My relationship to the mainline protestant religion I grew up in is probably the most complicated relationship in my life. On the one hand, I cannot in good faith recite the Apostle’s Creed because I simply do not believe the things that the Creed requires me to say I believe. On the other hand, I believe that there is enough wisdom in the Bible to last anyone more than one lifetime of striving to be the best person they possibly can be.
On the one hand, there is much I agree with in novapsyche’s recent diary regarding organized religion. On the other hand, in almost every single social and economic justice activist group I’ve been associated with, and there have been quite a number, the people who did the hard and committed work of organizing meetings and marches and petition drives and pressure campaigns on legislators and get out the vote efforts were overwhelmingly active members of some organized religion.
I’ve been thinking about going back to church for a while because that’s where I’ve consistently found a high concentration of good, dedicated people willing to work and work and work and work to make the world a better place. They’re people who, imo, have a long view, a practical one, on how difficult it can be to make even incremental change. They don’t give up. They work through differences with love. They make mistakes, but they tend to own up and strive to do better. They know the power of forgiveness and the value of community. I want that.
So I’m going back. What finally sealed the deal for me was the abject vitriol of the bigotry in the comments on novapsyche’s diary. If those comments were made about any other group than members of organized religion, they would have been flagged into oblivion in a heartbeat without reservation. Yet somehow bigotry against the religious is ok here on DK.
DK has certainly been a source of community for me, and I intend to stay engaged. I value the banter here and I learn a lot. Novapsyche’s diary made me think, as novapsyche’s diaries usually do. What I had to say about the diary I said in the comments to it. I have no problem with the diary, except maybe it’s claim to truth in the headline, but I do have a problem with the vitriol and bigotry in a LOT of the comments.
So those comments have tipped the scale. I’m going back to the church where I don’t encounter that kind of vitriol. I was never called the kinds of things by church members when I expressed doubts about their theology that the commenters in novapsyche’s diary called practitioners of organized religion. Although I don’t call myself Christian, I will feel safe speaking of my spiritual journey in a mainline protestant Christian religious organization. I do not feel at all safe doing so here.