Throughout life I have grown much closer to the Lord and worked to live a Christian life every day. Throughout that same time, I have also become more and more cynical toward most organized religion. I have watched the hypocrisy of both clergy and parishioners as they wallow in sin throughout their daily lives then try to cleanse their lives in an hour each week with a church and collection plate.
Throughout life I have grown much closer to the Lord and worked to live a Christian life every day. Throughout that same time, I have also become more and more cynical toward most organized religion.
That is something I’ve struggled with as well, except for the hypocrisy stuff. I played trombone in an AG church orchestra for many years and about 15 singing Christmas trees. I then learned the bass and was in the worship band in another church, and then the whole band (except for me) decided to be the band at another church. What’s up with that?
I became the music leader at that church, and years later when I left it (I really thought it should have disbanded, frankly) I worked in the music ministry in another church.
It was like being in school plays - everyone acted like children trying to be teacher’s pet. There was a lip-service of “doing it for God”, but when people are complaining about not getting enough solo’s etc, well, you know...
I now attend a small Baptist church less than a mile from my house. We never thought we would like it because it was just too convenient (and it was Baptist). So we church hopped when we moved here and when we finally went to that one, as my wife describes it, “we were home”. The people were so nice. They really DO study the bible and try to live Jesus’ commandments, and the pastor has a real heart for the people there and it comes out in his messages. And after a few months, I finally confided in him an actual miracle I experienced, and how odd and hard to explain it was. And he had had the exact same thing happen. As he described it I even recognized some emotions I had at the time that I had forgotten.
Amazing.
Much of it is just for show. Back in the 80s when people actually dressed up for Mass, Easter Sunday was like a fashion show. People I had never seen before would show up with their little ones dressed to the hilt. One particular family who were the rich magnates in the Parish would show up late for Mass with the entire family, and the father would be dressed in a white suit and his family would be dressed in the most dressiest clothes and hats you can imagine. They would also drive themselves there in their white Rolls Royce and park illegally on the medium while the rest of the peons would have to park blocks away. He would never get a ticket because he was friends with the local sheriff, another fact he flaunted.