There are a lot of things I don’t understand.
The one that has me thinking a lot lately is why some people attend one house of worship, when all they do is spend time talking about the teachings of everyone but the place where they are a member. Now, I’m not suggesting one should never question the teaching of their pastor or rabbi. Quite the contrary; that’s fine.
What I’m talknig about is being part of a community of faith that holds a certain set of values, but then spending time at that church or temple talking about a teacher or set of teachings that simply does not line up with anything that community stands for. I’ve seen it in nearly every church or temple I’ve attended.
I’ve run into people who do nothing but talk about miraculous healing in conservative churches that don’t believe G-d heals peopel today, as well as seeing the reverse of that dynamic. I’ve run into people who enter churches that are open to many types of Bible translations, trying to convince people there that the King James Version is the only “reliable” word of G-d, as well as the opposite of that dynamic also.
I can understand having disagreements; what I can’t understand is swimming completely against the tide like that. Wouldn’t it be a better experience to seek out a congregation of the like-minded? Seems like that would be as simple as installing tail light guards, rather than having your first mechanical challenge be to rebuild an entire engine.
Tags: community of faith, swimming against the tide, tail light guards