This rant was started in my head by over hearing a conversation near me. I was at my local coffee shop reading for class when someone else's conversation caught my ear. Next to me sat two 40 year old women with nice three ring binders in front of them. They could have been on a lunch break from State Farm, and the tone of this casual business meeting point to something like that. Instead they were discussing a worship service at the church they no doubt worked for.
I was listening them discuss which songs would be best for what part of the service. A large part of the discussion was based on if two instrumental songs in a row was a bad idea. The conversation then centered around the "worship team" and how to properly tell a person that for that we they were not going to be playing.
Now let's get some things straight, I like Jesus, I like church, I like people, and I understand that it takes work for a church to run (including some people being on the pay roll). What bothered me was the tone, a discussion of how to manipulate people, what would "set the mood". When did my faith move from an everyday action to a manipulative service, complete with distracting lights. When was the body of Christ holier when moved by the song "I am a friend of God"?
Church is about a commonality, and a sharing of life with others. Maybe I am aesthetically challenged, but I don't really care what songs I sing, I care what people are in my life and how I am used. If we take Christianity seriously why are we not caring about what Christ cared about? When I see a large church I don't thing "there is what God likes to see" . It is the hijacking of my beloved faith that has always made be sick, and made me love devout Christians more.
This is the reason I have a problem finding a home church, and why I left CCU. I hate the hypocrisy. I hate playing the game of Christianity. God's love is unconditional and I think money muddies the water of what we should be doing. It is this outward hypocrisy that turns people away from Christ at a faster rate then sending the 3 percent of offerings to Africa to "save souls" Authenticity is the goal and it is time people strive for that, me included.
1 comment:
I definitely agree that religion should not be about manipulation, but to a certain extend that is what a lot of people want. And I mean that in a good way as well as a bad way.
Sometimes you want to be manipulated into a feeling of hope and goodness because it fills you with hope and goodness...right. And that feels good.
The bad part is when people don't understand that they are being manipulated.
All in all I think its just how you look at it.
And I think this is why we get along. Its not Christen's that annoy me, and I'm not an atheist because I have a big problem with Christianity's practices,(other then the whole believing in God thing), I just simply have a problem with people that are unwilling to think about things in their life and would rather sit back and be manipulated. I think you feel the same way, hence your frustration with most other Christians.
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