Meg's Attack Upon Christendom

Christianity had to compete with an empire that not only had the Roman gods, but also incorporated mystery cults (ie, the Cult of Isis) from Egypt [nota bene: I use "cult" in the ancient sense of the word where it means more like "sect", and it should not be confused with our modern sense of the word] and Zoroastrian beliefs, and Greek philosophies. Yet, in all this, Christianity eventually rose to become the religion of an emperor and eventually, an empire. It triumphed, because when it was the religion of the underdog, of the forgotten, of the invisible, it had real teeth. In the ancient world, where it was clear that the rich got monuments that put them next to the gods and the poor just vanished out of existence, the power of something said that there is a great equalizer out there, that you don't need money, don't need power, need only faith was immense.

But now, that's not the message at all. Christianity is like that rock star that starts out as a great underground, indie musical artist doing awesome stuff and then lands a contract and gets a bunch of money and turns into a commercial sellout, and suddenly, the music, the beauty is all gone and all you have left is a doped up, partied-out, hypocritical shell of a person who once was a genius and is now just so much wasted potential. I would posit that not only does the Christian faith need a dire revision, but that it needs to reconsider it's mainstream positions on gay marriage and reproductive choice. I know that as someone who used to be a Christian, it does more to keep me away from the doors of a church to see people protesting in front of abortion clinics, trying to shame the women who go there, desperate and turning to their last resort, calling them names and shouting at them when I think, "Gee, what if you spent half this energy finding foster placement for the kids who did get born and their parents didn't want them?"

Not to mention that seeing mainstream Christianity protest against same-sex marriage when over half of hetero marriages can't seem to hold themselves together for love nor money does more to convince me that the spiritual force in Christianity is dead and all that is left is an over politicized, power hungry group of hatemongers than anything else. I think of all the money spent on Prop 8 ads, telling people gay marriage was bad. What if the churches and Christian leaders had spent that time and money on marriage counseling services for couples in trouble? It's not only hypocritical but abysmally stupid for Christian leaders to tell me that gay marriage is such a threat to straight marriage. After all, only two states in the union allow legal same-sex marriages, and they've only allowed that in the last two years. The decline of marriage and the stability of straight marriage has been in the dumps long before the GLBT community held the first parade.

What if all this money and time were spent doing constructive things? What if these rich megachurches who have holdings and wealth in the millions sold their properties and gave that money to helping people who have lost their jobs and have no health insurance, to people who are sick and may die but can't go to a doctor, to the homeless, to those in prison who believe no one cares, to the victims of genocide and war in Darfur. It is my belief that no church needs anything more than some fold out chairs and a tent to keep the rain off their heads. Anything else is window dressing and vanity. Could you imagine how many blankets and meals you could buy for people who are cold and hungry with just the money spent on ads for prop 8 alone? How many people could have eaten, been fed, been told that they matter, been given some comfort that there is good in the world? But that wasn't done.

I wish sometimes there was a church I could go to, because I feel such a longing for fellowship and faith, but I know that Christianity is an illusion now. You can't go and get that from a church anymore. They don't sing real songs anymore, they sing 7-11 hymns (as my grandfather calls them) where they repeat the same bland seven word sentence eleven times and call it praise.

We do have problems in our society. I think that so many people are depressed, to the point of needing medication, because there is a spiritual vacuum. People need spirituality, need faith in something that tells them that this life means something, that all the things you go through on this Earth have a point, that we aren't just cosmic accidents floating around, waiting to pop out of existence into nothingness for no reason at all. People need purpose and meaning. But Christianity is not the faith to get it from anymore, that much has become apparent to me. I cannot go back to the place I came from, because there is nothing there. Because I cannot decide my faith in the same way I decide which candidate to vote for or which cereal to buy. I want to know about God, if there is a God, what is God like? I want to know what happens when we die, and I want to know why we're here, and I want something that tells me I'm not just flailing around, stupidly, and then we die. I was in the United Methodist Church from birth to age 18, and I never once felt like anyone even addressed those questions, much less answered them.

So, this all to say that I agree. Evangelism and Christianity are collapsing, but it is not the fault of secularism. Christianity, as a whole, is weak through it's own wrong doings. Any force, whether it be secularism or another religion, would be doing the same damage. The heart has been eaten out of the faith, the soul's been rotted through. And until someone tries to fix what is ailing Christianity's heart and soul, nothing else is going to matter much.