The Tipping Point - Leaving the Church

There's good and bad in everything, and it is no different with the church.  As long as the good outweighs the bad, people will stay and survive... and even thrive.  But if a tipping point is reached where the bad outweighs the good, their reasons for staying will be outnumbered by their reasons for leaving and they will stage their own personal exodus.  It is often calculated and pre-meditated, since there is usually painful fall-out that comes with it.  The inevitable loss of lifelong friends is one of the most painful consequences.

Staying

There are a lot of good reasons why people will stay in the institution.  For many, it is a family tradition that is comfortable and familiar and their is no good reason to quit.  For others, their social and emotional needs are met by the company of good friends and like-minded birds of a feather.  Others find common ground in doctrines and dogmas that make sense to them ideologically.  They may like the political platform of the church.  Many will attend to get close to God and enjoy the kindred spirit of corporate worship.  And the list goes on.

In my opinion, when people feel happy and safe in the church environment, they should continue as long as they can...  for a lifetime if possible.

Leaving

There are also a lot of good reasons for leaving the church, and many of them have to do with the reverse of everything good.  If they don't fell safe there, if their emotional and social needs are not being met there and there is no sense of community, if they don't have friends there, if they take issue with the doctrines and dogmas there, if they can't feel close to God there, and so on, they have good reason to leave.

Why would anyone want to keep attending a club where they are not welcome?  Why would they continue to contribute to an organization whose values are not consistent with theirs?  What if they are made to feel like a misfit or an outcast, should they keep going for the sake of the institution?  What about abusive situations where they are being condemned or guilted into submission by domineering leaders or doctrines?  

I would not recommend that anybody continue in a setting where they do not feel safe, where their spirit is continually broken by destructive teaching and demeaning doctrines which give overbearing leaders a license to lord it over their people.

On the other hand, some may quit out of simple burnout.  Do you realize that if you attend the church three times a week plus board meetings, potlucks, and camp meetings, you will have been there 10,000 times by the time you are 50?  For some, that's more than enough!  Everything just starts to sound like the same old same old.

My Tipping Point

I attended and was embedded in the church for the first 60 years of my life, and was blind-sided when my own tipping point arrived.  I did not expect it and would never have predicted it.  I was a lifelong volunteer and leader in the organization.  My dad, my brother, and my son-in-law and several of my friends were pastors.  I was happy and thriving, even though I was at odds with some of the conservative platforms of the denomination and the local body.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was an ideological one:  I woke up to the fact that my church and I were no longer moving in the same direction, and I had to decide whether I would continue to contribute to and perpetuate a religious organization whose values were different than mine.  I maybe had a few years left of life and didn't want to waste it kicking a dead horse, as it were.  I would have to tolerate a lot of cognitive dissonance.   (Also, there were critics who were openly pointing out my non-compliance and urging me to shut up or get out of the way.  Birds of a different feather are often ultimately kicked from the nest.)

I chose my own spiritual and emotional well-being over the that of the institution.  I quit.    Here's to health and freedom!

But it's not as simple as that.  There were major contributing factors that led up to my exodus.  I have written about them extensively in other posts, but I'll briefly touch on a few of them here:

Pacifism.  From the age of 18 I was a pacifist in keeping with Jesus' teachings to love your enemies.  I kept quiet about it for most of my life, but -  even though my denomination had roots in Anabaptist and Mennonite pacifism  -  the church has become increasingly political and militaristic in the last twenty years and my dissidence has grown correspondingly.   I view the separation of church and state as a good thing (not to mention constitutional).  The rise of nationalism in the church is anti-Christ.

Women's rights.  It seemed to me that if the church could dismiss the Biblical grounds for slavery as no longer culturally relevant, it could just as well ignore Paul's teachings on the submission of women by removing all limitations on women as leaders in the church.  I lobbied for it unsuccessfully.  In my (former) denomination, it will be a long time coming.  It will happen, but not in my lifetime.

Tithing.  There is no New Testament mandate for the collection of a 10% tithe to be given to the church.  Yet, it is perpetuated as an expected discipline, even a compulsion of the believer.  That is un-sanctified hogwash.  Unholy crap.  (My apologies to the swine.)

Amazing Grace.  Though the evangelical community is founded on free grace and every speaker gives it a cursory nod, ironically, much more attention is given to the need to work for one's salvation.   Mine is a more generous orthodoxy that makes much of redemption and little of sin.  If you want to know, I think Jesus could be said to be "soft on sin".  He was called the "friend of sinners" after all.

That Damned Hierarchy!  There are many other points at which I have been a dissenter for a long time, but the granddaddy of all false doctrines that pervade almost all denominations is the teaching of the hierarchy, an idea which Jesus expressly banned in his teachings to his disciples. (Matt. 20:25-26)

It was the church leadership's unwavering adherence to the doctrine of submission-to-authority in the church that ultimately blew up my local congregation and precipitated an exodus of 2/3's of the constituency about six years ago.

Though every organization has its structure, the church has spiritualized its logistical framework with a contrived doctrine that ends up giving license to domineering leaders and abusers and compels the good people who believe it to do bad things.

I see the doctrine of the "God-ordained" hierarchy in the church as one of the most dangerous and destructive ideologies that have poisoned the church for the last 1700 years since Constantine implemented it in 313 A.D.  It has destroyed a lot of people.

Now here's the thing:  We need to differentiate between the institutional church and the Body of Christ, the True Church, which is all believers everywhere.  In the Body of Christ, all the parts of the body are answerable directly to the Head which is Christ. (Eph.4:15)  There is no multi-level echelon or chain-of-command.  We submit to Christ and to one another out of love (respect) for one another.  All have equal standing; no one has rank.  (Think you have automatic spiritual authority because you were appointed to a position in the church?  Think again!)

I'm Done

It's probably quite evident from this, that I no longer fit in the evangelical church.  My ideologies have become too honest, too Christlike, too purist to accommodate the way things are in the man-made institution called the church.

When my local parish blew up as a result of a destructive decision made by church leadership, I helped launch an appeal to the next level up the chain of command.  Though it was a legitimate step that was provided for in the by-laws, I was confronted in a lengthy and venomous reprimand and labeled as rebellious.  My "spiritual leaders" worked to smear my reputation behind the scenes.  They made sure we all knew that "no individual is as important as the institution."  (More institutional BS)

At the time, I marveled at protestant leaders telling other protestants that they shouldn't protest.  Huh?  Protestantism was born out of protest against church doctrine and hierarchy.  If protestants who protest are "rebelling against God" they are in the good company of reformers like Martin Luther and other church fathers.  Questioning is essential to sound doctrine.

Still, I could have forgiven all that carnality (maybe somebody was feeling a bit threatened?) and stayed on to feed the machine.  No tipping point there. (Read more about that church blow-up here.)

But ultimately is was ideology that was my tipping point.  I could have searched for a more liberal church, one with a more generous orthodoxy, but I have emotionally run out of gas.  I'm tired of the whole thing.  I have joined the "Dones", a growing multitude of exiles who, for one good reason or another, have come to their own tipping points and are just...

Done.

A Pacifist's Memorial Day

  This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and I'm glad I won't be going to church.  It's not that I'm protesting anything, because I rarely attend church anyway, but at this time of year I'm keenly aware of the discomfort that a pacifist experiences while attending Memorial Day services in any conservative congregation in America.  After all, many conservative Christians in this country equate love for God with love for country.
  So I am proposing an alternative memorial to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, not for their country, but for the Lord and the lost of the world: Christian missionaries and martyrs.  For all Christians there exists a greater purpose than defending national freedoms, for there exists a greater Kingdom than any worldly kingdom or nation.  
  When do Christian martyrs get their day of tribute?  What day is set aside for honoring missionaries who sacrifice their entire lives in obscure god-forsaken jungles and ghettos for the sake of a higher calling?  What parades march through town with banners and firetrucks and marching bands in honor of their supreme sacrifice?  I know of none.
  Now I'm not about to organize a parade or a picnic or to enlist the local marching band to rally, but in my own small way, I will see that the unsung heroes of the faith will have my appreciation and my respect this weekend, even as I am honoring the soldiers and troops who have given all for their country.
  When I see Old Glory being paraded down the street this weekend I will remember not only fallen American soldiers, but also my late Aunt Esther, who invested her life in an obscure village in Sierra Leone, Africa, as a medical missionary.  I will salute Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, and the other young men who were slaughtered by the Auca Indians in Ecuador whom they were determined to reach with the gospel.  I'll remember missionary Graham Staines and his two young boys, trapped in his car and burned alive by Hindu fundamentalists in India in 1999.  I will breathe a prayer of thanks for my own daughter and son-in-law who were sent into hiding and frantically evacuated from India dodging roadblocks under cover of darkness after receiving violent threats from Hindu extremists.  I will think of the thousands of believers over the centuries who have lived and died under tyrants who have sought to wipe out Christianity from the face of the earth.
  Don't get me wrong here.  I don't disrespect the sacrifices that American troops have made for their country and our freedom.  I just think there should be equal time for those who have answered an even higher calling... and who have given their lives for their Lord and His kingdom.
  Your local pastor is not likely to observe my new Memorial Day tribute in the church services this Sunday.  But you, my readers, can join me in this quiet observance that honors multitudes of Christian martyrs and missionaries the world over.  When you see a flag waving this weekend, remember those who have sacrificed everything for the Lord, think about that missionary you know who has endured lifelong hardship and risk, and pray God will raise up one more generation of prayer warriors and people-lovers who, without any fanfare or flag-waving, will continue the global mission. 

Pacifism, Pure & Simple

  Last night we hosted a peace rally that we named "Jesus, Bombs, and Hot Dogs", and friends came from several towns nearby-- all over the map, you might say-- to take part in the discussion.  The views expressed were "all over the map" as well, which added a delightful element of diversity to the conversation.  I love diversity, and I had a very enjoyable time last night.  One of our primary objectives was the creation of a venue where it would be safe to talk about Christian pacifism-- and even to identify oneself as a pacifist-- without the usual judgement and criticism that is so pervasive in the normal evangelical environment.  We were successful in that, probably for the most part because we had participants who were so magnanimous and respectful toward each other.

  As the host, I was privileged to direct the discussion a bit, though after getting things going, it really didn't need much direction, and many of the essential aspects of Christian pacifism were covered after my brief introduction sharing a bit of the history of pacifism and even my own personal history of being a pacifist since I was a teenager during the Vietnam era.

  Some of the discussion last night left me thinking that sometimes we think too hard about various philosophies, when a really simple view seems much more obvious.  I'm talking about the convoluted logic of complicated theologies of God's love versus God's justice and similar ideas that are used to explain the need for war or a global police force and so on.  

  Now usually I think that simple-minded people, in large numbers, are dangerous because they can be persuaded to sign on to almost any sort of bandwagon or group think, and can become a voting block or a mob that takes things in the wrong direction.  But in the case of Christian pacifism, I think that a very simple view is the most logical, and this is it: Jesus said, "Love your enemies."  Now there are many ways that we, as his followers, may express love for our enemies, but bombing them is not one of those ways.  It's hard for me to imagine that killing our enemies can ever be described as an expression of Christ's love, and Christ's love is what we are supposed to be all about.  Period.  That is really simple.

  So pardon me for being simple-minded at this point, but when the truth is so obvious, it doesn't take a whole lot of explanation.  In fact, it's the circumventing of the obvious truth that takes a boat-load of convoluted haranguing to explain.  Unfortunately, there will always be a Titanic-load of folks who are willing to do that haranguing, because violence and retribution are such strong elements of human nature, and we want to feel that we are justified in blowing up fellow human beings who happen to have the misfortune of being born in foreign lands and being indoctrinated to serve opposing ideologies.

  I feel it myself.  Though the life-long pacifist, I sometimes want to get even with my nemeses.  I take pleasure in standing up to bullies-- more often religious bullies of late-- and being the savior who liberates the oppressed. 

  So there is a great need for tolerance on this, and I've spent most of my life tolerating the overriding militarism of the American evangelical culture, and will certainly have to continue doing so, as Christian pacifism will continue to be a minority view.  It was nice to be in the company of some fellow dissidents last night.

  May God continue to bless not just America, but all nations and all earthly citizens, whether civilian or military, and may God help us, his followers, to get it right-- to increasingly understand and express the essence of Christ and His love to our neighbors-- and our enemies, here and around the world.