[Magdalen] She's leaving church

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I have had similar feelings for some time.  Regarding church as a bunch
that tries to make sense of something that ultimately just cannot. Looking
at more and more of the elements as simply metaphor for something
ineffable, but at last I just don't find it offering anything aside from
the social amenities.

My recorder group is affiliated with a local Lutheran church, and we were
asked to provide some music for a service with combined folks from several
congregations.  I think it was ascension or something.  I was welcomed into
the combined choir, so I just stayed for the entire performance.  An old
and dear friend from my old parish asked if I would possibly be coming back
and I just said, "Music is my church now."

I don't know how it seems to make sense for some and does not for others,
and maybe it doesn't really matter.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 11:39 AM, Molly Wolf <lupa at kos.net> wrote:

> Dear pubbies,
>
> Last night I posted this on Facebook:
>
> "I think I am done with religion.  Not with God, of course, never with
> God.  But with church (except for friends), with intellectual theology, and
> with the Future of Christianity, I think I am done."
>
> I realized that my church (not necessarily the individuals but the
> church-geist) promulgates the dysfunctional patterns that mis-shaped my own
> soul's formation:  triangulation, resentments, scapegoating,
> psychopatholigizing, the "spiritual bypass".  This has become blindingly
> obvious in the last few weeks.  BTDT, not doing that again.
>
> I need to get out for my soul's safety and well-being, just as 40-years
> ago I had to turn my back on my family and walk away, for my own survival.
> I am, in a sense, grieving history as I repeat the most health-bound
> decision I could make.
>
> I also find myself increasingly irritated by church's narcissism, whether
> it's the idolatry of liturgy or preoccupation with the past or earnest
> navel-gazing. Fewgawdsake, church, get over yourself!
>
> I need to find God.  And right now, I am living in Psalm 131.
>
> I'll show up on the odd Sunday morning for social reasons, but my soul has
> left the building,
>
> Joining the company of the "dones",
> Molly
>
> The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no
> other way. -- Mark Twain