the hills that is His also; or, if bound in the body, go forth in the spirit; spirit is not bound. Give Him time and, as surely as dawn follows night, there will break upon the heart a sense of certainty that cannot be shaken." -- Amy Carmichael

Ignorance is bliss

"I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reasons, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." -- Galileo Galilei

Shut up

"It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others." -- St. John of the Cross

Catch me if you can!

And you thought I was kidding about young people fleeing the Christian faith.

Growing pains

"The concept of a Supreme Being who childishly demands to be constantly placated by prayers and sacrifice and dispenses justice like some corrupt petty judge whose decisions may be swayed by a bit of well-timed flattery should be relegated to the trash bin of history, along with the belief in a flat earth and the notion that diseases are caused by demonic possession. Ironically, the case for the involuntary retirement of God may have been best stated by one Saul or Paul of Tarsus, a first-century tentmaker and Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin, who wrote, 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things' (I Corinthians 13:11). Those words are no less relevant today than they were two thousand years ago." -- John J. Dunphy

It is well

"When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope." -- Henri Nouwen

The paranoia complex

"The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

This phenomenon can manifest itself in a variety of ways. The politician who passionately expounds family values might be hiding a secret affair; the woman who constantly raves about how much she loves her husband might be overcompensating for some inner regret; the preacher who perpetually talks about the goodness of God might be covering up his own unbelief.

I know a married couple who is currently going through a trial separation. They've been married for several years, but have never been truly happy. Sure, they go church every Sunday, smiling and holding hands and praising the Lord. They write odes to one another on the internet, for all the world to see! The woman posts daily Facebook updates about how she "has the best husband in the world!" But it's all a show. It's all superficial, shallow, and fake.

I often wonder how many religious people experience a similar struggle -- not with their spouse, but with their God. Whenever I hear a pastor (or any Christian, for that matter) assert that the Bible is perfect, that it is dictated by God, and that anyone who believes otherwise is a threat to Christianity and doomed to the fires of hell, I can't help but think to myself, "I bet this guy wishes he was an atheist."

Of course, he can't be an atheist. He can't be agnostic. He can't read the Bible as allegory or accept other faith traditions. He's got a wife, a family, and a job that pays the bills. His entire life is built upon his confidence in the Bible. His entire existence is predicated upon whether or not he's right. If God is actually bigger and more complicated than he lets on, if parts of Jesus' life story are actually copied from pagan religions, if his congregation actually learns to think for themselves, he loses everything.

Israeli musician Eef Barzelay has a verse in one of his songs that goes, "And they all think I'm stupid, I can see it in their eyes. But I know what's inside their hearts, I penetrate their lives. Sometimes it gets me crazy, but I keep my feelings hid. Cause I know deep inside they're only frightened little kids."

Well, some of us aren't afraid to embrace that frightened little child within. We're not afraid to admit that we don't have a clue about the workings of God and the mystery of the universe. We're not afraid to doubt, to question, to probe. We're not afraid to seek a different, better path, a path that actually makes sense, a path that is inclusive and truly generous.

If the constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear, then the constant assertion of doubt must be an indication of courage.

Know hope.

Up on the ladder

In his book "Losing Faith in Faith", preacher-turned-atheist Dan Barker writes:

Every Christian has a particular hierarchy of doctrines and practices, and most Christians arrange their hierarchy in roughly the same manner, with the existence of God at the top, the deity of Jesus just below that, and so on, down to the bottom of the list where you find things like wearing jewelry or makeup in church. What distinguishes many brands of Christianity is where they draw their line between what is essential and what is not.

Extreme fundamentalists draw the line way down at the bottom of the list, making all doctrines equally necessary. Moderates draw the line somewhere up in the middle of the list. Liberals draw the line way up at the top, not caring if the Bible is inerrant or if Jesus existed historically, but holding on to the existence of God, however he or she is defined, holding on to the general usefulness of religion, and to rituals, which many people claim to need despite its irrelevance to reality, to give structure or meaning to life.

Put another way: it's as if we're all standing on a giant metaphorical ladder. Fundamentalist Christians are at the top and liberal Christians are at the bottom. Problem is, regardless of where a person exists on this ladder, he/she invariably feels the need to justify his/her position and spew vitriolic hatred towards anyone located on a different rung.

But in the words of master theologian Thom Yorke:

I've been climbing up this ladder
I've been wasting my time
Up on the ladder, out of time to escape
Up on the ladder, we wait for your mistake
Up on the ladder, trying to crawl out the way
Up on the ladder, you're all the fucking same

Indeed we are.

RE: Belief

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." -- Buddha

Like filthy rags

"Which is more moral, helping people purely out of concern for their suffering, or helping them because you think God wants you to do it?"

It's no secret that the Christian religion thrives on guilt and fear. Even among more progressive, postmodern (or, emergent, as the cool kids say) churches, parishioners are constantly inundated with a message of obligation. We're taught that God needs us, that we're his "hands and feet" on earth, that there are certain things we should be doing and certain things we shouldn't be doing. We're told that Christian service is a noble endeavor. Every year, thousands of North American youth groups go on mission trips to Africa and South America and other heathen lands because Jesus commanded us to "go into the all the world and rape cultures of their heritage." Young teenagers are taught that third-world citizens are uneducated, unsophisticated drones who are doomed to an eternity of hellfire unless they renounce their silly gods and accept our True God. And it's your job to make that happen! For impressionable children raised in the church, this is an awful lot of pressure.

Christian authors and pastors and speakers are motivated by contrition. It's what attracts attention, pulls people in, and makes those people cry. I'm convinced that ministers feed off the tears of their congregation: If we're making them cry, we're burdening their hearts; and if we're burdening their hearts, we can manipulate them to do more things for Jesus; and if we can manipulate them to do more things for Jesus, our congregation will grow; and if our congregation grows, so does our fame/ego/bank account.

Everyone has a different method. Some pastors take the direct approach: these are the guys who explicitly berate their listeners with guilt, beseeching you to think about how much God gave up for you. He sacrificed his Son! Jesus hung on the cross and bled and died! It was awful and painful and he did it for you! He loves you that much! Now, what will you sacrifice for him?

Trendier pastors prefer a different avenue: they aren't as "in your face" about it, but they want to remind you that you are loved. You are accepted. You are cherished. No matter how bad you are, God loves you. And you're a bad person, aren't you? You've done some naughty, terrible, shameful things. You must feel really dirty. You must feel like a whore. Well, you're not. Because Jesus is here. He's holding you in his arms. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. Now, what will you do for him?

Ultimately, the end-goal is the same: Christian leaders want people to feel a sense of obligation to God. Because if people don't feel a sense of obligation to God -- if they don't feel guilty -- they're not going to follow him.

A good friend of mine is an adamant atheist. He has no use for faith, or Christianity, or Jesus. He's too busy volunteering at a downtown homeless shelter, caring for the impoverished and underprivileged. He's too busy petitioning the government to reduce third-world debt. He's too busy raising money to help fight AIDS in Africa.

My friend has never set foot in a church. His parents raised him to be socially conscious, to care for the planet, to be mindful of those who have nothing. His parents raised him to be a good person, not because that's what God commanded them to do, but because they're genuinely concerned about the plight of humanity. These folks are the most moral, upstanding citizens I have ever met. And according to every single Christian I know, they're also destined to spend eternity in hell.

What a messed up religion, indeed.

A drunkard for pain

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" -- Epicurus