Keep God but dump your church

Since there has been so much outrage against churches lately (more than usual) between the gay marriage ban in California, while Connecticut now allows it along with Massachusetts, some churches telling parishioners they can not receive communion if they voted for President Elect Obama, following all the others who have told lawmakers they couldn't receive communion either if they were pro-choice, the solution seems pretty simple to all of this, dump your church and find one that works for you. Don't dump God or your faith or fellowship. Just find one where you are welcome to come as you are.

This is a free country after all and even pastors, ministers, priests, along with all religious leaders have the right to open their mouth, no matter how terrible, you have the right to leave that church so you won't have to listen to them anymore. Who wants to sit in a pew and hear someone spouting off hatred of others? The church lives on your money and if you don't feel welcome there, then why would you want to pay someone to make you feel miserable? You're supposed to walk out of church feeling forgiven, feeling fellowship and as if you are loved. You are not supposed to walk out of there wondering why you just wasted an hour to feel worse than when you walked in the door.

They are supposed to be walking a fine line between faith and politics in order to keep their tax exempt. If they preach that voting for Obama is something to be forgiven for then you really need to ask them where they were when all the evidence about Iraq was proven to be "bearing false witness" or when McCain, Palin and many in the GOP spread false rumors.

You also need to wonder a few more things while you're at it. Do they spend more time talking about politics than they do the homeless? The wounded veterans? The poor and needy? In Nebraska there are parents dumping their teenagers because they cannot handle raising them any more. Some parents have abandoned their younger kids at the hospital because they are so poor, they can no longer take care of them properly. Do they talk about this? Do they bother to tell you what you can do to help? Do they set up anything in that church to take care of God's children the way Christ said we should or do they spend more time condemning them the way Christ did not?

This nation has a lot of problems while some of these "holy people" stuck their fingers in their ears and hands over their eyes so they could have more time attacking politicians they don't like instead of being about God's work.

The Mormon church spent boat loads of money to take rights away from people they think are evil when they could have spent that money on taking care of the homeless and the needy. Did you donate money to that church and know what they were going to do with the money? Or did you assume it would have gone to help people in your community? If you agree with what the church you go to stands for, then fine, stay. You fit right in there. If you don't agree then why on earth would you spend time there and give your money when they make you feel terrible?

Read what Christ said and then read what the Constitution says. If your place of worship does not match then you should find one that does, otherwise you are not worshiping God according to your own soul. You are worshiping political policy. Don't blame God for it or turn away from your faith. The problem is not your's. It is the problem of the church you attend when it does not welcome you the way you are and the same way Christ would have welcomed you. He told us how to live our own lives if we made the choice to follow Him and He also told us how we were supposed to treat other people. If it doesn't fit, find another place to sit. There are plenty of churches out there to go to.

One more thing and this is just a reminder. I went to a lot of really large churches here in Central Florida trying to get them to help the veterans with PTSD so they could help them heal their souls. Over twenty churches later, I heard back from exactly one. It turned out the pastor of that church was also a Chaplain and a veteran. No one else bothered. What does this say about these churches when they cannot even bother to stay up on current events and understand how many veterans, especially the National Guardsmen and their families suffering right now? It does not reflect well on them at all. They didn't care that when the mind, body and especially the spirit are tended to the healing rate is higher. They just didn't want to bother to learn. Too many still don't.

If you are happy with your church and what they preach then you are in the right place for you but if you are not, begin to ask someone who seems to have the same type of heart as you do and find out where they go. You don't have to give up being a member of your particular branch and it's not that hard to adapt to their traditions if you walk out of there feeling better, closer to God then when you went in.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington