Community
So I caught up with two friends earlier today...one by phone and one while sitting at a cafe table on the sidewalk. I was extremely invigorated by the encounters. I was having a horrible day and had slipped into a cynical view of the world until I talked with them. It was nice to converse with like minded people. I don't get that too often. I am often found on an opposing viewpoints or at least running in place so to speak in my everyday conversations. It makes me yearn for community, something that at this point I only glimpse once and a while.
On a different note. In my conversations today I came to the realization that I am slightly off center of a paradox. I would not call myself a cynic, but I am very opposed to much of the institution of Christianity. At the same time, I am inherently optimistic. This blends itself nicely, I feel, as it allows a balance that enables me to see both sides of the story. The faults of the institutional church are in fact the same as my own, which is that my beliefs are inevitably formed by some degree by the beliefs of my parents. Now it is true that everyone at some point or another experiences a shucking of his or her parental influence and begins to think independently. But the beliefs of my parents ultimately, if only slightly, echo through my own credo. The same is true of the church. We are still reeling from the effects of error made by our forefathers. The church of the fourth century became Roman. Church became culture and in a way it became secular. The Church took on the identity of it's Roman assimilator and began a conquest to subjugate the world under its rule. it took 1200 years for Christians to break away and realize that Christ was about something different than what they had become. 800 years later we are still very Roman in nature. The western world is Roman, and unfortunately so is the church. I can't fault the church for still echoing the Roman subjugatory ways than I can fault myself for believing certain things based on my parents beliefs. I can however still rally against wrong. I am not a cynic, but rather someone who sees the errors being made and am trying to tell it as it is. I hope I am called out on my wrongs because I will not often be able to see them in myself. If we love, we will at least give ourselves a true foundation to stand on. It is not about being right or wrong.