“Go. Be apostles of this peace.”

Last updated on: May 20, 2015 at 10:40 am by John Shore

“Go. Be apostles of this peace.” 2015-05-20T10:40:43-06:00 John Shore

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This morning we posted on the Unfundamentalist Christians Facebook page (here) a link to my blog post for today, Eight “Bible-believing” churches vs. one progressive church.

In response to that link a commenter wrote:

I find all of it so nauseating I can’t even stand church anymore. Church culture and all of the nonsense has fatigued me in a way that I’m so over saturated with the BS that I honestly feel sick. I feel this exhausted eyeroll/shudder when people say “I’m a christian”. It usually means that someone is going to shove some political or “biblical” load of crap down my throat or judge me because I don’t think like they do or believe the way they do. I’m somehow “less than” “not of the faith” “in rebellion” “not in the covenant” or whatever.

Another commenter concurred:

That is what drove me away. All of the judgement and competition, and we are better than them crap. Just couldn’t take church anymore.

And that’s when our beloved Christy Caine (who wrote the viral post The lies Christian fundamentalism taught me) chimed in with this:

Which is part of the reason we created this group. There are Christians who are different. There are Christians who are intellectual. There are Christians who are welcoming and affirming. There are Christians who believe in gender equality. There are Christians who have high emotional intelligence. There are those of us who care for the environment and all people no matter who they are, what they wear, what language they speak, or where they are on their spiritual journey. There are Christians who love atheists and all other people of faith and believe we have things to learn from them. There are authentic people who have a healthy sense of self who aren’t helicopter parents, who aren’t consumerist, who aren’t trying to keep up with the Joneses, who value authentic and meaningful relationships and dialogue with a goal of better understanding each other and producing more light than heat.

There are Christians who want to make a difference in poverty, homelessness, education, who want to be humble, meek, gentle, kind, long-suffering, compassionate peacemakers. There are Christians who believe in the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam—who want to be part of God’s kingdom that repairs the world.

Sometimes we feel like we are alone … like Horton Hears a Who: We are here! We are Here!! WE ARE HERE!!!

But—here—we are.

We are Christians who value direct commune with God in many different ways, most often contemplation, meditation and nature. We are Christians who understand mysticism and a deep sense of knowing that can be understood as the movings of the Holy Spirit. We value wisdom and connection and realness.

And we are not alone.

Never believe that you are alone in this journey…

Because even when you see no one else like yourself … you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who went before you who, if you pause and pay attention, will show you the way.

Jesus said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Go. Be apostles of this peace.

Boy. Sometimes people just nail stuff, don’t they?

Thank you, Christy. Thank you from all of us.

Photo of Not All Like That (NALT) Christians.

Christian Spirituality

Previous Post

May 12, 2015

Heaven is not "up there" somewhere

Next Post

May 27, 2015 Welcome to the Duggar's world of Independent Fundamental Baptists

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Christian History Christian Issues Christian Spirituality Current Events Fundamentalism Islam John Shore LGBT Movie Reviews Poetry Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz