Yes indeed, you read that correctly. Last Christmas Eve we took ourselves down to the local church and got us some religion. We went to one of those new fangled churches down the street. It was… well, really surprising. I kept wondering to myself, “OK, when is the headliner going to come out?” It was really more like a pop concert than a church and I can’t for the life of me twist the event around in my head enough times to make it feel right. It did though, do a lot to solidify my thinking on religion as it’s practiced in this country.
After all the singing, we finally got to the message. This was REALLY horrifying. The premise was perfectly fine; it was the usual claptrap about how we’re not really alone and Jesus is always there for us, etc, etc, etc. No problem with that. I didn’t have a problem until Jesus WALKED ONTO THE STAGE. Yeah, I know. Most of you are just sitting there thinking, “Um, so what?” And yes, I know you heard me and you still don’t think a thing about it. Please understand that I’m not a religious person but this horrifies me on behalf of the entirety of the Christian faith. They actually had someone dress up as Jesus and prance about on the stage. Now, he was very dignified and all but the fact is that a person, a lowly human, dressed as Jesus, your savior and embodiment of God, and walked around in front of a crowd. At the VERY least, this is a distraction from the true Glory of the REAL Jesus. For a brief period, instead of giving glory to Jesus himself, the people in the audience are instead looking at this person dressed as Jesus, this ICON of Jesus, this base representation. This bit of worthless dust, this man, has taken it upon himself to dress as Jesus and pull even the most tattered shred of dignity from the real thing. That just strikes me as WRONG.
So yeah, that was the experience I came away with from Church. I got the sad impression that the Christian faith has turned itself into a pack of idolaters. I was already a bit suspect of the crosses before what with having all these symbols of Christ in the house, some complete with a dead Jesus, just seemed wrong. Don’t even get me started on the whole ‘graven image’ thing. But now, just having a cross isn’t good enough. We actually have to SEE Jesus, in the flesh. As if any Christian alive today is good and pure enough of heart to deserve THAT. And what seems saddest is the fact is that it’s this kind of church that seems to be taking over the faith. If I’d gone to church and sat through a dry lecture filled with Biblical quotes and promises of damnation designed to keep people on the straight and narrow I’d have come back and wrote a glowing review. That, in my mind, is what Church is for. Church shouldn’t be about a few songs and making everyone feel good. You should walk out with a mote of sadness in your eye as you realize how you’ve wronged mankind over the previous week, not a prideful grin.
5 comments:
Well that's just it though, on Christmas Eve, the day before the birth of their savior I expected... well, religion. Not mere marketing and showmanship. If anything, those people who only show up on those days need MORE fire and brimstone. Not less. I guess in general it's just completely changed my picture of what church IS. I thought church was about salvation. Apparently, at least in some cases and at some times of year, it's merely an extension of Sunday School. I still remember being a tot in Sunday school for about a month. We sat in room and colored pictures of crosses and the word 'Joy' all decorated with flowers. What in the heck did any of that have to do with salvation? Apparently that's the church's stock in trade though. Vacuous forms representing high ideals.
Oh, and Jesus just came out and walked around helping people. He gave hope to the girl who was sick. He helped the guy who was sitting at work late, etc, etc. It wasn't so much what he did as the fact that he was there that was a problem in my mind.
As one who was present at the Christmas Eve service in question, I wouldn't say I found it offensive, perhaps because I know the intent wasn't idolatrous--surely no one was tempted to actually worship the fellow dressed as Jesus.
But I did find it, well, goofy. If you want to communicate to people about Jesus, why not do it by skillful exposition of a primary source, the Bible? I find it hard to believe that anything they tried to communicate through that "sketch" couldn't have been better told in some other fashion. All I can figure is that they were trying to keep it more like Sunday School for benefit of the children in the audience.
We see a lot of skits and video productions in church these days, and some of them are very effective and not at all disrespectful. At their best, they draw people's attention by using devices and settings that modern audiences are accustomed to, and show how the Bible applies to various areas of life. This wasn't one of the well done ones though.
Charlie's right about Christmas Eve. Whether that's a good thing or not is entirely debatable. The real preaching happens on your "regular" Sunday mornings. Easter sermons in my experience are pretty serious as well--that's a holiday that's harder to separate from its theological implications.
Well I understand that wasn't the intent; clearly the church wouldn't intentionally break one of its own fundamental commandments but the line between right and wrong has nothing to do with intent. I'll admit that I don't have any real knowledge of modern Christianity's interpretation of such ideas as idolatry, but comparing what was on the stage against the snippets of the bible quoted in wikipedia it doesn't seem right. In the end, I'm not sure what guide one can have in such matters if not one's own gut feeling since the rest of the world seems so split on the such issues. I'm pretty sure that such a display would not have been acceptable 200 or 300 years ago so I'm not sure why it could be right now.
Anyway, the idea of the immutable word of God is an idea for a whole other blog post. I'm not sure I'll ever be completely comfortable with the idea of religion as a living, changing entity given that the fundamental inputs to that religion haven't changed one iota. It seems the hand of man is tinkering where it should not.
Let me just say, Rob, that I find your brand of agnosticism refreshing. I am a (pretty horrible example of a) Christian, but I found much to agree with in this post (as well as your post about atheists). Yes, all signs point to this brand of Christianity being more and more popular. But as universally people seem to turn to religion to find a connection with the transcendent, it doesn't seem that this variety show type of "worship" will last; people will notice sooner or later that the deeper reason they seek out a church is not being fulfilled.
In protestantism, the one constant is change. Compare the worship of the Orthodox or (most) Catholic churches today with the same churches 19 centuries ago and you will be impressed by the consistency. Just a few years ago, I took my Dad to visit the protestant church that I had grown up in and been impressed by the number of changes in just a couple of decades.
Because blogger completely fails to tell you when people reply to your comments, I'll litter your email inbox with them too. Won't that be a rich and satisfying experience? I'm sure it will. :)
You know, I'll admit that my experience with people of faith (of any kind) is pretty limited. Ten years ago if you'd asked me what I thought of Christians in general my answer would have been COMPLETELY different than it is now. But there's at least one thing I'm pretty sure of and that is simply that it's those who preach most vocally about how 'great' their faith is are often the real 'horrible examples' of Christians. Your humility alone puts you in the top 5% but I've read enough C.S. Lewis to know that you can't agree with any of that so I'll stop.
As for the 'Vegas' brand [my term] of Christianity you mention below, I certainly hope you're correct and that this is 'just a phase'. As I've often burbled on here I don't care WHAT you believe as long as you're self-consistent about it. These fanciful churches with the big-screens seem to be the very epitome of hypocrisy. My interest in church to begin with was a simple attempt to figure out what makes the average person (since the average person does seem to be a church-goer) tick. When I see worship services that look more like Las Vegas entertainment than actual ... well, humility before God or whatever I have to wonder if the clockworks of these people have completely rusted. Sadly, there was nothing else for me to see or learn there. I could go home and watch CBN and have as clear a picture of what these people were.
The word 'Compare' sticks out at me in your last bit here because I need to compare. It's been on my TODO list forever to read something on comparative religion but I never seem to get around to it somehow. So much to know, so little time. *sigh*
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