Mid-Week Meditation: Organized Religion and Interracial Dating

Recently, a church, voted to ban interracial couples from church.  

I meditated on this story and then I asked a friend of mine if she believed in organized religion.  She told me that she wanted to, but she didn't.  I didn't bother to ask any follow up questions like, "Why not?" or "What happened?"  I didn't ask because I knew, sadly what her issue was.

My friend, like many people my age, grew up attending mass regularly because it was the right thing to do and because her parents wanted her to.  But as she got older, I assume that she felt what many of us have observed--a disconnect between church attendance and a connection to the creator, or anything else that would personally benefit her spiritually or otherwise.

The first century church was established for two reasons--as a place for believers to worship God and as a gathering place for believers to to find security.  Naturally, the first century Roman Empire was not a kind place for Christians.  They were literally persecuted and marginalized.  Gathering at church with other souls who were in the same boat, provided comfort and sanctuary.

Today, while we have some difficulties in our lives, we are in a better place than first century Christians...at least theoretically.  We have access to the government, access to the economic structure and Christianity is, in essence, the official religion of this country.  What's more, we can worship and contemplate on the works of the Creator and the creation in our own comfortable homes.  The scriptures do not mandate that a person must attend church regularly or at all to be in good stead with the Creator.

So convening in church for the same reasons first century believers did are not persuasive for the 40 and under crowd.  So they have stayed away from organized religion.

And churches that vote to ban interracial couples from worshipping does little to help attract that demographic either.