Culture of the Closed Mind
I was asked today about why I left Christianity. I didn’t have to think too hard on it, but I remembered to apologize in advance if I inadvertently offended while answering.
I left my family’s heritage as Northern European Lutherans as a teen when the pastor read what I later recognized as a canned sermon against the peace sign. this was circa 1973, the heyday of Vietnam protesting and not too far removed from the summer of love, 1967. Much of hippydom was still in the air then. Yet my Pastor, to who I’m supposed to look for spiritual wisdom, was delivering a political diatribe cloaked in religiosity toward a growing political movement of the day: the peace sign was a "broken cross turned upside down" which by it’s very existence denoted an anti-Christian sentiment. It was to be shunned and all good Christians should disassociate from any connection to the hated symbol.
I remember leaving the church that hot Sunday shaking my head. I was still too green to shout "Bullshit!" yet what I was feeling was in line with such outbursts. I decided then that the church was not the place for me. I never went back.
These days I can flesh out my feelings through retrospection. What keeps me away from the church is a tendency I see to preach hatred, intolerance and blind acceptance to the "flock." As Galileo aptly stated: " I find it hard to countenance that the very God that bestowed upon us the gifts of intellect and reason should want us to forego their use." Indeed.
This trend toward isolationism and intolerance has been played out in recent years in politics after 1994 when the Christian Coalition became the Republican Majority Congress. Since then we have seen hate, white supremacy, and intolerance drive an entire political framework with special emphasis on foreign policy. We’ll be cleaning up this mess for decades.
On a smaller scale, we can see how Christians sometimes attack each other. CNN reports today how one homeowner in a Denver subdivision is being fined $25 a day for a peace-sign shaped Christmas wreath on her house. What the article hasn’t the balls to note, I will infer here: The subdivision is all white. They are mostly Christians of the protestant variety, i.e. Methodists or Baptists. Most drive late model SUV’s or pickups. Most hail from smaller communities. The report did mention that some were military families.
Racial profiling? Stereotyping? You bet! I’m using the same twisted logic used against this neighbor of theirs. A peace sign as a symbol of Satan! Get a life! I freely admit a hole in my tolerance toward Christians. I’ve been accused of this and it’s true: I cannot abide when good people spend most of their spiritual energy thinking about Satan’s Worldly Evil ™, and not the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Religion is about becoming better people, not about closing one’s mind and becoming nasty. Those who forget that are lost sheep indeed.