Letter to an Evangelical with Questions, part 2

When I finished editing part one of this post, it was about 12:30am and I was so tired I just wanted to roll into bed without even brushing my teeth. (I didn't of course, because that would be gross.) But I had what felt like a zillion ideas running through my head about more things that I would say in part two. 

But after a couple of days, I could only remember two of them, and the first is to tell you that if you were raised Evangelical, you may not realize that there are dozens, hundreds, of different kinds of churches and religious practices out there that offer perfectly legitimate ways to worship. I was raised with those Evangelical blinders on, and I didn't think you could be a "real" Christian if you didn't go to a Bible church, or maybe a Baptist church in a pinch if there was no Bible church available.

But I discovered that there are plenty of faithful people in other traditions. I am embarrassed now to admit that I was surprised to find that there were people who knew the Bible better than me at the first non-Evangelical church I tried (and to be fair, also a bunch who didn't). There were people who were doing more vital outreach in the community, and doing more to help the poor, than had ever happened in my previous church. It doesn't hurt to look around. You can visit other churches without having to commit, and see if you find a place that is a better fit.

And the other thing is that although it took a few years, eventually I realized that to treat the Bible as a collection of historical texts with a historical context is actually to show it greater respect than to claim that it was written to you and me today. It wasn't. It was written to specific people in a specific time and place, and you can read it for guidance and inspiration without having to believe that Jonah really lived inside a whale for three days. If you can't imagine how the story of Jonah and the big fish would have played around the campfire to an audience of desert-dwelling nomads, I think you're missing part of the point.

And that's really all the advice I can give you. Unfortunately, you have to figure this out for yourself-- do you want to continue to be Christian, but find a different way to practice? Try an Episcopal church (especially if you love liturgy, ritual, and formal church music), or a PC-USA Presbyterian church, or a UMC Methodist church. If you really can't deal with Christianity at all anymore, try UCC or reformed Jewish. If you can't deal with religion in general, you can try Buddhism, which is non-theistic, or jettison the whole thing and be agnostic or atheist. But you lose something, something you'll probably not find anywhere else. I wish you well.