In 1963, on a whim before I was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, I decided to take a road trip with some beach time. Having limited resources, I took a Greyhound bus from Tennessee to Florida. The bus drove southwards through Mississippi before hanging a left to go to Pensacola. On the way south, I watched uniformed police officers standing out in the fields, training dogs to attack young men in white shirts and ties -- the uniform of freedom riders. Then, during a stopover in Jackson, I -- also wearing a white shirt and tie -- went into the coffee shop next door and could not get served. I repeatedly requested a cup of coffee and was uniformly ignored, so I returned to bus, went on to the beach for a couple of days, then homewards again.
Those experiences made a strong impression and led to my later involvement in promoting civil rights. I am still an ACLU member and proud of it. During the trip I kept thinking that many of the leaders of the Movement were Christian clergy, like Doctor King and Episcopal Presiding Bishop John Hines. Yet, my parent's denomination taught that people of colour were inferior and quoted bible verses to prove that God wanted blacks to be a servant class for Caucasians. I heard one of our pastors actually use the description, "sub-human." I realized that Christianity could be approached, as Doctor King did, with focus on Jesus' teachings or it could be co-opted to justify prejudices and ignorance or to satisfy a political, economic, or social agenda.
That is still the case. If you don't believe that the Faith is manipulated by cons motivated by a desire for self-aggrandizement and accumulation of great wealth, just tune in to the entertainment-religion television channels. Or listen to the messages of a variety of eccentric Christian cults who are obsessed with everything but the issues important to Jesus like promoting freedom, justice, and equality. Like opposing violence in all forms and accumulation of wealth. In recent polls we find that the fastest growing religious classification in America is "no thanks." Persons whose religious preference is: none. When you see what passes for Christianity, it is not surprising.
We all know of people whose personal code of conduct is irreproachable but have not come to faith. They do so for humanitarian reasons outside the context of religion and community. They may style themselves as "spiritual, not religious." We do not judge them or question what God may be doing in their lives. A priest friend of mine, formerly a protestant minister, was fired as youth pastor of his Baptist congregation after he told a youth group that Mahatma Gandhi (whose life has remarkable parallels to the life of Jesus) could be in heaven!
Alongside those who have rejected Christianity are two categories of Church members. First, we know of many who have deep trust in God and mature relationship to God in Christ. They show remarkable strength and resilience when dark times pass through their lives. They bounce back. They experience the Church as their prime resource, where they are fed by "the Word faithfully preached and the Sacraments duly administered." We might analogize that they make regular deposits into their "heavenly bank account." On the other hand, there are many tangential members: Sometimes we speak of C&E's (Christmas and Easter Catholics) or ACE's (Ash Wednesday, Christmas, and Easter folks.) They are often devastated by a crisis and get angry with God because, when they need to make a withdrawal from that heavenly account, it is empty or overdrawn. We get out of our spiritual life pretty much what we put into it.
As Episcopalians, we strive to follow genuine Christianity, the actual teachings of Christ, and to be fed by Word and Sacrament to do just that. Let us then recommit to our mission of building God's Kingdom, a world where God's will is done in earth as in heaven. Then victims of phony religion, doubters, and half-hearted people may see the real thing shining in our lives and want that life for themselves.
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