The church where my sons were baptized and attended youth groups for years has been aggressively pushing a fear narrative.
A church leader led an outdoor service that included no Scripture that I could recall immediately after (I may have missed something). She then required masks and distancing for future outdoor meetings.
Recently, they closed their doors again and went entirely “virtual.” Although youth groups are now meeting again, they are enforcing masks and social distancing and pushing vaccines, measures that have shown to be ineffective in making anyone healthier in spirit or body.
I asked the youth leader to remove us from that email list, as these restrictions violate my sons’ freedom to follow Christ as their hearts call them to. I stated that we feel abandoned by the church and copied the lead pastor, who was already aware of my feelings, on the email.
His response shocked me a little.
A member of his church feels abandoned, so he volunteers to erase me from the rolls?
Before Lockdown, we were in this building multiple times a week between services, Bible studies, volunteer work, and many other meetings and events. My late wife’s cremains rest in the inner courtyard. It was our spiritual home, the place we were Baptized into the Body of Christ.
There is relief in me as I see it as an unveiling of the true nature of this congregation. There is also deeply hurtful pain and a fear that there are other wolves in sheep’s clothing in my life.
We are blessed by those who exclude us, especially when they preach inclusion. It is the villianous Doublespeak of the devils of Orwell’s 1984: Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength…Exclusion is Inclusion.
I have new spiritual homes and I know that my relationship with Christ is in my heart, it needs no building, nor pastor.
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