Well, I could just spend my life in front of my computer. Or I could just read books. But it's much better to go out and enjoy social interaction once in a while.
While still feeling glum about the slaughter of the Russian children by terrorists, I did make the 29 mile drive to attend Green Sunday at my favorite church — Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, GA. Wow, imagine a racially and ethnically diverse church that welcomes gays, is sensitive to current world issues, and even cares about the environment. I went to attend their Green Sunday program and for 90 minutes I was in heaven. For once I didn't have the usual cognitive dissonance eating away my stomach. This is the church where I belong; too bad it's so far away.
The message on environmentalism was beautiful and touching. The part that stayed on my mind the most today is where the speaker said that compared to most of the world's religions, Christianity does not have much of an environmental ethic. Apparently traditional Christians see themselves at an airport. They are waiting to catch the flight to the next life, and are quite willing to let the maintenance personnel take care of the airport. Off they go, to fly to their gold streets and mansion, and as for Mother Earth, it is just temporal. One theory the speaker suggested is that early Christians were trying to differentiate themselves from the more nature-based pagan religions.
Oakhurst is the model for the Church of the 21st century. Rather than confining people to self-destructive, discriminatory, and illogical interpretations, the Decatur church acknowledges our changing world and is GROWING with it. And this gives me hope. Two bad there only two other Baptist churches like Oakhurst that I know of in Georgia. They are dots in a giant sea of business-as-usual religion.
Flashback:
When I was helping to launch a new church in 1993, we spent a few Sundays visiting other startup churches. One church we visited was Eagle Pointe Church in west Cobb Country, GA. This was one of those "seeker" churches designed to attract affluent yuppies from the zillions of new housing projects in the area. It was held in a school auditorium and everyone was just sitting there in their shorts sipping coffee. The pastor got up and gave a scathing, hateful, 35 minute tirade against gays. I think all of us were just kind of shocked. Wow, what a headline: "Yuppie Church of Love Shows Hatred." I wasn't sure what to do or how to react. If I had it to do over again, I would have walked out, or better yet, I would have tried to stop it.
Hate is Not A Family Value
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