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Christianity is Not an Option
Let me tell you why.
It was not an easy thing to turn my back on Christianity at nearly 60 years of age. Since my childhood, church had been the hub of social life for me. Prayer had started every meal, and Christian ritual had solemnized the sacred moments and transition points of life. Many of my mentors and advisors had been ministers of one denomination or another.
What’s more, the congregations I had joined were filled with joyful, caring people, people trying to live good and healthy lives, folks I could respect. They were extended family to me, interested in my opinions and accepting of my foibles.
And church was music. I joined my first choir in third grade, discovering a love of singing and of choral harmony that has not diminished in the 60 years that followed, during which I would sing countless solos, direct some fine church choirs, and write or arrange a handful of anthems. That was probably the hardest loss to face, but one may sing in other places.
As for Christian doctrine, it had been some years since I was able to believe — in any concrete sense — most of what the Christian Bible says about the world’s beginnings, the history of the Hebrew people, or the life of Yeshua of Nazareth. That was all right, though. I was comfortable inhabiting the cosmic metaphors of Creator and Messiah, and…
