It doesn’t matter how much faith you have or for how long you’ve been around Christian community. There is hardly anything that makes you feel more uncomfortable and thrown aback than a stranger or a mere acquaintance coming up to you and asking, “Do you love God?”
I realize that the uniquely warm and Christian environment of Houghton may give us the wrong impression that this is a completely normal small talk topic to demonstrate our love for one another; we call this sort of thing relating to our “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Here’s the catch though: siblings, even the kind in Christ, are generally not classified as strangers or acquaintances. Asking these sorts of questions among friends is one thing, but can any of us honestly say that we’d appreciate it if a stranger approached and asked, “Do you love your girlfriend?”, or “How’s your relationship with your boyfriend?” Sometimes I don’t even like my best friends asking me that, because I often don’t know whether what I feel is really love or something else! I mean, at times, my spiritual life feels like a long distance relationship with a girlfriend from another planet; I am told to write letters and leave voice mails but never get a direct reply. What makes it even harder is, I am supposed to believe that my partner still loves me much more than I could ever love her, because her holy ghostwriter said so in letters to strangers from thousands of years ago. So please ask yourself: “Do I love God? Is my spiritual life filled with love?” Now, can you really answer a resounding Yes to those questions? If you can’t, why would you ask a stranger?; or if you can, what are you trying to accomplish by asking a stranger?
My heart only mumbles when I hear those questions. I don’t know how to love God, at least the way the Church says I should. There are too many unanswered questions. I want to love my creator, and I desire to have a longing for Him, yet I do not think this means that I must become an unthinking disciple of culturally discordant Biblical statements. One of the Church issues I can’t find peace with is whether God really is a homophobic, wrathful condemner. Can a loving God subject a powerless man to an eternal suffering, just because he wants to show kindness, gentleness, meekness, patience, and love to another man until death do them apart? Do Christians have to go against the cultural current? Are the words worldly and secular really antithetic to godly? As we do not dine on the Word of God alone, but also on coffee and chocolate for clarity and energy –and sometimes happiness— isn’t it important for us worldly beings to consume and appreciate our culture alongside our Christian tradition?
I have no doubt the church will have a pamphlet with scripture quotes and simple answers for all the questions I’m asking. But Christians have been adapting to contemporary culture, and reinterpreting and reteaching the Bible since God-knows-when, and I really wish that this time, for once, the Church won’t be caught lagging behind everybody else. Just as we frown and wince at the thought of past days Christians quoting scripture to justify slavery or to oppose women’s rights, fifty years from now –or maybe even sooner– people may feel embarrassed to know that the Church at one point preached against homosexuality.
Way too often, during Christian youth seminars or camps, the keynote speakers preach about Christians setting themselves apart from the world; many of us have fooled ourselves into believing that Christians must stay immune to the effects of changing worldly values. I wish my opinionated 700 words could convey my hopes of bringing the Church and culture together. At the very least, I hope that my writing has made you feel agitated, because then you may be able to tell me what I’m missing. More than anything, though, I hope we all learn to be normal people living in 21st century America and keep our small talks, well, small.
So, reader, how’s the weather today?