stuff

[tielan]

Have not read candyheartsex gifts yet - so sorry, creators o' mine! Looking forward to it, 100%!

Anyone wanna guess which fic is mine?

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Thought of the Day re: abuse in churches

When the importance of hierarchy and order is paramount in a worldview or an organisation, then abuse or injury caused by those in the hierarchy, operating under "the proper order of things" is unimportant or dismissable because the hierarchy and order are being upheld by the execution of power and that is what is deemed most important.

eg. An abused wife or family in a hard-complementarian church doesn't matter to that church because the chiefest thing is that the hierarchy and order (which said church claims is ordained by God) is being upheld, and that is God's Good Order Of Creation which is more important than an individual (or collective) being hurt.

For me, the counter to this is "and He shall wipe every tear from their eyes" - intimacy, compassion, tenderness from power and might and glory. El Roi, Hagar named Him; One Who Sees: a divinity who inspired John 3:16, who took on flesh and suffering so he could walk alongside us. A God who sees, who does not turn His back, would demand both individual responsibility for those hurts committed by the individual and collective responsibility for the pain we inflict as a culture, society, community, or group.

It's just a thought.

(thank you Beau of the Fifth Column for putting that phrase out there)

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Lot of religious stuff happening around my sections of the internet. Revival in Ashbury, KY. He Gets Us campaign during the Superbowl. Australian federal laws shifting around 'Freedom of Religion'.

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In personally ginormous news: I am contemplating looking for another church. Haven't started the search, but just contemplating at this stage.

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Oh, and it looks like work maaaaay have shifted back to 'only talk about things if you have something that needs someone else's attention'. Today's meeting took less than 15 minutes! UNHEARD OF.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

A short meeting! Oh, that is my dream. I despite meetings.

I hope you can find a new church. The only one I would consider here in my community is the Universalist Church, but honestly it kind of annoys me because I miss the old music and the feelings I had with it as a child. So no.

While I have deep faith and belief, I go climbing on Sunday mornings and find peace and community with my fellow climbers in the gym. I call it my zen time. For me, it has become my spiritual time. I'm using my body hard, feeling the strength of my body matching the strength of my heart and faith. I come out at peace with the world, and determined to be a better person - a member of a community that is welcoming and devoted to doing something that encourages us to be strong, encouraging of others and loving of the world we live in.

[tielan]

I loathe meetings with the hatred of a thousand fiery suns.

I'm not sure I'm looking yet; the ministers that we've had for the first six years I was there were good preachers, who could make a point without me feeling like they were getting political. I appreciate that they don't see certain things the way I do, and that's manageable. I don't know if it's just the times, but there's a flavour of 'culture war' about the new minister's sermons these days.

Maybe it's just that I knew the other ministers better, little bits and pieces giving me a better feel for who they were as people, but although this minister is a good man, he's just a bit too conservative for me to feel comfortable. He arrived in 2020, but this is the year that two other ministers who've been at the church for a while have resigned to go to new jobs; I don't know if there's interpersonal conflict between them, or if it's a new vision/way of doing things that the new senior minister has brought, but all of a sudden, the preaching roster is him and a couple of junior ministers (as in, in their late 20s); who are still learning how to make points, how to back them up with life experience, stuff like that.

I think I'm facing the same problem as you to some degree, except in mine, it's more about teaching from an "inerrant" scripture (ie. what was said then is meant today exactly as we would interpret it in our context) vs a "cultural point in time and space" scripture (ie. what was the issue being addressed, how do we contextualise that for today)? But I believe in a Christology that is central to the faith as well and...you'd think that would be easier to find: a crucicentric faith with culturally contextual life advice from Paul...

...sorry, I think I got a bit involved there. Just typing things out for my own brainspace. Ugh. It's Friday night 10:30pm, and I am going to BED.

[wpadmirer]

It's perfectly all right to get involved in your own brainspace on these things. Churches have become difficult, and to me - less Christian.

I found a place to practice my faith on Sunday morning that is comforting. But everyone needs to find what works for them.

[facethestrange]

"God's Good Order Of Creation which is more important than an individual (or collective) being hurt"
I'm not religious but this is exactly how I was raised (this message wasn't even an implication, it was explicitly spelled out), and it does make me happy and relieved every time I see that there are religious people who don't see the world this way. :)

[tielan]

*hugs*

[facethestrange]

♡