THE LOST MEANING OF "CHURCH"

A RETHINKING OF THE CONCEPT OF CHURCH...

There is a great, big world out there full of people and cultures; it is a slice of the human experience firsthand.  Out there people are not polarized as this religious sect or that religious congregation, they are not divided by race or religious belief… they are just there living life as all humans do.  The way I see it, the point of religion is primarily to help people to achieve a civilized existence among other human beings, to bring them together as a family regardless of their beliefs or lack or belief.  So why then do we segregate ourselves into tiny, gilded, stained-glass compartments in order to experience something that is waiting just outside the door when it is quite obvious that the truth we seek already exists in the everyday world we live in.  Churches used as tools for contemplation can be an effective instrument for spiritual and philosophical refinement. A church, however, is not a true mirror of the cultural and ideological diversity of the world outside, it is just the opposite!

THE CLOISTER LOOKS INTO ITSELF WHICH IS NOT HEAVEN AT ALL, BUT AN ISOLATED EARTHLY EXISTENCE BUT TURNS ITS BACK TO THE SECULAR WORLD AROUND IT

Some people will argue that the purpose of church is to ensure the eternal salvation of the soul and that any other purpose especially a secular one is an aberrant breach of that divine intent. I say that, that philosophy is a selfish and vain one that turns its back on the world, a world we must live and coexist in regardless of whether there is an afterlife.  The church is not a virtual portal like in Star Treck, nor, in fact is it a real or realistic one though it is often mistakenly assumed to be a metaphorical portal to the heavens.  What is the church then, is it merely the physical accretion of brick and mortar, wood and nails upon alleged sacred plot of land or is it the people whose presence serves to bring what is only otherwise an inanimate structure to life?  So is it the people and not the structure or the land upon which it lies that comprises the church?  

THE PRIMITIVE AND PAGAN ORIGINS OF THE TYMPANUM, ENTRY INTO THE CHURCH PIT SAINTS AND ANGELS CARED AT THE GATEWAY AGAINST EVIL TO KEEP IT FROM ENTERING THE CHURCH

I want to remove the magic and myth from this misunderstood institution if I may.  When we walk into a church we do not magically enter through an all-purging portal to sanctification we merely walk into a building like any other, nothing hallows the ground or structure save the experiences of the thousands of human beings who have journeyed there in search of the same truths that have challenged mankind since he first appeared upon this planet over 100,000 years ago.   

POLITICS JOINS RELIGION TO PUNISH THE EVIL EVEN IN HELL

No earthly building that I have seen can save any man’s soul if it is not already saved.  I say that if there is any true salvation to be got then it is through our deeds, our worldly works through which we build ourselves up to be deserving of such salvation, if there is truly any to be had… 

IN DANTE'S INFERNO HOMOSEXUALS WERE SADISTICALLY PUNISHED IN THE 7TH CIRCLE OF HELL WHERE HOT VOLCANIC ASH ETERNALLY SCORCHED THEIR BARE SKIN

I find it quite naturally easy to challenge the negative and masochistic  doctrine of fire and brimstone asking myself, “Salvation from what and from whom”?  If the answer is from my alleged “Original Sin” then I must certainly dismiss this warning as the stuff of myth and political manipulation.  No thanks!  

A CURIOS IMAGE REMINDING SINNERS TO BUY-IN TO GUILT AND FEAR OF ETERNAL DAMNATION THOUGH UNPROVEN,  AWAITING THEM IN ANOTHER LIFE

Some people will say that after spending 6 days a week doing the good work of their religion they need refreshment and deserve an hour to focus themselves on the good tasks ahead.  I concede this is an acceptable justification for rejuvenating the spirit to do the good humanitarian work of the world…  But I advise that this reboot be as real as humanly possible about its ability to change the world through others!  Therein often lay the problem… it is often the segregated, polarized, rarified religious community that sees or more likely does not see itself as part of a larger, infinitely more significant community of human beings and therefore their small church community is necessarily directly responsible to it, to be tolerant and ultimately accepting of it and not the other way around.   The world is not, has never been and will never be answerable to the religious idiosyncrasies of any congregation however unified they may be either alone or in concert with others unless that church accurately reflects the fundamental egalitarian civil rights and freedoms of humanity itself!  Instead what mostly but not always occurs is a dogmatic misinterpretation of an already questionable doctrine slanted by a preacher, or self-proclaimed prophet to satisfy what he/she interprets as the spiritual biases of his/her congregation.  What humanity does not want and certainly does not need is an exponential furtherance of applied guilt and fear to lock otherwise freethinking minds into a system of guilt and self-hatred all for the glory of obtaining the unobtainable!  

DANTE'S INFERNO DESCRIBED THE SADISTIC TORTURES OF HELL; AN ODD PASTIME FOR AN ALL LOVING GOD...

These churches should be emptied and their congregations loosed into the streets, the marketplaces, the bus and train terminals and into the neighborhoods of the poor and needy where the world really is.  I understand the mountaintop analogy and support is responsible and logical apllication… to seclude oneself in contemplative existence returning to the world of men and women to share ones revelation… I get it but that does not justify the mindless replication of that strategy nor does it ensure it will always be effective.  Hermitage is like an emergency, it does not happen predictably and in the case of religion it is not often necessary or practical to the extent of the ancient prophets.  Like many things which are far greater than our understanding of them meditation has become just another form of popular culture but that does not mean it is wholly ineffective to help solve smaller personal struggles.  After all, prophets, (whether there ever have been or exist any true prophets), do not go to mountaintops every Sunday, they go in times of great need and peril.  We can replicate their actions but without the fundamental purpose such automatic reenactments are futile because they lack the critical element of purpose.

THE LOVELY STAINED GLASS ROSE WINDOW SHUT A GOTHIC CONGREGATION OFF FROM THE TOUGH BUT HONEST  REALITIES OF THE WORLD

The church we already go to is the world, we already live in it, everything is already sacred, there is no magical threshold to god activated in a manmade structure of mortar and brick, wood and nails… this is mythology… The church does serve a purpose as a place for spiritual contemplation but that is a highly individual experience that lends itself to privacy rather than congregation.  And of course there is nothing wrong with people coming together to celebrate the potential of world peace, tolerance and humanitarianism… but there is something wrong with a place where human beings are demonized and threatened with eternal death and psychotic forms of physical punishment just for being human beings!  Let everyone check themselves at the door before entering these masochistic temples because I see naught but hatred and evil there! Turn around, and leave immediately!  The world is right there behind you and after you turn around all around and before you… go there!  The church you seek is the very world that you have lived in since you were born.  Next time anyone asks what church you attend reply, “THE WORLD IS MY CHURCH, SACRED TO THE HOMES, THE FREE OPEN SPACES WHERE PEOPLE GATHER AND WORK, AND THE FREE AND WIDE-OPEN WORLD THAT IS SACRED TO THE LIVES OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS WHETHER THEY ACKNOWLEDGE ANY GOD OR NOT!”

FIN

WRITTEN BY BIGDADDY BLUES