Losing our Religion.
I’ve been reading and pondering a series of 5 thoughtful essays written by The NY Times opinion writer Jessica Gross. She is a journalist and novelist offers her perspective on the American family, culture, politics and the way we live now.
The articles are worth a read and a good discussion. They wrestle with the decrease in church attendance and spiritual community involvement in our current and emerging United States. She elicits comments and personal stories from readers who have left the church (synagogue and mosque too) and those who have stayed. She doesn’t try to explain everything, or give the magic bullet for fixing things, but rather to paint in broad strokes a portrait of where we are spiritually, religiously and culturally as a nation.
You can find the articles linked here:
- Lots of Americans Are Losing Their Religion. Have You? | April 19, 2023
2. ‘Christianity’s Got a Branding Problem’ | May 10, 2023
3. Why Do People Lose Their Religion? More Than 7,000 Readers Shared Their Stories. | June 7, 2023
4. The Largest and Fastest Religious Shift in America Is Well Underway | June 21, 2023
5. What Churches Offer That ‘Nones’ Still Long For | June 28, 2023
As I reflect on them I find myself pondering how and who I encounter on a regular basis that fit into this category of “none” – or those who dislike, or are disenchanted by their past church experience and what it might look like to engage them in a different one. I hope that our shared ministry looks different, creates more space for self-discovery, spiritual-growth, relationship creations, and social action.
If you’d like to talk more in person about this email, call or text me.
Monte
Some of My Questions around these Articles Include:
What do you think about the articles? Is the Church over, past its due-date?; Are our best days behind us?; or are they possibly before us?
In reflecting upon our three words SAFE | OPEN | REAL; I wonder about the destructive power of experiencing un-real faith. Or said in another way how many of these hurts come from communal structures, doctrines and practices that aren’t really related to imitating the life of Jesus but more about preserving an institution, maintaining power, or preaching a cultural or nationalistic gospel as opposed to the good news of Jesus of Nazareth? Of course then I wonder how I myself am blind to the ways that I practice un-real Christian faith in my words, actions, and relationships. Can anyone practice REAL Christian faith, or is that just an impossible pipe dream?
Maybe we need to lose our religion, or at least the way that we practice it, or have inherited it? Maybe an old way of being needs to die in order for something new and different to germinate and come to life?
About capcoakland
CAPC Oakland 