Organized Churches

Sometimes I wonder if this is what the goal aught to be for Christians around the world. Extravagant buildings that really just glorify people rather than a religious creator? I don't think so.

Ever tell someone that you are a Christian, Jew or Muslim just for them to ask you how often you go to church or temple or the mosque? This is a very close minded, uneducated type of question, especially if you are one of many protestant denominations of Christianity.

This is a history blog, so I won't talk about my personal beliefs. However, to the many protestant Christians out there who go around gauging your friends' faith by how often they attend a building filled with the supposedly faithful, consider this. First, before I go into the Lutheran reasons why you're being unreasonable, follow this logic. Not every person who goes to church or temple or the mosque is a good, faithful person of that religion. Going to church alone does not equal faithful, good or moral people. Plenty of people go to church and then behave in sinful ways, including homosexuals who are accepted in many congregations in modern churches.

Now to some historical examples. Martin Luther, father of the protestant movement in Europe, believed and proclaimed that each individual Christian aught to preach the word of the Christian Bible. He taught that the Church, while a great place for people to gather for worship and to hear the teachings of the Christian Bible, was not the epitome of faith and devotion to God. The main function of the organized Church during the period Luther lived, was likely to allow the illiterate masses to hear what was in a holy book that they could not read.

This is why asking people about their attendance is a poor method of judgment, that is, if judgment is what you must do in order to interact with others. I often find that the person doing the asking has not attended in years if not decades... nice. Way to be a hypocrite and try to make others feel guilty at the same time.

The root of the issue is this. Churches are political institutions made up of specific doctrines that are followed by specific groups of Christians. This has been true since the beginnings of the protestant movement that began in the Renaissance. Each likes to interpret the Chirstian Bible in its own way, make its own rules, create its own rituals and enact its own policies. Those who choose to become members are bound to that institution's decisions and specific beliefs. For those of you who choose to go to an organized church, great. For those of you who are faithful and choose not to be part of a political body, that's great too. How about you both stop asking the Church question and find another way to judge your peers.