Farmboyz / Perge Modo: Ingredients for a new Christian church
The always eloquent and insightful Father Tony of the Farmboyz blog (see link above) suggests a new paradigm for the Christian faith. In summary, his suggestions are as follows:
1. How you share your penis or vagina with consenting adults is your own business.
2. Let there be freedom to subscribe to the particulars of God as you see them.
3. Let there be abundant forgiveness.
4. Let us be skilled in the pursuit of happiness and peace, eschewing cynicism and mean-spirited behavior.
5. Let our church own absolutely nothing.
6. Let us not care whether our church has five members or five million members. Jesus is not Mary Kay.
7. Let the leaders of our church announce themselves; real church leaders are easily discernible by the flock.
Choosing a religion is much like choosing the scaffolding upon which one builds one's life. I think it takes a great deal of introspective ability and a deeply objective knowledge of self to be able to identify the characteristics of a successful new religious paradigm.
Most Americans choose their religious affiliation based on convenience or inertia. The man she loves is Jewish, therefore she converts to Judaism. My parents were Methodist, therefore I will be Methodist. A man who is Lutheran can't find a church he likes after moving to a new town, so he joins a Presbyterian church instead. Americans are a practical people who, though certainly able, would prefer to avoid the fracas of introspective self-evaluation if at all possible. We're too busy managing the minutiae of our lives, and besides... Antiques Roadshow is on at 7.
Occasionally, though, we find ourselves with an inexplicable lull in our daily schedule. If we're not careful, we might find ourselves questioning the allegiances through which we define ourselves. From this questioning comes a nagging suspicion that we might very well be better off (on a number of levels) if we simply break away from the flock and forge our own path. This could mean a simple switch from the Baptist church on Main Street to the Baptist church west of town. More interestingly, though, it could mean a fundamental reorganization of our conceptual framework regarding religion, spirit, and belief.
Belief is a difficult word. When we believe in something, we often cease to question it, and we are therefore no longer open to the tentative consideration that what we believe may not, in fact, be true. We cling to beliefs despite overwhelming piles of evidence to the contrary. We fight with each other in an effort to show that our beliefs are superior to others'.
Taking a cue from Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism Without Beliefs, wouldn't it be interesting to create a new religious paradigm that centered on thinking rather than believing? Action rather than worship? Example rather than ridicule? To that end, I offer a few additions to the good Father Tony's formidable list:
1. Let our church embrace education in all its many forms. Let us be active and involved in ensuring that all our citizens, whether or not they join our church, are provided with a comprehensive education based on the best available evidence.
2. Let our church respect the rights of others to wear whatever religious affiliation they choose, even if that affiliation feels more like a straitjacket to us. "Live and let live" is not just a colloquial saying, but is also a volitional action.
3. Let our church view its tenets not as amorphous beliefs, but as a "to-do" list.
All that said, Father Tony's commenters are right... this all sounds a lot like the Unitarians. Are we really in need of a new paradigm, or is there already an extant option just waiting for us to be open-minded enough to recognize it? There goes that pesky introspection again.
