Well, One Can Dream...

[poliphilo]

The dream was mainly about being surprised. Usually when I dream I'm in church it's faintly nightmarish. I step up to the lectern and can't find my place in the Book- things like that. But this time I felt at ease. Suddenly there were no obstacles to my being a Christian again.

I had found a way of squaring my pagan/feminist/liberal beliefs with Christian orthodoxy. O joy. I had a home again. Gold leaf and gothic spires and friendly women bishops.

Forget it. In the waking world it's getting harder and harder to be an intelligent Christian. The yahoo fundamentalists are gaining ground- even in the dear old Church of England- and to be thoughtful about one's faith, to seek some sort of accommodation with science and scholarship and secular morality, is to run the risk of abuse and persecution.

The witch hunters are back.

It's one of the many ways in which the world has grown stupider since the turn of the millennium.

Comments

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that more churches seem to be abandoning the "Big Tent" idea of Christianity (all are welcome who seek Jesus Christ) in favour of a model that could be described as, "Only people who are already just like us are welcome."

Which is sad, since it's defining your religion by the people you exclude.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Church of England used to be defined by something Elizabeth I said. "I do not seek a window into men's souls". The idea was that so long as everyone showed up in the same building and read from the same prayer book it didn't matter what they believed.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

The United Church down the hill from my house has a sign that reads "For people of all faiths and for those of uncertain faiths."

If it's a Christian church (and I think it is, because they decorate for Easter and Christmas), it must be very watered down.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Prince Charles declared some time ago that he desired to be not the Defender of the faith but the Defender of faiths.

As if faith in itself were a good thing. "I don't care what you believe so long as you believe in something."

Prince Charles is a bit of a blissed out old hippy.

Faiths have content and sometimes the content of one faith is in direct conflict with the content of another.