Wednesday January 6, 2010
Going to church
By Jim Taylor
“Why do you go to church?” a correspondent asked.
I’ve wondered that myself. As regular readers have long deduced, I don’t believe any church is perfect. Nor do I consider all the teachings of any church absolute, authoritative.
To tell the truth, I probably go to church mostly out of habit. My father was a minister; I didn’t have much choice about going as a child. As a teenager, I got drafted to teach Sunday school; as an adult, I got put onto boards and committees; in later life, the church hired me as a journalist…
In other words, I’ve been involved with church all my life. I would find it hard to imagine life without some connection to it.
But even as I write that, I realize it’s not an adequate answer.
I have friends there, of course. But I have had friends in other organizations too — Scouts, Rotary, charitable organizations…
Perhaps we’re friends because we share the habit of church-going.
Or maybe there’s more — we share a common conviction that religious beliefs matter, even if we don’t agree on what those beliefs are, or should be.
Bigger than just me
Other social contacts seem to take for granted that the purpose of life is to make money, to stay healthy, to enjoy oneself, or serve others, to get an adrenalin rush…
Church, when it goes well, reminds me that I am part of a larger scheme of things.
That doesn’t necessarily imply a supernatural being who pulls the strings of the universe. I don’t believe that God — by whatever name -– deliberately causes a landslide to wipe out a village in the Philippines or an earthquake to crumble a city in Pakistan. Nor do I believe that God meddles in life so that one football team wins, or that one person’s cancer is cured and another’s isn’t. I certainly don’t believe in an almighty watchmaker who determined, eons ago, which mosquito will get slapped when it lands on my arm.
But I do believe that there is some kind of purpose and meaning to life. If everything happens by random chance — more precisely, if cause and effect unfold predictably after an unpredictable singularity –- why should I bother being kind, thoughtful, sensitive…?
Isn’t it all inevitable, anyway?
How that purpose, that meaning, comes into being, doesn’t matter to me. What matters is trying to live in harmony with it.
Compatible ministry
I’ve been fortunate in having ministers who were secure enough in their own faith that they could push me to explore mine, without feeling threatened by where that exploration might take me.
If I got a minister who was less open, I might have to look for another church. Or I might have to learn to turn my mind off while enjoying my friendships.
But I think I would still have to connect to a church –- some church, somewhere –- to keep reminding me that I am not all there is.
There is more.
Even if I don’t understand what it is.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Your Turn
Lee d’Anjou, who has raised her share of admirable children, offered this comment about last week’s column: “You wrote of Joan’s (and your) disappointment when Katherine was unimpressed with the refinished doll crib originally made by her great-grandfather. The problem, Jim, (which Joan probably realizes) was that Katherine is five years old. Judging by memories of the reactions of my daughters, I think she’s exactly the wrong age to be much impressed by anything without flash. She would probably have appreciated the crib at two or twelve, and she almost certainly will when she’s twenty-two.”
By some coincidence, both of last week’s letter writers were long-time editorial colleagues. Perhaps everyone else was too busy dealing with Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. The other letter came from Steve Roney, somewhere in the Persian Gulf.
Jim Henderschedt had written his lament about not being able to sing Christmas carols in local Lutheran churches until _after_ Christmas. “That’s the Catholic tradition too,” Steve wrote. “You do not sing Christmas songs in church until Christmas day. The upside is that Christmas lasts until January 6. And there are other songs for Advent.
“As to why so many Christmas songs are written by Jews, no surprise. It’s a great party; everyone wants to be invited to a great party.”
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About My Books
Over the years, I think I have written (or ghostwritten) about 17 books. Several of them (mercifully) are no longer available from any source. But here’s a listing of those that are still available. The ones marked “WLB”, you can order from Wood Lake Books, either on-line at http://www.woodlakebooks.com, or call Wood Lake Books directly at 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-654-5129 (Pilgrim Press) in the U.S. The ones marked “JT only” are now available only directly from me — as collector’s items, I price them all at $25 Cdn.
- Everyday God: Insights from the Ordinary
- Worlds in One
- Chance
- Seeing the Mystery: Exploring Christian Faith through the Eyes of Artists,
- Surviving Death
- Everyday Psalms
- Everyday Parables
- Letters to Stephen
- A New Understanding of Virtue and Vice
- Precious Days and Practical Love: Caring for an Aging Parent
- for Beginners
- Spirituality of Pets
- Charlene Fairchild’s United Online site,
- David Keating’s “SeemslikeGod” page
- The Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity home page
- Dan Strizek’s Gathering Place for Creation Spirituality
- Alva Wood’s satiric stories about small town attitudes and bumbling bureaucrats are not particularly religious, but good fun anyway; write [email protected] to get onto her mailing list.
(1981 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1985, JT only)
(1989, JT only)
(1990, with William S. Taylor, JT only)
(1993, JT only)
(1994 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1995 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1996, WLB, $17.95)
(1997, WLB, $19.95)
(1999, WLB, $19.95)
(2001, WLB, $11.95)
(2006, WLB, $39)
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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You can access several years of archived columns at http://edges.Canadahomepage.net.
I write a second column each Sunday, called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justic issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, at the address above, or send a note to [email protected]
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PROMOTION STUFF…
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For a lighter look at life, faith, and the lectionary, I recommend my friend Ralph Milton’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it by sending a note to [email protected].
For other web links worth pursuing, try
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