I love coming back to my hometown. I love and respect SO many people here, and associate so much of who I am with the values and ideas I picked up while I was living here in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. I’ve been back in Bryn Athyn for a week or so, having travelled from San Diego, CA. It’s been interesting, to say the least, as every time I come home, I’m confronted by hundreds of realizations about my former faith and community that absolutely shake me to my core.
For example, I attended the 7:30pm Christmas Eve service at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral this week. It was quite an experience for me. First, I overheard some folks ignorantly gossiping about my ‘EvolveFish” car magnet, which is predictable in a small church town, but still disheartening. Shortly after I entered the main hall, a recitation was read, and I realized that along with probably a hundred other passages, I still knew all of Luke 2: 8-14 by heart. Then I started to analyze the words in the hymns, the commentary given by the minister… pretty soon my mind was racing.
Most depressing of all was the Christmas Story handout, which not only stated that every word in the story has a meaning, but that “Every detail of the story IS TRUE.” (my caps)
If that’s not dogmatic, I don’t know what is.
So, now the ‘rational’ religion (which the NC so boldly calls itself) is claiming that every detail, from the virgin birth, to the angels appearing over and over, to the 3 wise men/kings, to the census, to the slaughter of the innocents, etc… every detail. TRUE.
Kids. If you’re reading this, please ask for proof. Parents, if you’re reading this, demand it. In the likely absence of some form of historical or medical proof, accept nothing less than an admission of (at LEAST) partial ignorance on the topic, or an admission of subjective, personal faith on the topic that serves as a catalyst allowing the leaders of the church to be so dogmatic at such a crucial and public time. If you’d like to do some reading on the subject of doubting the Christmas story (or anything in the gospels), I’d suggest reading The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man by Robert M. Price.
Demand honesty, folks! The intellectual integrity of your educational system is most definitely at stake.
The evidence supporting this bold truth claim is SO inconclusive (to put it nicely), that it would do all Jesus-based religions well to simply admit that they don’t really know if Jesus was born of a virgin (like so many other supposed “Gods” were in that day). If it’s what you ‘believe on faith’, then SAY THAT, and say it OFTEN! Don’t allow your personal faith to corrupt your intellectual integrity as an educator, because it makes you less trustworthy, and gives the children you’re trying to convince good reason to doubt you as a source of the information you seem to think you represent. If you think you represent the truth, allow your truth to compete for it’s place at the top of the heap by admitting what you do/don’t/can/can’t KNOW.
Last thought. As I was sitting in the Cathedral and listening to the sermon, the prayers, the hymns and the readings, I looked around at all the children in the audience and I was struck by the most profound sense (subjective) that intellectual freedom and educational integrity are NOT priority #1 in the New Church. It wasn’t so much what was being said by the minister (mostly niceties), but by remembering the process of being a child and growing up watching the adults reciting, memorizing, singing and praying words of adoration to THE God, without so much as an utterance of doubt during the church service, or the use of the words ‘I don’t know’ during church. It’s embarrassing and it was quite depressing to think of all the mis-information going on in the lives of the hundreds of kids in my hometown that are being educated about the nature of the universe in a dogmatic way, on top of experiencing this very convincing form of education through ritual.
It may seem like a small thing, like I’m nit-picking maybe? I can see how you might think this. However, I’m still calling to all parents, educators & kids, and saying (in the words of Todd Snider) “brothers and sisters, I’m only one guy, but I can tell you right now without batting an eye”, that your process for passing the truth to the next generation is far more flawed that you like to imagine. I beg you to fix it, or the people who are unwilling to bend the truth will win the minds of your next generations. And deservedly so. I’ll consider it a huge step if you’ll just edit your handout more thoroughly next year.
Peace,
Ben
Posted by ccdguy 
Posted by ccdguy 