Just have faith? Not so fast!

Over the last two years I have written extensively about why people have drifted away from attending church. Some people say I have placed to much emphasis on the issue yet in my mind the statistics are staggering. We shift from church to church seeking answers to our age old faith questions or we simply want to find a place that makes us feel welcome. That welcome mat however has contingencies as you well know. If the preacher speaks against our beliefs, if the choir sings music we do not like, if the temperature is too hot or cold, if the service lasts too long, if any of these occur we find ourselves seeking faith solutions else where.

That is what I call surface issues, what lies beneath is what I would like to discuss today. In the last several months I have had the honor and privilege of having at length conversations with people as to the why they left main stream religion or refused to join it from the beginning. I found some common ground among many of the people I spoke with. Most just wanted a voice, they wanted to be able to ask questions and get answers. Things such as, who wrote the Bible, when was it compiled, why are there so many variations, why do so many religions and preachers interpret chapters and verses differently. Another resounding theme was this, why should I believe what you cannot defend? I love the teachings of Christ some say, but it is the Christians that destroy the meaning. Was Christ real? If so, why do we not have the original manuscripts of the Bible to guide us with? Why would Christ leave everything he stood for to be open to interpretation? There are so many questions yet so few are willing to ask them and even fewer willing to answer them.

In my opinion though the one topic that screamed out the loudest was the ability to discuss their faith openly. We were taught to just believe, have faith that what you read is the truth. Today's generation, thank goodness needs more than JUST HAVE FAITH. They need to know why we say we believe yet deep down or in private the so called believers reveal that they too struggle to believe. Is this starting to sound familiar.

I think some where along the way we have to understand that we are human beings to the core. We are unique, we live, we die, we make mistakes. The struggles we face shape is into the person we are, yet we still fight to be accepted by the very people that claim to love us to our face. In our humanity or man's search for meaning as I like to say, it becomes clear that faith and religion are not in alignment. The so called teachings of Christ make sense to us mere sinful humans, yet the teachings of Christians do not.

Why is there fallout in massive numbers in churches today? I think it is a combination of the areas I discussed. I love the new enlightenment that empowers people to seek more. In our search for placement in this great place called life we can and will find answers. The key is to accept that you have the right to question what others tell you to believe.

If you have been reading my blog for years you know clearly that I promote peace, love, acceptance, and forgiveness. I always repeat that if you judge people, you have no time to love them. I write this not in an effort to judge anyone, I write to pave the way for people to explore self discovery and to connect with God through the love of self and others.

I have no idea if church attendance will ever get back to the levels it once was. I am not sure it matters, what matters is that we find peace in our heart and joy in our soul. Through that we will begin to emanate an aura from us that others will seek to find.

Keep asking the questions, keep exploration alive, and remember you have the right to openly discuss and challenge that which has been held true for so long. The truth will set you free, we are told. If that is the case then let's get busy and find the truth about love, the truth about life, the truth about God. I think through our research one thing we will find is that there is so much more to life than we have been given permission to seek.

Peace and much love

Dale