Church of the Nones

More and more people in America fall into the None category -- no affiliation with organized religion. The Pew Report survey describes them as a diverse group in terms of belief. Some reject the existence of God. Others acknowledge the possibility of God, but have reservations about organized religion. Call them spiritually curious but turned off by dogma and the dickishness of high profile religious authorities.

Perhaps people who used to call themselves Christians and attend church once in a while are falling away. They do not see religious belief and practice as valuable in their lives. These folks are often dismissed as not "true" believers so their departure is actually cause for celebration by some prominent evangelical leaders. The fly in that frankincense is these are mostly young people. If they were older, the idea that these people that grew tired of pretending to be faithful is plausible. The young are not burned out; they are turned off.

A friend sent me a link to a site called We Occupy Jesus. From what I gather, this is an organization promoting social justice outside of any faith tradition and looking to create a loose network of caring people This discussion of the group's raison d’être has a ring of truth to it.

Christianity is still undergoing the growing pains of the Emergent Church movement, threatening to splinter the faithful once again into even further disarray. The secular world is still appalled by the archaic social policies championed by many Evangelicals. The more progressive factions of the church still struggle to reveal a meaningful and logical faith to the world while simultaneously fending off their own spiritual leaders who cry heresy. I once held the optimism many still possess today, hoping against hope that a new Christianity would soon blossom. While that indeed may transpire, such revolution is most likely reserved for our grandchildren, if not our great-great-grandchildren.

In the meantime, church councils continue spinning their wheels developing lackluster programs that amount to little more than self-help programs for a dwindling and aging audience. In the meantime, gay and lesbian teenagers are still sinking into depression or opting for suicide because their Christian friends and families condemn them to hell fire. In the meantime, the rift between theists and atheists continues to grow wider and wider, along with the rift between the gospel and any potential receptivity for wider social reform. While the battle rages to define and defend the meaning of authentic Christianity, the world waits for this Jesus to finally emerge from the tomb of irrelevance.

Christianity in America seems to have a serious public relations problem. People in our nation are having trouble seeing Christ in Christians. Perhaps that has always been true. Reformers and traditionalists within Christianity have been trading elbows for at least a thousand years and maybe two. We have been sold out time and time again by Christian leaders that want to climb in bed with the rich and powerful. Monstrous acts have been sanctioned or ignored by the church. There is nothing new under the sun.

This group is advocating living as Jesus taught rather than fight over belief and doctrine. That has a certain appeal. Their approach is to dispense with everything but the example of Jesus in the gospels.

There are also many advantages when doctrine and dogma are removed from the equation. There is no organism we are forced to continuously reform. We are the organism and we are already fixed. We are already united, since unity is our primary goal. We have already agreed to put our differences aside. We are already the embodiment of Jesus on earth because we choose to simply live like him, without the structures put in place by the institutions to cloud our passions, to pacify us with programs and propaganda. When we convene, we have already made the choice to be reconciled to our brothers and sisters. We have already forgiven them, and they us. As Jesus would say… “It is finished.

It is sad that people are losing sight of the fact that Jesus was a true revolutionary. Instead of a religion of exclusion, he opened the gates of the kingdom to all who wanted to enter. He told his disciples to love others as equals and avoid the temptation to exclude some as undesirable or inferior. He said to love your enemies rather than kill them. He denounced religious leaders that used the name of God to become wealthy, powerful, and privileged. He had no patience for greed or vengeance.

In a world struggling with overcrowding, dwindling natural resources, and increasingly unstable climate, the teachings of Jesus seem more relevant than ever. How do we call more attention to Jesus and less attention to Christian leaders that promote conditional love, vengeance, and materialism?

My motto is Jesus: Now More Than Ever. Jesus occupy me rather me occupy Jesus. To each his or her own?