Dear church people,

I am about to throw in the towel. It’s not that I have stopped believing in God, rather, I have stopped believing in you.

We avoid asking questions that really matter, because they cause conflict. We do not agree on

SCOTA and gay marriage;

Muslims, and whether they will go to hell;

hell as a hot place, or a mere metaphor;

God as male and worthy of our fear, or maybe “just” a force of love at work in the universe;

Jesus as the Aryan son of God and on the side of picketers holding signs with mangled fetuses, or as Marcus Borg once put it, “Martin Luther King, Jr., with an exclamation point,” and yet enough.

These differences not only shape the core of our credo, but also our behavior. As Christians, however, we do not know how to love and respectfully disagree. So we just keep showing up on Sunday and sharing potlucks, never asking big questions, cleaving to people who are like us, secretly disagreeing with the rest.

Where are people emboldened, taking risks, and engaged in the core of what they believe in?

Not in churches. If I’m not there next Sunday, this is why.

Sincerely,
Anastasia