Thursday, September 21, 2006

Today's picture of Mary Magdalen


posted by Currer813 @ 11:59 AM 0 comments

A brief history

My mother was raised Methodist, and my father was raised in the reformed Mormon church. Both felt they had been forced to attend church, and didn't want to repeat that with their children. Accordingly, the only time we ever went to church was with our grandparents. We didn't hear Bible stories growing up, and in literature classes in high school, I had to look up the stories of Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, and the fall of Babylon.

At 16, I began attending a United Methodist church. Along the way, I decided to accept Christ, though I don't think that I "got" what that meant until I was well into college. I had some wonderful experiences at the several UM churches I attended from the age of 16 until the age of 22.

By the time I got to grad school, I began attending an ecumenical church in Chicago. It was lead by a female minister from the United Methodist tradition, but incorporated many Christian faiths in its rituals. I became acquainted with other Christian traditions there.

The next year, I served as a confirmation sponsor at the church where I had been baptized. During the year-long process, I became more and more disenchanted with UMC leadership, doctrine, and beliefs. Chief among my issues was the presence of the divine in the communion ceremony. While the UMC maintains that the bread and grape juice (Methodists don't use wine, as they were in the forefront of the temperance movement nearly 100 years ago) are symbolic of the body and blood of Christ, I believe that we as humans can't limit the miracles of God, and if God wants to turn bread and wine into flesh and blood, that's up to God.

Coincidentally, shortly after I began having these issues, I fell in love with a Catholic man and started attending mass with him frequently. Before telling him I was thinking of converting, I began attending mass on my own at a church closer to my house. I was struck by how many similarities there were to my home church. (Part of this is that I attend a relatively conservative UM church.) It wasn't until I attended mass on the Assumption that I felt "a strange warming in my heart." I decided to begin the conversion process.

Like most comprehensive philosophies, there are things that the Church says that I agree with and things I don't. The short list of policies I agree with is: capital punishment, clerical celibacy, fidelity, nonviolence, and obligation to those less fortunate. The list of policies I disagree with is: artificial birth control, masturbation, and the ordination of women. Abortion and divorce are two that are complicated--both are regrettable and lamentable, but should not lead to excommunication. The moral "worthiness" of a person is between that person and God, not an institution. Denying sacraments to a believer is just mean. (In fact, in most parishes, people are rarely denied Communion because of divorce or abortion.) I don't know how my ambivalence will affect my conversion process, but you can bet that you'll read it here. Feel free to comment.

posted by Currer813 @ 11:30 AM 0 comments