I must apologize. I have been more than remiss in my blogging as of late. I have been very preoccupied with coaching little league, working, building an office for our new business, and other odds and ends of things. For those who were following Nehemiah's progress I apologize. I also must apologize because this post is not what I had intended to use this blog for.
For those of you who know anything about me you know that I do all that I can to avoid controversy, conflict, or anything adversarial. However, recent events have my head spinning so I must take time to address some issues.
I have to say that I have never in my life been more disillusioned, disheartened, and disappointed with the religious establishment. I have been attending church since I was about 13 years old. I have always questioned things. When I was a teenager attending a baptist church and they taught that "Allah" was not the same God that we worship. I questioned this. I tended to believe that Allah was simply a different word/name for God. The youth pastor and I had many debates about this but he did not change his attitude toward me. When I attended a UPC church as an adult I questioned the rules about how people had to dress. The pastors and I did not agree that how one dressed was vital to their salvation. While we differed in our beliefs they did not kick me out of their church or shun me. I have recently watched things unfold in a much more public forum in which people have questioned some religious beliefs. Knowing what I know about the christian religion I would expect that these questions would be answered with love. I would be wrong. Instead I have seen people who call themselves christian leaders chastise the question and attack the character of the person asking. Is that what Christianity has become? We attack and belittle those who question what we believe? If that is Christianity then I don't want to be a part of it. I believe that the Bible tells us to ask, seek, and knock. If those who are supposed to be advanced in the knowledge chastise us for asking and belittle us for seeking then what are we supposed to do? If we are supposed to work out our salvation but do not have the trust that our questions will be answered without embarrassment and disgust then what chance do we have? Where are the pastors like my youth pastor who welcome questions because it shows a seeking heart? Where are the pastors like the ones from the UPC church who could see past the questions and love the person anyway? I'm sure I will get many comments and some will probably "unfriend" me because I am rocking the boat. That is fine because it will save me from future disappointments. I guess my question is how do we help the lost get found when they see religion as nothing more than a bunch of rules that we are not allowed to question?
