Prodigals By Choice

...and by "Dogmatic, closed-book religious teaching" I mean to describe that kind of religious approach that says "We've GOT all the answers and now we just have to remember them and believe them. Any answers we don't have ready to mind are known by others in our Christian group, and in books and so on." 

     This approach stresses taking other's word for things, and warns against (and calls unnecessary) that dangerous but indispensable exercise of living our own lives and seeking out our own paths. (by "own" I mean as in "our own things given us by God i.e. my left arm" not "lives and paths that are only what I want and are therefore obviously completely against what God wants." 

     I mean that God made and wants each person to have their own lives and paths. His intentions are different for different people. We need to live our whole lives figuring out what we were made to be. We have to gain the maturity to stop trying to be what we aren't, and to start being what we are and becoming what we can become.) I was always taught that saying "my way, my will, my path, my life" was a sure sign that I wasn't living any way that God or other Christians could approve of. 

     Turns out, the more I have lived as God made me to live, the less others have been able to understand and approve of me. If I took off and moved in with a girl and sold drugs for a couple of years, then came back prodigal son style and repented of it all, I'm sure some church would immediately make me a Youth Pastor somewhere. What I tend to do, however, is to frequently point out hypocrisy and mistreatment of people and pride and assumptions and forms of godliness which deny the power thereof. I do this among religious people, among atheists, among stoners and at work. 

     I truly do believe I was made with an aptitude to see these serious problems (the Outsider's View) and to express them (this action is aided by and perpetuates the Outsider's Position.) I feel no need to be PC, to be tactful or nice or positive, if that's going to soften, blur or hurt my efforts. Sometimes a doctor has to say "You have cancer." Sometimes I have to say "That isn't true." Sometimes I have to say "This religious thing is bad. Harm is occurring." 

     There is a difference between my having gone to England but my mother just believing what I told her I experienced there. There is no substitute for first-hand. One size never fits all without ignoring the best qualities of each. Everyone has a spirit. Everyone has spirituality. Everyone has that faculty called "faith" by the bible. Not everyone has decided what their world-view is. 

     Not everyone has a set of expections so defined that they want it made canon, law, doctrine and the Only Way To See Things. This is very good. We aren't told "just believe the bible when it says that lord is good." We're told "Taste and see that the lord is good." The difference in one's life is amazing. We're told to follow the "faith" of others, not their blind belief, their caution, doctrine, habits, lifestyle, expectations, guesses or tradition. I've heard exhortations about "seeking these things out for myself" all my life. 

     The method of "seeking" that was demonstrated, however, involved listening to others, believing everything they said, doing likewise, reading books and steering clear of most of human experience. It involved a lot of sitting listening to someone else stand up and tell me things he had little idea about, someone who hadn't made a real, unshielded, person-to-person connection with anyone in the world around him for decades. 

     This isn't "tasting," and it doesn't work. It makes you an expert as to what someone else claims, and that's it. You can't seek things out simply by believing what other people say. God is everywhere and in everything. I was taught that a movie theatre, a video arcade, a bar or a party were "no place for a Christian to be." I was taught that the only correct place for alcohol was in communion cups. I grew up without learning about celebration and human fellowship, decency, warmth, courage, honour, decency and the like. I was TOLD that "wine represents joy" and didn't drink it, nor did I have any joy. 

     I've seen many people who aren't looking for God (or joy any any real sense) in the act of drinking. I've seen many use it to let out anger, violence, or tears. I've seen people use it to try to get rid of feelings and thoughts and responsibilities. If I go to the movies, share a drink with friends or jog, I properly do it with a view to laying hold on goodness, all of which comes from God. I don't "steal" the fun from God. I don't "run off and have a blast and then come back and say I'm sorry." 

     If I runnoft for that reason, I WILL have to apologize. But if I go purposely and with awareness and get the good out of a person, place or thing, looking God square in the face and thanking Him for it, then that works better. Do we LIKE being prodigal sons? What if the prodigal had kept in contact by messenger or letter while in the far off country? (he could afford to) What if he'd MADE rather than LOST a fortune? What if he'd had a good time and returned with a wife and treasures and stories; gifts to give everyone? 

     I think the story exists to tell people there is the possibility of "coming back" after one runs off and screws up, not to make people forever associate having fun with running off and going exploring with screwing up and wasting good things. This may be why you won't see me at McChurch McSunday morning. I like people a lot. I don't tend to be able to go along with what they eventually end up doing once they form long-standing groups, however.