Well, my friend, your questions are deep and will probably take us both a lifetime to unravel. I, too, am repulsed by the current perversion of “Christianity” for political purposes — to the point that I and many others simply don’t call that particular worldview Christian at all. Frankly, they are taking positions that would be called heretical if we weren’t so shy about the word. This crisis, I believe, is what you are talking about, and indeed it does repel thousands, if not millions of saddened faithful.

There are noble attempts by progressive, orthodox, and traditional Christians to retain their identity against the onslaught of those self-serving ideologues. We look desperately for other names for ourselves: Jesus Followers, for example; Believers in Christ. But we are hampered, as always, by the very commitment to lovingkindness that prevents us from attacking in the same way others do.

Meanwhile, many seeking/inquiring Christians are indeed drawn to Eastern paths, seeing them as more peaceful and more unified (that hasn’t always been true, but it seems that way to us in the West). (Read Jack Preston King on these subjects — he’s awesome.) Westerners have had a fascination with things Eastern for some time, and you can find evidence of the ebb and flow of this perennial interest. Witness the resurgence of popularity of Thich Nhat Hanh’s 20-year old Living Buddha, Living Christ.

For most progressive Christians, there’s not a thing wrong with searching among all the world’s religions, seeking compatible views and new insights.

But I must tell you, from my (mumble, mumble) years of experience searching, searching for churches, leading churches, finding Christianity, losing Christianity, blah, blah, blah — the single most difficult hurdle for finding a community of faith is — you guessed it — the community. The people.

Ultimately, you can find the perfect doctrine, the perfect mystical experience, the perfect God — and chances are very good the people will crap it up for you, one way or another.

But you know this, because you have experienced it and talked about it, and you’ve probably already figured out that the main thing about your religious faith is that it’s about loving G*D and loving people and loving yourself, and trying to put it all into practice, so when they crap it all up for you, you just want to deal with it and keep on going as best you can. When you do that, you’ll keep shining like the sun.

And it’s those people that are the point of it all, I guess — there to love and forgive and to love you back; shining like the sun and being the children of God — the very reason for the whole thing.

So I’m just here to affirm your wisdom and tell you that everything will be all right in the end.

And if it isn’t all right, it means it’s not the end.

:-)

Sparky