Ok, so we tabled the discussion on the Mother Teresa Article until next week. So CLICK HERE FOR NEXT WEEK'S TOPIC AND PLEASE READ BEFORE WED.
Instead we talked about some things going on in our lives. One topic that we we spent some time on was how our lives seem to have so many questions, and so few answers. This seems to be a place that many of us found ourselves departing with the traditional Church.
Things we said/asked
-Is asking those hard questions about our spirituality bad?
+ if not, then why is it discouraged in churches?
+ Why is open dialogue/thought not encouraged and taught?
-We have both a need and an OBLIGATION to question everything?! both personally and corporately. This includes the religious institutions, and institutional thinking/teaching.
-What about having doubts/doubting?
+everyone has doubts, just some people get so good at ignoring them that they forget they have them!
+we're told not to doubt/question, but instead, "just have faith".
=what does that really mean?- Don't question when logic/answers run out, but then just believe what you're being told regardless?
= how can we NOT DOUBT? We are told not to have doubts, but we can't just turn it on and off. WE can't NOT DOUBT!
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We then moved onto the topic of authenticity. We said that this is something that our group values highly and is something that is vital to our group working.
-What does being Authentic mean?
+Being who you really are--What does that mean?
= One's true Personality
= Being who we really are in all we say and do
= not coming and conforming to what we think others want us to be
= Taking off all masks!
-Why do we Value Authenticity?
+"everyone around us plays politics! we all want to be liked/loved/or voted into whatever we're running for, be it some office, or prom queen/king."
+"we wear masks because we SEEK LOVE"
= "not enough love in the world/our lives=the need to wear masks."
We ended with 2 questions that we didn't finish exploring (perhaps the conversation will be continued here):
1) HOW DO WE FIND/EMBRACE THAT "PERFECT LOVE" AND SHOW COMPLETE ACCEPTANCE TO INDIVIDUALS WHO MIGHT MAKE US UNCOMFORTABLE??
2) WHERE ARE OUR LIMITATIONS IN THIS LOVE?
until next wed....
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2 comments:
as far as the "just have faith" issue, i think that there comes a point in the questioning process when people just don't have the answer and can't bring themselves to say "i don't know." perhaps they think that not knowing in some way diminishes their faith or their view of God. think about it...churches have the answers. so to suddenly not, well, they have to give some sort of answer (and "i don't know" isn't an option) so you get "just have faith."
I think also, from my experience in youth ministry, that saying "IDK" brings up doubts and questions in your own life that (probably) you have tried hard to not think about. Saying "idk", for that individual, may be admitting that the individual minister/leader doesn't have it all together either.
I've been there as a youth minister, and so I can't exactly blame the minsters for doing that (to an extent), because as you point out, the institution encourages this kind of thinking. I guess somewhere in mankind's search for answers to their spiritual questions throughout history, someone just got tired of searching, found a place they are comfortable with, and gave up the quest for answers, kidding themselves into thinking all the answers were now discovered. I don't think (from my Judeo-Christian POV) that God would have put that drive into us (the quest to search for spiritual answers) if we were ever going to fully know all the answers. Because then, we would have no need to continually look to and explore God every day.
There's some pretty funny satire cartoons on my blog: www.camelbo.blogspot.com that kinda deals with some of what we've been talking about. but I think your right... then we go back to the Church's main goal is to maintain power and status rather than feed souls?!?!
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