Activism and Culture

For the last two days, I’ve taken a much needed break. I didn’t write any more than I absolutely had to, and I spent some time browsing through the library.

Why Guys Don’t Want To Go To Church–strolling down the positive thinking and activism isle I ran into this one.

I go to church. Sunday, Wednesday, whenever I can and whenever I don’t have a conflict, I try to make it in the door. I like our pastor. He’s down to earth, witty, and intelligent. I like many of the people there. I believe generally what is taught, but there’s still something about church that makes me force myself to go, something that makes guys, like my husband, not want to go to church.

Considering this for a moment, I think it might be apathy. I think back to the image of Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame by a man named Victor Hugo who liked his wine a little bit more than he liked God. Esmerelda runs into a church seeking sanctuary.

Across the world, I feel like people are still seeking sanctuary in churches today, and the churches are turning a blind ear, a blind eye, and tuning them out with some new Christian pop music and a fresh Christian romance novel. Many of the people you find in evangelical Christians are conservatives, and they’re not quite about that fact. They’re pretty quick to stand up in the middle of sharing time and announce why their candidate for office is the best; they’re pretty quick to “pray for you” if you’re supporting the other side. I’ve had many conversations with other middle-of-the-road churchgoers who say they really feel persecuted on Sunday mornings. It’s sad.

What’s sadder is what’s not being done at churches. What’s sadder is the fact that we get in all of these arguments about politics, but we don’t do anything about it. Conservatives argue that the government should not have a hand in so many social issues; liberals argue that someone needs to help, and the church could be a common ground where those who claim to love others really love others by giving sanctuary. After school programs, industrialization in underdeveloped nations, ending poverty.

Sanctuary. It could be a turning point.