1. Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
3. Do you relate to the idea of being a “Spiritual nomad?” Why or why not?
These were the windows of East Lake United Methodist Church in Chattanooga, when I preached their last sermon in 2010.
17 comments:
I grew up in the Midwest in the 1950's and 1960's and into the 1970's. Of course it started in the idealistic era with the idea of the American Dream as a viable, attainable goal for hardworking people. My contented, probably sheltered, life was shattered with the assassination of JFK, then the murders of MLK, Jr. and RFK, the latter on the day of my high school graduation. Life has become progressively worse as time passes.
Social justice and caring for my neighbor became much more essential in my life with these murders. Apathy was taken away as an option for me. I fortunately am a lifelong member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), although I have regularly attended a Lutheran church and a Methodist church at different times of my life. I very much adhere to the traditions in the Disciples' vein of worship: weekly sharing at the Lord's Table; importance of lay leaders, especially at the Table; no creeds, but several slogans ("In essentials unity, in opinions liberty, and in all things charity."); focus on mission where most needed. Disciples are always among the first to respond to national and world disasters. My parents were raised Baptist (loosely) and nothing (that I know of), but went to the Christian Church (Disciple of Christ) associated with Drake University when they married. I, therefore, long for Brian McLaren's strong-benevolent Christian identity to permeate the universe.
I relate very well to being a "Spiritual nomad," although I've never entirely left "church." At various times I stopped attending because of certain problems I didn't want to deal with (actually certain people in the congregation), but my faith never wavered.
1. Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
I grew up in Chattanooga, with a "church on every corner," in the 1940s and 1950s. Life was good before my daddy went to war (in the Philippines and Japan). When he returned in 1945, he no longer owned a grocery store, drank more and more, and moved us into the "projects" in 1949. It was a time we believed we could move up in the world, if we worked hard enough. At 18, I married partly to get out. I grew up with the stained glass windows of East Lake Methodist Church, and the "village" around the church changed so drastically that I preached the final sermon for that 102-year-old church in 2010.
Diana Butler Bass said (p. 20): "I first encountered God through the rainbow prisms cast by Saint John's stained glass windows."
My family sat in the pew beside the stained-glass windows at East Lake Church, pictured (above) on the day I preached their last sermon. The church died after 102 years in that changed neighborhood.
2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
Part of growing up, for me, was awareness of discrimination. I learned early that, as a girl, I could not become a sailor like those I read about in books. Even in college, I was told it was unlikely I could get into medical school, since I was a woman. My husband (whom I later divorced) told me I didn't need higher education because I was his wife now — and the implication was that I would stay at home and raise his children. Doing management training at TVA, I faced hostile managers, one of whom shouted at me, "No white woman and black man are going to tell me what I can do!" I always felt that I had to fight for whatever I got or was "allowed" to do. Becoming a pastor was no different — one woman asked me why I would want to "take away a job from a man," and people at the country church I served never failed to talk about "woman preacher, woman preacher" at every meeting. It wore me down, and I tried to transfer at mid-year. After ten years at a more accepting church (which had had a woman minister before me), I couldn't face having to start over in another church, and so I took early retirement rather than a new church appointment. I long for a community with people who accept everyone.
3. Do you relate to the idea of being a “Spiritual nomad?” Why or why not?
I left the church for five or six years after my divorce, not feeling like I fit in any longer. I was back in college and struggling to pay the bills, study for the many heavy classes I piled on, and raise three children moving into their teens. I got back in church regularly in the late 1970s when I joined a congregational (UCC) church, a denomination which is more liberal than the Methodists. I was perfectly at home there, but was back at East Lake UMC when I decided to go to seminary. I fit in at the UCC church where I was associate pastor during seminary (the senior pastor wanted me to take over when he retired) – and now at Donna's Disciples church where the pastor asked me to teach when he was out of town. I don't give a lot of thought to various denominations, except that I frustrated by those that exclude women or gays or any other group.
1. Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
I grew up in Southwest Texas, moving from Pearsall to Crystal City, to Carrizo Springs, to Del Rio. The world was (of course) much simpler then and people did not need so much 'stuff' to make them comfortable and happy.
I attended Trinity University for my BA and went straight on to the University of Texas for my Master's work. Unlike some girls say, I did not ever feel like I was discriminated against in advancing in studies in science.
2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
I was baptized in the First Baptist Church at Pearsall in the third grade and had all my sins washed away with a good dunk in the baptismal pool! I attended Church and Sunday School fairly regularly. But by the time I got too high school, the more fundamental Baptist teachings were not making sense to me. Trinity was Presbyterian and a little more flexible, but still there was some dissonance in what I wanted and what I heard at church. So I sort of floated around to churches with my friends.
3. Do you relate to the idea of being a “Spiritual nomad?” Why or why not?
Yes, I do understand the idea of being a "Spiritual nomad" with all that floating around. I married a CATHOLIC (horrors) and when my 3 children were born, I knew we needed to be together in the same church, so I took instructions in the Catholic Faith and joined at age 33. I found that my faith grew and grew as I investigated more and more into the depth and breadth of Catholicism....UNTIL....my son was killed in a car wreck, my other children grew up, all the nasty old priests were exposed as pedophiles, the bishops said the Girl Scouts were banned at their churches, and the Pope started telling the American nuns to be quiet.
So, for about the last 15 years or so, I have been thinking 'maybe I am more of a doubter than I am a believer'. I am not currently attending church because I am mad at those old men in dresses.
I taught at an Episcopal school for 15 years and we attended chapel every day. If I were living near my children, I would attend church with them (Presbyterian or Episcopal) but I don't want to attend the Catholic Church now with my husband.
Zorro, my mother decided the same thing after marrying my dad (I don't remember whether it was before or after any of us four children was born), that she would join my dad's church. She went with him that Sunday morning, intending to join at the end of the service, though she didn't tell him her plans. Dad's pastor preached the local Baptist church into hell, and my mother decided next week it could be her church. So she stayed a Methodist, and eventually my dad started going with her -- but not until after I was married and gone from home. So I grew up in two denominations, his Church of Christ and her Methodist Church. He died in a traffic accident at the age of 45, never knowing she had almost joined his church.
Do you notice that as MATERIALISM CONSUMERISM have grow in America, mega-churches have grown and flourished....hum, maybe they are on to something there.
Maybe they are onto something, if what matters most is how big they can grow.
1. Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
I grew up in Topeka, Kansas in a working class neighborhood in the 1950's to 1960's. Most of the neighbors were Catholic, but we were Baptist. Life was simpler then. My mother didn't drive so we walked, rode our bikes or took the bus almost everyplace we went. We spent quite a bit of time at home with school and church activities enriching our lives. My 92-year-old mother still lives in the same house that I grew up in. The houses in the neighborhood are still there, but most of the neighbors are "new".
2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
The Baptist church I attended as a child provided many happy times, but its hellfire and damnation preaching as well as its prediction that the second coming was near gave me many nightmares. I became Lutheran when I married in 1969. The Lutheran service is more formal and relaxed than the Baptist services, but there is little passion. I "dropped out" of church for several years, but returned a few years ago. My faith has been relatively stable, but I have too many negative feelings about our church.
3. Do you relate to the idea of being a “Spiritual nomad?” Why or why not?
Although I have been dully consistent in church denominations, I think that I have a nomadic yearning for a church place where I would feel more at home.
Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
I grew up primarily in Southeastern Idaho in the 70s, graduating from high school in 1982. The town in which I lived was the third largest in Idaho, with a population of about 40,000. Most of the population was White, and about half was Mormon. Both of my parents also grew up in Southeastern Idaho, as had their parents. It was a "simpler" time and place than the world in which my children (who are currently ages 13, 16, and 21) are growing up - for both the better and the worse.
I agree that the world in which we grew up in was a simpler time than that of our children with these simpler times being both better and worse. The times are better in terms of opportunities (technology, sociological changes which have reduced discrimination, and, in our family's case, we were able to provide for children better financially than my husband and I experienced as we were growing up), but worse in terms of stability and sense of safety. I sometimes receive forwards expressing a fondness for the good, old days, but even with the current economic and political upheavals, I am thankful to be living in these good days.
How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
I was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) when I was eight years old (the "age of accountability" in Mormon theology) - and I have participated with Mormon congregations in each of the places I've lived as an adult. All sixteen of my great-great-grandparents leaving their homes in the eastern United States or in Europe in the mid- to late-1800s to join the Mormons in their efforts to establish "Zion" in Utah. The Mormons are "my people." Additionally, as a Christian, I find Mormonism to have a comprehensive view of the gospel of Jesus Christ. At Church I learn of His teachings as well as find ways to apply those teachings in my personal life.
That said, however, I have experienced (and still experience) a great deal of pain over the ways I - as a woman - can or cannot participate in and contribute to the functionality of the organization with its all-male priesthood and its male hegemony. I can't remember a time when I wasn't a feminist, and my feelings about patriarchy were especially raw when I was a teen and a young adult. Now, as I near 50, I feel more peace than angst over the issue. I care deeply about the treatment of women in the Church and in the larger world - and my deepest spiritual longing is to see in the Church full valuation of and participation by women - yet I'm at a place where I accept that change comes slowly and I can live with the status quo while still looking forward to something greater.
Shirley, I agree with you. I would not want to go back. But I would like for our society to be less complicated, less materialistic, less focused on having more, more, more.
I should have better edited! At least two changes I would have made:
All sixteen of my great-great-grandparents left their homes ...
... my feelings about patriarchy in the Church
That is quite a family history within the Mormon church, Alison! I am not sure how far back my husband's family's history within the Lutheran church goes. In my family, I grew up Baptist but it was because the church was within walking distance. My parents were baptized in the Christian denomination church which was the church of my dad's family. When our family moved to Topeka, only my mother and us children went to the Baptist church. My maternal grandmother was also Lutheran so may have a longer history in the Lutheran church than I realize.
That is admirable that you are a feminist in spite of the church's teachings. The Lutheran church only began allowing women to vote and girls to be acolytes within the last decade or so. Our synod still does not allow women ministers although some synods do.
Shirley, what do you think about women being ministers?
I find no problem with women being ministers.
My husband's cousin's wife became a Methodist minister after taking an early retirement. She has always been so compassionate and loving that her change in careers (she was in the Stephen ministry first which may have been what led her to take this leap)made perfect sense. Her congregation is so fortunate to have her. I think that women generally have a lot that they can share in the ministry. However, like any other career field, it doesn't always work out. A friend of mine who belongs to a Lutheran synod that allows women in the ministry had a very negative experience with a woman in the ministry (this followed a very positive experience with the prior woman who was their minister). In this case, the needs of her family's small children made it too difficult for her to also meet the needs of the congregation.
I suspect it will be awhile before our synod allows women in the ministry.
Do you relate to the idea of being a "spiritual nomad?" Why or why not?
I had several thoughts about this concept. First, I decided that spiritual nomadacy (or is it nomadism?) is a characteristic of the human condition: separated from God, we are each on a quest to find Him (or Her or Them) again. Second, I was reminded of Paul's words about being "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God." I think that's the goal. Finally, I reflected on the name of the annual women's retreat I've attended for almost 20 years, that is, Pilgrimage. Each of the women involved are referred to as pilgrims, and I guess we're also spiritual nomads.
Caboose said...
1. Where did you grow up? What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood?
Born and raised in Pasadena, Calif. My parents belonged to Grace Lutheran Church, which I attended until I was married. Society had a sense of right and wrong which I think has been lost over the passed fifty years.
2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings?
My life has taken many turns good and bad but I hold on to the thought there must be a Holy Spirit because I have seen miracles happen. I trust my soul will guide me in the right direction for my life.
3. Do you relate to the idea of being a “Spiritual nomad?” Why or why not
A spiritual nomad would be a good description of me I have not attended church for many years. When my children were young, I returned to church that did not work. When I moved here to Illinois, I returned to church once again that did not work either. I have noticed that people come and go in church or change churches. I seldom ask God for things for me often ask for friends and relatives and always thank him for what we receive.
October 27, 2012 6:41:00 PM EDT
Bonnie said...
Even though Carole/caboose commented nearly a month ago, I just noticed she put these answers under chapter 4. So here are her answers, repeated, so they'll be with out discussion of chapter 1.
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