I change churches and faiths a lot. I'd like to be part of a stable religious community, like to be one of those people who goes to the same church for twenty or thirty years, but my personal beliefs keep changing and evolving. I remember in November there was some advice to write down what you believe so as not to violate those beliefs, but now, in January, I recognize that my beliefs have always changed constantly. I can't hold the line to who I was in November 2016, or in 2012, or at any past time. I can only hope that I change for the better.
I started going to my last church because I wanted to be part of a church that was welcoming and inclusive, which was something I felt was observed in the breach in my previous congregation. I'm a demanding person, but even more challenging to my long-term membership in a congregation is that my spiritual needs change over time, and I'm not sure any one religious community can meet all of them.
I still think that it's important for Christianity to be welcoming, but I no longer think it's enough. I have spent years seeking the "peace of Christ", continue to seek it, but find and have found it elusive. What I find instead are the torments of Christ. I welcome them. I do not seek to suppress or deny suffering for Christ's sake. And at my former church, well, they just don't necessarily feel that way. I think they'd say that before you can ease others' suffering you have to ease your own.
I seek to ease others' suffering because I cannot ease my own without doing so.
My religious beliefs are informed by my political beliefs, as well as vice versa. They overlap. Politically, I have come to believe that I have chosen to tolerate things which I should never have tolerated, things we as a society should never have tolerated. I believe this same statement applies to my Christianity.
It is not Christian behavior to overlook the actions of those who preach oppression in the name of Christ. It is not Christian to welcome them as brothers and sisters without also remonstrating with them for their open defiance of Christ's teachings. Our failure to challenge them has consequences. The consequence is that most people, both Christian and otherwise, think that the words and actions of prosperity Christianity, of dominionists, are the words and teachings of Christ.
We cannot expect non-Christians to ever believe that these are not Christ's teachings, to treat us with anything other than hatred and disgust, unless we, as Christians, take responsibility for the words and deeds of our "brothers" and "sisters" who preach hatred and intolerance in Christ's name. Not just politically, but we need to go to the churches, the megachurches, where they teach these things and spread Christ's gospel to the people there. If we are not willing to do that, our faith will continue to wither and die on the vine.
