Why Do They Yell?

Being home with my family, I've gone to church more this summer than I have since 2004, which is to say, three times thus far. The first was to my parents' church for Father's Day. Their Sunday School class is a lot of fun and made up of great people. Their pastor, on the other hand, is a mission focused pastor, who would have every heathen converted. I don't have a lot of patience for that type.

The second time was in California, when we went to our old church (Immanuel Baptist in Highland) to hear the pastor we grew up with, Rob Zinn, preach. I love that man. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I like his message and his attitude. His sermon was basically about how judgement has no place among God's people, but to approach others with love.

Today was church three, as I attended Sunday School and church with my sister and brother-in-law. They're class was also a lot of fun, and you can see the group environment and learning. Kellie attended the church when Brandon was in Iraq, but she wasn't a member yet (they joined after he returned). Even so, they took care of her, taking her out to lunch and ensuring she wasn't too alone. That's the kind of community I expect from a church, and I was glad she had it. The sermon made me ask the question, "Why do Southern Baptist* preachers yell?" Kellie said that he didn't usually get so excited, but it's a common thing. They seem to think that if they yell at you, you'll hear them better. Rob gets loud, that's for certain, but you can see the excitement in what he's saying pour off of him. But for most, it just seems like they're yelling so you'll think they're serious.

I haven't been a member of a church since I left high school. Technically, I'm still a member at University Baptist Church in Shawnee, since I never transferred my letter of membership. I've been involved in a couple of Catholic communities since I left, but I've never joined a church. I don't like most aspects of community worship and the message that comes from the majority of the pulpits is one that chafes me greatly. Anytime someone teaches exclusion or superiority (which is often how a mission-oriented minister sounds) or hate, they've lost me entirely.

I haven't had much use in my life for a church, and I don't see that changing soon. Faith is a very private matter to me and I don't have the desire to share it, especially not in the manner that proselytizing faiths employ. It's been nice to visit a range of churches, to see what I like and don't like about them. But I don't see a return to them for me in the near future. Maybe, someday, a faith based community will call to me again. But not now. And never to one that yells.

*I'm sure other ministers yell. My experience is with the SBC.

Easter

So it's Easter. The most important and holy of the Christian holidays. Christmas is the one kids like the most, but Easter is the one that is most revered, for that is the day when Jesus rose from the death that cleaned away the sins of man and allowed for a personal relationship with God the Father. I might go into the pagan ties and the symbolism of secular Easter another time, but today, instead, I am looking at the Christian community.

We begin with one of my favorite Bible verses:

Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another. - 1 Peter 4:8-9.

Most of the chapter is in this vein. The First Epistle of Peter (as it is formally known) is one of the letters to the young church in areas suffering from religious persecution, and so the message focuses repeatedly on the value of bearing that persecution with a heart of love and quiet strength, as many of the Epistles do. They're actually some of my favorite parts of the New Testament, since they give us a glimpse at the early church and can often be lined up with other historical records to give us an idea of when and where they were written from.

Anyway, back to the verse. I have serious issue with the Christian community as it currently exists on a wide scale and have distanced myself from it. I find my community elsewhere and my spiritual health is a private thing that involves very few other people. But I wonder, if the community focused more on verses like these in Peter (and elsewhere) rather than the litany of potential sins that crop up throughout the Bible, how much better of a world could have made and could they still make?

In fact, if we expand this to all religious texts, I am certain there are verses like this, that demand love and kindness to everyone. If followers of those texts focused on applying those verses to the world around them, and saved the expectations for what they see as "Godly" behavior (however it is defined for them) to themselves, perhaps we would find the world of love, charity, and kindness that would exemplify the kind of God I could get behind. And if I could find a community of believers that used this as their center, rather than that which damns them or makes them different from others, I might be able to find a community to be part of.