What do we do when we are disenchanted?
Pondering on why is it that so many people I know struggle with Church, I have grasped upon this term, which I read in a book recently, because I feel it expresses most authentically what I’m talking about.
Growing up in Church, in my experience, makes people more aware of God. However, the only vehicle they are given – especially so in the non-sacramental Salvation Army – to view God is people. I believe that people brought up in Church are lead to believe – and maybe even despite being told otherwise – that people are good and God is good. Christians are good people = God is good. In most cases, things work out for the best for people at Church = God is good.
So what happens when people aren’t good.
I am under the impression that many people who leave Church having been brought up in a Church family do not leave because they no longer believe in God. They may not have an active relationship with God, but they would probably say they still believed in God – were agnostic at worse. Most people leave Church because of people.
The people they were brought up believing were good are no longer the pillars of virtue that they thought. The people who they were brought up thinking cared, seemed to stop caring when they were no longer cute or went away for a while. The morals they thought everyone lived by only seem to apply when people are looking. People are no longer good = God is ?
When the sequins fall off and the glitter is no longer gleaming; when you become disenchanted and faith seems like a fairytale, where do you turn?
Is re-enchantment possible?
I do not think it is possible to go back to believing that everyone is good, and I do not think it would be sensible to do so. I also do not think people need to believe, or ever should be taught, that being a Christian fixes everything. So where does that leave the disenchanted? How do you see God past the people?
5 comments:
- At 6:55 PM Jude said...
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I think when we grow up we just have our eyes opened to the 'real world' It's not that people stop caring or being good we just see the world (and church) more negatively because we are more aware of how we would change the situation if we could...
God doesn't change, we just look at Him differently. We are human and constantly compare people and when we have been away or grown up & extended our friendship groups we just see who we click with better and tend to spend time with those people more than others it's not that our 'old' friends dont care they just aren't as in our everyday life anymore...
Sorry I've waffled! - At 9:11 PM Anonymous said...
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Fantastic blog. You are spot on about the effect people within the Church can have on others. Are they even aware of the impact of their actions? Is it better for individuals to at least believe in God than go to Church and be with people who have said or done something which is not "good"?!
- At 9:28 AM Becks said...
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No, you didn't waffle. And I get what you mean- but I think it isn't just about how friendship groups change. I think the people you were close with, even if you aren't living in each others pockets anymore, you will always have a shared history. It's more the church 'family', that I mean, I suppose.
I suppose it isn't about who is good and who is bad, but rather -If we say that our eyes are opened to the 'real world', which somehow we were shielded from when we developed our faith, how do you maintain your faith in the face of that? - At 12:45 PM Dawn said...
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I think a large aspect if that of spiritual maturity, and we need to focus on God rather than the ways of the world around us.
I am not suggesting that it is easy, by any means, however, too often we focus on the 'badness' of the church, or the people who make up that church and that makes us, ourselves become negative and ungodly. - At 3:22 PM Becks said...
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That's true - I think it is a wrong focus. But, and this is the problem, how do you tell someone who is 'spiritually immature' who is in that place, to move on? If only maturity helps, but you can't get to maturity because you are stuck in the immature 'church = bad' quagmire, where do you go?
