I think that churches are fallible, even if you believe God isn't.
My perspective of this situation is vastly different from yours--I grew up Mormon, and they are a very hierarchally oriented church, nearly corporate in their structure. Your ward leadership changes every few years, and there is constant change in who the humans running the programs are, but very little change in the program. (I was shocked and amazed the first time I realised many other churches reviewed their pastors and/or paid them a salary. Shocked and amazed, I tell you.) It's a church that was once less conservative than it is now, but the rulings all come from the top down, so there was little way to change the environment to make it more "spiritually conducive".
I like your attitude about staying to enact changes. I think it's a good one--one that most churches should be about. But I also think that the church as a whole should have the same attitude: Trying to heal the body and mind of individuals instead of bean-counting members as just another statistic for the glory of God. It should work as a symbiotic relationship, I think.
From a strictly anthropological perspective, I think that most religions and dogmas start off as a nifty idea, a great experiment, and for as long as they retain that openess to change, they can do a great deal of good as they flexibly approach each members needs. But eventually the group becomes codified, inertia sets in, and conservative tactics rule: The letter of the law prevails, rather than the spirit.
What are your goals for worship? Do you feel that the church you are at serves those needs? If it doesn't, do you feel that the atmosphere is one where you can discuss your beliefs openly? That you can help make changes? Help make other people stronger? Most importantly, how is this environment going to help your children? (Example: Even if I thought I could make a change in the Mormon church--from the inside, rather than my current status as outsider--I wouldn't want to raise my children with the ideas they could get exposed to every Sunday--particularly given the way women are marginalised subtly in Mormon doctrine.)
Are the doctrine and worship tied to the people or the building or the community or any of the above? Is there another place you can find that has the same attitude you desire? (While I understand the joy of continuity and wishing that your daughters could be confirmed in the same environment in which they were baptised, I also think it is rare for any one community or group to remain as they were when your memories of them are best and brightest.)
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Date: 2004-09-12 08:49 am (UTC)My perspective of this situation is vastly different from yours--I grew up Mormon, and they are a very hierarchally oriented church, nearly corporate in their structure. Your ward leadership changes every few years, and there is constant change in who the humans running the programs are, but very little change in the program. (I was shocked and amazed the first time I realised many other churches reviewed their pastors and/or paid them a salary. Shocked and amazed, I tell you.) It's a church that was once less conservative than it is now, but the rulings all come from the top down, so there was little way to change the environment to make it more "spiritually conducive".
I like your attitude about staying to enact changes. I think it's a good one--one that most churches should be about. But I also think that the church as a whole should have the same attitude: Trying to heal the body and mind of individuals instead of bean-counting members as just another statistic for the glory of God. It should work as a symbiotic relationship, I think.
From a strictly anthropological perspective, I think that most religions and dogmas start off as a nifty idea, a great experiment, and for as long as they retain that openess to change, they can do a great deal of good as they flexibly approach each members needs. But eventually the group becomes codified, inertia sets in, and conservative tactics rule: The letter of the law prevails, rather than the spirit.
What are your goals for worship? Do you feel that the church you are at serves those needs? If it doesn't, do you feel that the atmosphere is one where you can discuss your beliefs openly? That you can help make changes? Help make other people stronger? Most importantly, how is this environment going to help your children? (Example: Even if I thought I could make a change in the Mormon church--from the inside, rather than my current status as outsider--I wouldn't want to raise my children with the ideas they could get exposed to every Sunday--particularly given the way women are marginalised subtly in Mormon doctrine.)
Are the doctrine and worship tied to the people or the building or the community or any of the above? Is there another place you can find that has the same attitude you desire? (While I understand the joy of continuity and wishing that your daughters could be confirmed in the same environment in which they were baptised, I also think it is rare for any one community or group to remain as they were when your memories of them are best and brightest.)