GOING SOMEWHERE? Yes, now that you mention it, I have, indeed, had people ask me - point blank and, I think with genuine concern in some cases: “Tell, me Andy, are you leaving the church?”
I have had a set reply which I have used to respond to what I consider to be a rather nosy query into private areas of our lives; private holdings and not to be noised about “in public”. One's religious sentiments are, I have long felt, rather intimate items of individual ownership and not, usually, materials lightly cast before the questing prods and inquiring discussion in search engines of the public forum.
It is quite true that I have been said, in recent years, when people have asked me if I am leaving the protestant denomination into which I was born and have been nurtured all my life. I have – perhaps - appeared to be a bit disturbed by the overt action of someone daring to voice such a thought – and I admit I have done so often to determine if the inquiring individual has a personal concern of his own as the main reason for his or her asking. This is what I have been saying, when asked: “No. I am not leaving my church, but I do feel - and very strongly at times, that my church is leaving me!”
Until recently I had considered it a problem future generations of pew warmers but, recently, when I read stats on the subject I learned that our denomination - not among the large ones - is losing an average of about fifty-thousand members each year. You don't have to be a rocket-scientist-accountant to realize that such shrinkage cannot continue for any appreciable length of time. So, that which seemed to be of the future is of real concern for tomorrow is urgent for today – now!
Those members who are aware of the problem tell me a major cause of our problem is “pluralism”- an eagerness to be all things to all people and a tendency to come to agreement with opposition by not stressing basic beliefs and practices one's faith. Heterosexual marriage relationships are of prime concern; and under the pluralistic view the concept is that religious and philosophical aspects of living are of human origin. In truth, they are but trial-and-error human attempts to comprehend the fundamental and control of the divine. All religious systems are not the same.
I have purposely withheld any mention of a specific mention of a specific protestant denomination. Do the above points concern you in any way?
A.L.M. August 7, 2005 [c439wds]
