Ex Salvation Army/liberal Church

[Guest sawitch]

Is there anybody here who used to belong to a liberal church?

 

I've read lots of comments from people who belonged to a fundie church, but what about those who came from a liberal background? I come from a Salvation Army background and don't experience the bigotry suffered by lots of you. I'm also from the UK and the general ethos isn't the same as in the US.

 

However, I'm still questioning my lifelong faith and wondered about others from a similar background.

 

Anyone want to comment?

[pandora]

I was raised Catholic and went to an evangelical church later, but in the last couple years before my complete deconversion, I attended some liberal Methodist and Episcopalian churches. I am not sure if I can relate completely, but the thing about liberal Christianity that bothered me was that it seemed that they were in it for the culture or to feel good about belonging to something. It frustrated me that they didn't seem to see how chucking the whole religion would be better than trying to adapt it to the modern world... but I don't really have as much of a problem with liberal Christians as I do conservative ones. They still do social service without proselytizing, and they generally counteract (to a small degree) the whacko fundies in the US. It just isn't for me because I still struggled with the lipservice to traditional doctrine even while it was obvious that the majority of the congregation didn't believe it.

[Lorena Rodriguez]

Hi Sawitch,

When I left the fundy church, I found it difficult to stay home on Sundays alone doing nothing, so I started attending the Unity Church in my town.

 

It was very good for the transition I was in. They believe in love and positive thinking, so it was OK for a while. The problem is that they believe that the bible must be interpreted metaphysically. Everything is a metaphor. But at the same time, they don't believe the bible is inspired by god.

 

So I found myself between a rock and a hard place. Which is it? Is the bible a holy book or not? They debunk it, find fault with it, and they use it in their preaching. They often say things like, "As Jesus said," or "As Jesus believed."

 

So yeah, they are quite liberal and they call themselves Christians (The Unity School of Christianity), but to me, they are just making an effort to accommodate xtianity to good stuff they took from Buddhism and other oriental religions.

 

I am not sure what it is that I am trying to say, but I think my point is that when Christianity is watered down to appear liberal, it is really hard to swallow.

 

Hope that helps.

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Although I started out in a fundie denomination, I was always one step ahead of whichever church my parents were taking me to.

 

By one step ahead, I mean that my personal dogma was one or three steps towards a more liberal interpretation that what I was being fed.

 

My parents were 'evolving' too, and they were liberalizing their faith.

 

This is likely due to the fact that my family always (and still does) enjoyed talking about Stuff that Matters.

 

We actually would sit around the dinner table and talk about religion, philisophy and other things - this went on my whole life, and continues to this day.

 

Thus, as I was a step or two "more liberal" than my folks, they were not far behind, as we would have many lively discussions, constantly.

 

When I was in high school, they finally broke away even from lip service to fundamentalistic thinking, and embraced fully Liberal Christianity. This included an increasingly liberal interpretation of the Bible and such - not that we ever took it literally

 

Eventually, we all ended up about as liberal as one may be and still call themselves "Christian". They pretty much accepted the ideas of Universal Salvation, and that hell/demons/etc were myths made up by humans. And that the Bible was written entirely by human agencies - contains some real "gems" and very good ideas, but is essentially a human-authored book. Those authors may have been inspired by their experiences, to be sure, but the "filter" of human thought always applies even then.

 

Both my folks, and my younger brother are still Liberal Christians. My poor sister had the misfortne to marry a fundamentalist, and she is still bound by that to this day - we mostly do not talk theology around her anymore.

 

Me, I'm still one step "ahead" of the rest of my family, and have stepped "over the line" into complete agnosticisim; I must have emperical proof to accept a premise these days.

 

But, for years, I was an Uber-Liberal Christian, and I found quite a bit of comfort in the rituals and music of that. (by that, I did not hold that Christianity was the only way to have a relationship with the Creator - that there were likely many, many different paths. And that the Creator may or may not be an intelligent entity. And so on.) I did not worry all that much about the dogma - since I did not hold to the negative stuff at all, what could it hurt? If it brought some small comfort to a grieving person, where's the harm?

 

I suppose you could say that my journey was from Middle-conservative Christian through Liberal-leaning, to Liberal to Uber-liberal to agnostic.

 

Didn't happen overnight, though.

 

And, I find that I don't miss it all that much, either.

[The Sage Nabooru]

Salvation Army, eh? I always wondered what was up with them. I assumed they were just a non-denominational charity, but then they bought a local empty former Catholic church and moved in.

 

the thing about liberal Christianity that bothered me was that it seemed that they were in it for the culture or to feel good about belonging to something. It frustrated me that they didn't seem to see how chucking the whole religion would be better than trying to adapt it to the modern world...

 

Actually, I like that form of Christianity. The "we're-in-it-for-the-tradition" kind. It still keeps a spiritual and charital base on a community, without the actual adherence to a diehard, all-or-nothing creed. Sort of a gathering place for people to get together rather than a guilt-and-warnings session.

[saxyroze]

Well, I grew up with Presbyterian Sunday school (never actually went to any real service) but once I became a teenager I went to a different church, which definitely was liberal. It had an off name like, The Rock Church. It had very relaxing, free and friendly Sunday gatherings. The church didn’t even have a pastor, it had four elders (two women elders I should add…big no-no in many churches) and each of them took turns doing the sermons. It wasn’t even a churchy building, it was right next to a Chinese restaurant and it only had two main rooms, the lounge and the worship room. Very cute and cozy. I liked it but then I left a few years later because I became even more liberal minded then them. I started doubting the bible and the truth behind Christianity, and so on.

 

Plus, I was the only Christian in my family so I had no one pushing me towards fundamentalism like a lot of people do/did. So basically my Christian days were pretty much liberal…until I became too liberal. :wink: