FROM THE ARCHIVES
[ home | archives | e-mail ]
Changing religion
[Rod Dreher 03/22 02:27 PM]Diane from Oklahoma indicates how tricky the idea of holding to Tradition is in our times, with regard to religion: I didn't change religion but have gone from a mainstream denomination to a small, independent, evangelical Christian church. To my mind, I didn't change. The church (or at least the powers that be) did. Having grown up in the (denomination that shall remain nameless) church, I never envisioned I could go to one of those churches that today's mainstream media depicts as bigoted and backwards. But when my children were taught in confirmation class that hell may not exist, when the pastor believes everyone (and I mean *everyone*) goes to heaven, when an avowed atheist teaches Sunday school, and when the church hierarchy tries to affirm homosexual acts as good, then I found a body of believers (aka church) that more accurately reflects my understanding of what God calls us to do and be. Is Diane being more traditional by leaving the Tradition she was born into, because she believes the institution has broken with Tradition? I think so, absolutely. What happens when the institutional guardians of religious tradition abandon it, keeping only the form without the substance? This gets complicated. I was talking to an Episcopal priest the other day who is completely outdone with his church, but who says that if the traditionalists leave, who will be left to fight for tradition? Is it nobler to die in what you judge to be a lost cause, or to retreat behind defensible boundaries? Each of us has to decide. I think it’s even harder to make that decision when you have children to raise, and you want to pass the faith on to them and wonder how on earth you’re going to be able to when the substance of the tradition appears to be collapsing around you.
|
