Email: Church denominations [AS]
I don't think most "churched" people esp. ministers understand that the reason so many people are "unchurched" is because of specific sins and blunders the church itself has committed. The church doesn't often examine its own soul (convinced it has holiness and salvation) with God's eyes to see the hurt and judgment it has visited upon its former members. It merely presumes those unchurched folks are in the wrong and in the need of its vaunted ministrations. Actually talking to those to whom they would minister, in an incarnational stance of putting oneself in the other's shoes, would be an eyeopener which C.S. Lewis would approve wholeheartedly.
Catholic church pastors are famously overworked. The celibacy thing undercuts their numbers are there are congregations with no pastors and even very large ones may have one pastor or on average perhaps half as many as a Protestant congregation.
It's a good thing to have a church home of your own choice. I think that couples can do well (esp. if they are older or childless) to allow each partner to maintain the denominational allegiance that is meaningful to them, and to attend and learn from both, rather than have one spouse autocratically determine that theirs is the only legitimate option in the marriage.
posted by Twerpette @ 10:52 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I agree with your idea that churches should examine themselves and see what they have done wrong to people. Its a step that people take towards each other so why not the church towards the people ?
I also agree that each spouse should worship within their own denomination and not have to change due to marriage. I'm currently dating someone outside of my church. I would not change my religion for anyone else and I would not expect my partner to change. I feel that although it maybe diffcult at times, there can be interdemoniational marriages which work and allow each spouse to worship at the place of their choice.
One thing I think single men encounter often is that the woman invites him to accompany her at her place of worship. If a man doesn't have a spiritual compass and path of his own, he can live a rootless existence of attending a series of congregations with no commitment beyond I'm-with-Beautiful (but eventually we're-no-longer-dating).
I think there are two kinds of relationship partners: those who need someone as similar as possible to them (because they are less capable of growth in most areas) and those who are open and able to learning a great deal from and through their partner (so long as the differences are not dysfunctional).
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