I’m in an insane hurry
right now (getting ready for my wife Cat’s first photo
exhibition!! If you’re a Facebooker, share the
heck out of that event page, if you would, please–and invite your San Diego
friends, etc. please please please! thanks!). And I don’t usually/ever
post quickly. But right now I wanna, cuz:
And don’t make the
mistake of confusing bullshit “Christian” leaders with Christianity. (Yes,
I’m a Christian who curses.) Jesus Christ wouldn’t know most of Christianity today
from a McDonald’s. Washington is packed with politicians so crooked they can’t
take two steps in any one direction. But does that mean that democracy or
the Constitution is invalid? Of course not.
When someone pees in the
pool, you don’t blame the water.
Lately I’ve been getting a lot of notices
from Christians telling me that they no longer want to be Christian. It’s
remarkable how many people I know—people who for years if not their whole lives
have been Christian—who have been so beaten into the ground by the relentless
toxic rhetoric of the Christian right that at this point they’re just … giving
up on Christianity.
Their hearts have turned away from the faith. They feel
like, “If Christianity is so good, how come so many Christians
are such complete idiots? If the Holy Spirit is supposed to be at work in the
hearts and minds of Christians, why isn’t the Holy Spirit doing a better job of
making a lot more Christians be at least decent human
beings?”
As one of the kindest, most patient and intelligent
Christians I know put it in a comment to
yesterday’s post: “Is the whole thing
[Christianity] just BS?”
And it’s happening all at
once, too. That’s the astounding part. I’ve been Joe Online for a long time
now, and, as far as I can tell, ditching Christianity is going viral.
In the last two weeks I’ve heard the same thing from I’d
say thirty Christians, who’ve written to me either, “I give
up; I’m no longer Christian,” or, “I’m about to give up; I don’t think I can
take being Christian any longer.”
Oucheth!
So I really, really want
to talk about that.
For now, though, I just
wanted to say, about that “Fence Around Your Pool” thing: To hell with other
people.
Um.
Didn’t Jesus say
something pretty much just like that?
No?
Didn’t Buddha?
Confucius?
Yoda?
I know Gandhi
said it. Somewhere along the line, he must have. And I’m pretty sure Martin
Luther–King or a 16th century monk—is on the record for
having said it.
Anyway, I’m saying it.
And it is, of course, the
hyper-abbreviated version of what I would say if I had a bit
more time.
The idea of letting other
people tell me, or in any way decide for me, who God is, or what the nature of
God is, is … repelling to me.
I mean, I get why eventually any sane person would just sau,
“Something’s wrong here. Christianity appears to be a solid FAIL. I gave it my
all. But enough is enough. I’m out.”
But, for me, screw that. If people keep
peeing in my pool, I don’t abandon the pool. I refresh the water, and then
build a fence to keep people the freak out. I stop letting
strangers in my … pool area. (Um … to be clear: I’m not advocating keeping
people away from Christianity–as if anyone in this culture could, given that,
you know, it’s everywhere. What I mean is that I have no interest in … letting,
well, pee-ers—by which I mean toxic people whom I don’t know or don’t
respect—to … sully my waters, pee in my pool,
get into my yard, define for me my Christianity–which, for the record, is unimpeachably
rational and militantly
non-invasive.)
Life is entirely too short to suffer fools.
Now I know somebody’s
said that before.
Anyway, this is a real conversation
that needs to be had. Jump in if you’ve anything to say, and let’s at least
start having it.
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnshore/2014/10/leaving-christianity-is-going-viral/#ixzz3GKDD7GbM
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