Yesterday Duncan and I drove to the local Universalist Unitarian church to check out their new lesbian minister, Reverend Myke Johnson (Duncan, of course, as always, volunteered to stay behind to guard the car).
Rev. Myke’s sermon was thought-provoking. She thinks perhaps the reason the liberal churches haven’t grown as fast as the fundies is because they’ve failed to address the issue of “evil.” Since this is a Goddess theology issue too, I stayed for the after-church coffee-and-discussion group. The discussion, however, was not about the sermon but about the upcoming fight between Maine fundies and Maine’s GLBT population. What an extraordinary church!
Lol, ::gasp:: weren't you afraid you'd get their god-the-father cooties on you???
ReplyDeleteUU Churches are awesome. They recognize female divinity, and are really open to Pagan ways. I wish there was one around here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a lofty kind of fellow. So I'm inlcined to think that Fundementalist churches grow because the simplistic eye-for-an-eye tooth-for-a-tooth philosophy doesn't tax the limited minds of most people who just want to sit around after a hard day of work watching television.
ReplyDelete{sarcasm} Thank gawd, fundementalist churches are around to do all our thinking for us. {/sarcasm}
So I'm inlcined to think that Fundementalist churches grow because the simplistic eye-for-an-eye tooth-for-a-tooth philosophy doesn't tax the limited minds of most people who just want to sit around after a hard day of work watching television.
ReplyDeleteThey are so popular because they are comforting. You go to one and everyone is so warm and welcoming and seem SO glad to see you. In the booming cadence of their preaching, they furnish you with absolutes. They tell you exactly why life is hard and exactly what to do to fix it. When it doesn't work out that way, well, they just say they will be a support system until you can do it "properly."
Fending for yourself can be a scary new prospect. It's difficult for those college graduates who've always been taken care of by their parents. Some people don't leave toxic relationships because at least with this bad relationship, you at least know what to expect. People like to "know for sure."
::shrugs::
because the simplistic... philosophy doesn't tax the limited minds of most people who just want to sit around after a hard day of work watching television.
ReplyDeleteand uh, working 55 hours a week to pay rent because $5 minimum wage is a JOKE can make you too tired to think.
Wow, Lisa, you make me wanna run off to a fundie church next Sunday! (hee)That's a great run down of some of the potent reasons people are flocking to these churches. I remember going to fundie church years ago with my mother (her cousin belonged) and just being totally swept away by the hymns. To this day I can remember that feeling of being in a swimming pool, only with love and ecstasy in it instead of water.
ReplyDeleteHaha, but really, this is why I wanted to study Religion in college... I wanted to study Christianity forwards, backwards, sideways and most importantly, BETWEEN THE LINES! In order to overcome your enemy, you have to know them better than they know themselves! Nothing is simple in these types of things!
ReplyDeleteThings I've come to notice through studying in the Religion Studies department specifically, versus anthro or archaeology, is WHY and HOW the lower economic classes have been manipulated by religion. Poor people are not stupid, no matter what "liberal" hillbilly may lead you to believe. Catholicism has always been a religion of the poor, and fundamentalist Christianity sure started out that way. And reading that desert theorist, I'm sure you can now connect that theory to why America is experiencing yet ANOTHER religious revival.
It's interesting that most of Europe, who takes care of it's citizens, is not experiencing these backlashes... (I am waiting for the Eastern European religious backlash against "white slavery," however.)
Lisa: I never said anything about poor people. If anything this current fundamentalist backlash seems to be afflicting the middle class.
ReplyDeleteI am saying that most people do not wish to think for themselves. They seek guidance from their faith and the people who "interpret" the sacred texts about what they should do, how they should feel, and what they should think.
They just don't have the time and inclination to see if the message is on the level.
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Hello, Father. I hear your a racist now. Should I be a racist too? The farm takes up most of my time, but I should be able to work it in 24 hours a day.
-- from "Father Ted"