Last Tuesday (Sept. 9), I posted on the Ockhamist a shout out to a conversation that was occuring about how people who suffer from the Church's faults engage with the institution and people involved. [Yes, I know this is a bit of reframing. It's my site] This post is below. I will follow my post by selected comments by my new friend ~gauche. My next post, which you probably read before this one, will be a continuation of this line of thought.
Blandus : "The hard truth is that you don''t get to sit on the sidelines if you are a disciple of Jesus who is the Christ. You must go to church and bless and be blessed by the others in your local congregation - that''s part of the faith.
"How do you get over being dissatisfied with your wife? -You love her. What if she has not earned your respect or cultivated your devotion? -You love her anyway. You don''t have a choice, God hates divorce. You submit to His will and love your wife with everything you''ve got.
"Same with the church. Church done you wrong? -You love her. Church not met your needs? -You love her. Church filled with a bunch of idiots who don''t know the difference between transfinalization and transubstantiation? -Tough, you love her anyway with everything you''ve got.
"Christianity is not about feeling loved by others or getting needs met. To know Christ is to love others and serve them - even if they kick you in the face or crucify you. This ain''t sacchrine-sweet simplicity, baby, it''s the real deal and the kind of radical Jesus discipleship we are called to engage. The kicker is, the heaviest responsibility lies upon those of us who realize it and have the gifts and gumption to do something about it.
"As someone who has been on the fringe myself (and is now working to refine the center) I can only say that the answer lies not in mournful criticism, but obedience. Simple. Complicated. Whatever. You''ve got to love her anyway."
~ Says : "You are right about not sitting on the sidelines, but I do find a delicious irony in the undertone of your attitude toward the church. You seem to think, and I agree in theory, that will face tribulation from within as well as without, that we ought not expect the church to treat us differently than the world does; that is, your own disclaimer notwithstanding, you seem to agree with the Ockhamist that the church is quite likely to be a place of decay and a source of friction. You seem to expect that the church will fail to meet a believer''s needs, that it will hurt the believer, that its members may be undereducated in the faith. That it may, like the world, kick the believer in the face or crucify him. If this is your conclusion, (and I think that a realistic, hard-nosed look at the church''s behavior supports it,) then you give strange encouragement indeed.
"In principle at least, I agree with you, but it seems to me a strange position for a protestant to take. More on this later, if you''re interested."