I get it now - Democratic Underground

TallahasseeGrannie

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Sun Sep-10-06 02:13 PM
Original message

I get it now

Many times here on DU I've answered various polls with a rather cock-eyed optimist point of view. How's the economy doing as far as I am concerned? Just fine. Still making money, have health insurance and a pension. I've been amazed at how some folks relate experiences living amongst fundamentalists where they are belittled or constantly evangelized to. It's never happened to me. Basically, aside from election angst, I have been rather unscathed by this extreme pendulum swing to the right.

Until today.

To understand my epiphany, you need to understand just a bit about me. I am a lifelong Episcopalian and "the Church" has been a major cultural and spiritual influence in my life. I've always been proud of my church and the work it does. In the last seven years or so I have had to quit church activities and care for elderly parents. My mom passed away two years ago but I never quite got around to going back to church. The church I used to attend actually moved and built a new facility, and I just didn't feel a connection anymore. There are a LOT of Episcopal churches down here in the South. The planter class was usually Episcopal and that influence has carried forward. As most know, two years ago Gene Robinson, and openly gay man in a non-celebate relationship, was ordained as a Bishop in the Episcopal church in NH. And it wasn't long before the schism showed up here. All the local churches but one split, with the more conservative members (in each case this involved the priest, the assistants and the entire vestry) up and leaving. We are not talking a small group of malcontents. These groups are the majority in every parish.

Last week I went back to church. I chose a lovely parish that used to be booming. It is a beautiful facility with a historical chapel, a huge graveyard...a well-established church in the community, known for outreach and good works. Last week, the day before Labor Day, there were about 20 folks there. I wasn't surprised..around here a lot of people head to the coast on weekends. But today was the big "back to school and back to church" Sunday, and lo and behold, there were about 50 people there. In past years there would have been standing room only. Not today. No young couples. No nursery because there were no babies. Five or six Sunday School aged kids. But there WERE about three gay couples.

Just folks like me, standing to sing, sitting to listen, kneeling to pray. Older, like me, over 50. And it hit me that all those people who USED to go to church there had turned their backs on us all. TURNED THEIR BACKS. Turned and walked away. And why? Because among us stood human beings whose horrific sin (huge enough to split a church down the middle) was to LOVE each other and want to live in that love. A church is about reaching out, opening your arms to those around you. But these people have abandoned their brothers and sisters and walked away, turned their backs and walked away. I saw it so clearly that I swear I saw them as a group walking away, not turning around to even look at those they left behind. They have their own nurseries and Sunday Schools and not everyone is welcome there in their "new" churches. But the thing is, they left Christ behind as well. They say the same prayers I say, but oh my, how they interpret the words of Jesus Christ differently than I do. What a waste. What a mistake. How can they get it so WRONG? Don't they understand that in their arrogance they are everything He warned us against?

Well, I am staying with this church. I'll write a check every Sunday. I'll go to Wednesday dinners. I'll get to know these people and we will flourish because we are walking the walk and talking the talk. And those other folks...well, I hope they can look at themselves in the mirror every morning. I don't think I could.