The Elephant in the Room (Church)

I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a minefield, getting ready to navigate to the other side. “Church” is the most sacred of cows within Christendom, and I sense that many Christian people have a hair trigger, listening to what they think I’m saying and reacting. So, I will take great caution in what I say, hoping to do my best to avoid misunderstandings. No, I’m not the enemy of the church but have great respect for the historical and present figures who are devoted to the church.

My Intent

The first intention, as I’ve stated many times, is that Christianity in America is dying. It is hemorrhaging people out the front door of the church by people who boldly say, “I’m done with it! I doubt if there is a God and if Jesus ever existed.” However, what they are rejecting is the Christian culture, the institutional church, a significant part of that. The others are insidiously leaving out the back door. The back door of the conservative church is politics and Christian nationalism, which has lost the historical Jesus altogether. The back door of the progressive church is an ambiguous spirituality, a blend of ideas, with no foundation in the historical Jesus.

I will bring this home once more. How many of you have left Christianity or witnessed the departure of your kids, grandkids, or friends, who say they are done with church? This is personal, not theoretical. The crux to my concern is the all or none wager. We are forcing people to choose, either adopt the entire American Christian Culture, including the organized church, or nothing. They cannot be Christians, we say, without that culture.

No, I am not encouraging people who find the organized church helpful, to leave it. I will point out the great benefits the church has offered our western culture, but it is a product of culture. There is nothing that Christian culture can do to force those who have left to suddenly love it any more than you can force me to love rap music. I am trying to focus on the simple essence of following Jesus of Galilee.

I know of many people who adore the church exactly as it is, and I have the utmost respect for them. The good news for them is that the organized church will not disappear any time soon, and they have the right to enjoy it to the fullest. I will say again, I am affiliated with a very good church and adore its people. But this isn’t about me, but those leaving.

I Am Not a Dogmatist

Within religion, the only time there is contention, it is over dogma. This is the root of denominationalism and even religious wars. Therefore, when I raise any question, I am assumed to be a dogmatist. I am not.

A dogmatist bases their contentions on what they think are moral issues. First, they have certainty in a plethora of dogmas, most of which have nothing to do with the Bible and are at best loose inferences. But their certainty is that they are right, and within their certainty, they are representing God, the creator of the cosmos’ point of view. Therefore, if you differ, you are rebelling against the creator, and you are immoral.

My questions are very different. They are objective and founded in social sciences and philosophy and are not moral. I do not view people with different perspectives as immoral, unintelligent, or inferior to myself. It is simply a different view. No, I do not believe that truth is relative, but in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas when he said, We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.

Definitions

Before I proceed with the following two to three articles about the Institutional Church, I must define some terms I will use.

I will use the term “church” to refer to the institutional church. What I mean is the organized church, created by men and women, often with a sincere purpose. The hallmarks of a church is a building, a leadership hierarchy, and the Sunday morning worship service.

I will use “ekklesia” (ἐκκλησία), the Greek word in the New Testament that is translated as “church,” in English versions of the Bible. Ekklesia represents the simple society of followers of Jesus (in its original meaning), Jesus not mentioning hierarchy, buildings, or a worship service. Church is not essential to being a Christian, in my view, while ekklesia is.

To align this topic with the theme of these articles, “The dereligionization of Jesus of Galilee,” the religionization of Jesus is deeply embedded in the historical context of the church. In contrast, an ekklesia view is more in line with the historical, dereligionized Jesus of Galilee.

On Another Matter-Writing

Speaking of walking into a mine field, I have been working on a new novel, Agony of a Woman, for over a year. This is a story that sits deeply within the abortion controversy. I have chosen this topic for a novel for two reasons. Literary agents are essential for finding a publisher, and many of them claim to favor books about women and controversial issues. What could be more controversial?

The other reason is that the abortion issue has, in many ways, defined the development of the Christian culture for the past fifty years. For example, my evangelical friends told me in 2016 that they found Donald Trump disgusting as a human being, but felt God had called them to vote for him because he pledged to overturn Roe vs Wade, via court appointments (he has no personal view on abortion, but his Republican strategists told him that was a view he would need to take to get the evangelical vote).

In 2024, my same evangelical friends said to me that Donald Trump was the most remarkable Christian man that America has ever produced, and they have also adopted all of the MAGA conspiracy theories. So, for them, abortion was a gateway “drug” into Trumpism. Now they are fully immersed in Trumpism-Christian nationalism.  So, abortion is a critical issue for Christians, and this novel explores it in a comprehensive and deeply personal way.

There will be things in the book that both Pro-choice and Pro-life people adore, and things they find disturbing. If I follow my usual clumsy pattern, both groups will end up sending me hate mail. But I want to make the discussion around facts and these facts of abortion are woven into a beautiful, but at times painful, personal story.

I have always hired good editors for the books I have written. However, a good editor is very expensive. As a retired person who must deal with the physical and financial drain of cancer, I can no longer afford such good help. Editing is my weak spot. I can spin fictional stories out of thin air all day long. However, I struggle to recognize problems with grammar and syntax as I should. So, I am relying heavily on AI for help (and it is not perfected yet for editing). I have done ten cycles of editing and am now ready to approach agents. Wish me luck, as it’s a chance in a million to have one agent read a few paragraphs of my story, given that they are so inundated with writers like me. But I do love writing, if only I could find a way to find an audience.

Respectfully,

Mike

PS: I find comedy very helpful for my personal life. Comics are my therapists. I’ve listen to several post-Christian comedians and they are very candid about why the left the Christian culture. It is educational. One comedian Deven Green (I don’t think she was ever a Christian) does a great job deconstructing American evangelicalism. She has a “Christian” Alias, Mrs. Betty Bowers, “America’s Best Christian“

If you have a good sense of humor, it is fun to watch her, to laugh, and to see the Christian culture the way that ex-Christians now do.