Sometimes I can't help myself. It happened this morning. At least I didn't reach for the phone - but I did send a mail. What was it that so disrupted my peaceful breakfast? A phone-in on the radio. Call Kaye -without the eponymous Kaye - was looking at the proposed English legislation that will allow gay couples to be married in a religious ceremony. Apparently the Scottish government won't be following. The punters were asked to air their opinions. And afterwards, they could have their say about recycling.
Usually I turn off at this point. I find phone-ins an irritant I can do without. But this morning I let it get under my skin, and that was that. I don't intend to rehearse the whole sorry tale - none of it was new. But two things stuck out and drove me to action. The first was typified by the woman who took the "it's a sin and we don't believe in it" attitude; the second by the man who said, politely and less concisely than I am about to, that Christians are nutters and should be allowed to do what they liked because no-one outside cared.
Trouble is, the dogmatic attitude of the woman made the man's attitude perfectly understandable. It was when the presenter said that there hadn't been much coming in from Christians by way of support for the idea that I could bear it no longer. I didn't say much - just that this Christian felt ashamed of belonging to a church that felt bound to ideas formulated when it was assumed that people suffering from epilepsy were possessed by demons. It's annoying, though - I wanted to say so much more, but went for the soundbite. The good news is that as far as that bit of the programme was concerned, I had the last word.
Now ... recycling, anyone?
Wish I'd heard it. That's the trouble with working - it keeps you from the interesting nuggets of the day.
ReplyDeleteTherein lies the need for mission: not to see the/one's church as a source of all good, but rather, to open the doors, see who comes & goes, and continually redefine the nature of the church accordingly.
ReplyDeleteI was actually amused when Mubarak's reign ended: the statement "I'm not leaving!", digging in deeper, followed a fortnight later by "oh, I've gone". Classic short-sighted conservatism in action. And there is no difference with the church: the RCC is noted for the same attitudes (in response to being questioned, shout, enforce, repeat the same-ol', only louder) and it only takes a sufficient weight of people in your second phone-in chap's attitude before it really does become irrelevant. And I'd agree with him in that, too, which is why I don't "side" with such churches in the first place...