Church?

I don’t remember the first time I went to church, that’s because I was only a few days old. I went to a small country Swedish Lutheran [LCA] church in NW Minnesota. Going to church was very important to farming communities because in farming, especially in the 1950s and for thousands of years before that, farming had a wide variety of variables which were beyond the farmer’s control. Weather, prices of grain and livestock, health to name a few. Also, as I know first hand, farming was a dangerous endeavor. Worshiping together did not guarantee good crops or no injuries, but it did bring a group of like minded individuals together to be thankful and pray for future blessings.

I went to a Norwegian American Lutheran [ALC] liberal arts college. In 1988 the ALC merged with the LCA to become the ELCA. The merger was only supposed to take a year, but actually too longer because the Swedish Lutherans had to take all the big words out of the liturgy for the Norwegian Lutherans.

One of my degrees was in theology. I was actually nominated for a Rockefeller Theological Scholarship to go to continue theological studies. I made it to the semi-finals based on a paper I had written. The scholarship committee flew into Fargo to interview me. When they asked me if I got the scholarship would I got to theological school. I said I was not sure. Turns out they wanted a little more enthusiasm than that. It was a fork in the road decision.

The first time I went to the Twin Cities that I can remember it was for my brother’s wedding. I was probably 6 or 7. I don’t remember the wedding, but I do remember the huge, at least to me, TC phone book and how many pages were just listings for all the different churches.

I was in elementary when I first realized there were two different religions. Lutheran and Catholic. Later I realized there were many more than two religions. During lent, it was probably 4th grade a young Catholic girl in my class forgot it was Lent and started eating a hot dog. When she realized the magnitude of her “sin”, she was sure she would get kicked out of the church and end up in hell. For the record, eating a school hot dog was already a version of hell, so really could not get much worse.

As the years progressed I realized many religions felt only their members went to heaven. Non-members of that specific religion which numbered in the billions are doomed to a life of eternal damnation. Seems kind of harsh from a loving God. When I was an Admissions Counselor for the college I attended I visited a Wisconsin Lutheran high school from which the college had a couple of students attend high school. When I introduced myself to the HS Counselor, the Counselor with force grabbed my the arm and literally thru me out of the school and told me I was not welcome and should never visit again. Turns out only Wisconsin Lutheran’s go to heaven. Wow, it thats the case, heaven is going to be really boring.

The reality is the majority of of Americans, almost 60%, rarely if ever go to church. Of the remaining, about 30% go weekly or almost weekly. Of those that attend church, they attend one of the over 200+ denominations, some of which are under umbrella of a larger denomination. Many denominations believe they are correct and everyone else is wrong. Is there any New Testament basis for this? No, Nada, Nein etc. Who ever founded a particular denomination, decided they were right and everyone else is wrong.

For many, their definition of being a Christian is believing women are not equal, members of the LGBT community are not welcome, people of color are not equal. For that reason, rather than Christian, I prefer follower of the teachings of Jesus. For example, love your neighbor includes all of your neighbors.

For the record I do go to church occasionally, well very occasionally. When I do go, I have minimum criteria. Following are a few.
* Women are equal and can be leaders of the church including clergy. Churches that will not accept women in leadership or clergy positions have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus. Simply a bunch of rules made up by men to control women. And equal includes women’s rights to control all their health care.
* People of all races and sexual preferences are welcome. There is no sin in being gay. There is sin, a lot of it, in not welcoming gays into the church as equals loved by God.
* Understanding that God cares equally for a white baby born in Texas and a black baby born in any country in Africa or any other place for that matter.

Churches must also accept the separation of church and state which is guaranteed in First Amendment. Our country was not founded as a Christian Nation nor is it now. The Christian Nationalist movement which many churches endorse has absolutely nothing to do with the teaches of Jesus. Christian Nationalism is a political movement, not a religious or spiritual one.

Many church leaders lament the fact that church attendance is declining. Weekly or almost weekly church attendance has declined from 42% 20 years ago to the current 30%. I suspect the decline will continue. There are many reasons including all of the above, but I suspect churches are seen by many as political centers of intolerance including sexism and racism. Frankly, over the years I have seen more kindness, compassion, and empathy from more people who do not go to church than those that do.

There are many wonderful churches who follow the teachings of Jesus preaching a message of love, kindness, compassion and empathy for all. But there are also many, if not more which have become political centers preaching a false narrative of hate, divisiveness and exclusion. If churches want more people to attend, my suggestion would be to work towards becoming daily spiritual which promote love, compassion, empathy and inclusion for all neighbors. This message is why people were drawn to Jesus 2000+ years ago. I suspect it will still work today.