08.30.05
Posted in faith at 3:00 am by
Eddie from Edge of Faith asked me to opine a bit on the nature of Church. I will, but not without a big disclaimer. I could, I’m sure, delve into the Scriptures, or find some doctrinal statements about formal institutional Church. I could do this, and, I’m sure I could find the ‘right’ answer about what church is supposed to be and do. But, quite honestly, that’s not really my style. I’d much rather spend some time thinking about what the institutional Church means to me, what has it’s purpose been for me, its role in my life.
Hopefully, somewhere here I’ll be able to meander over to the issue at hand.
Frankly, I love the institutional Church…well, perhaps, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Maybe, “I’m in love with the ‘idea’ of the institutional Church” is a bit closer to the truth. I mean, a group of people living in community together, being love to the world. The idea kicks ass. It’s an idea I believe to be good, difficult to implement, yes, but good nonetheless. So, that’s my bias. I really love the ‘idea’ of Church. And, honestly, I suppose that since I’m enamoured with this grand idea, the institutional Church (the real one, not the ‘idea’) gets colored by my love.
Despite my bias, though, the institutional Church has done some fantastically shitty things. It’s caused much hurt, division, and pain in many of its members. Some have felt so much pain that they’ve decided that rather than remain in fellowship, they’d rather move on, move out, and give up. I’ve been to that spot. It’s really only my committment (or God’s quiet voice manifesting itself as my committment, more accurately) to the ‘idea’ of Church that made me come back.
I’m not much of an ‘understander of deep musical lyrics’ but to me I interpret a few lines from Sufjan Stevens’ For The Widows In Paradise; For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti to have some bearing on this. Here are the lines I’m thinking of:
I was dressed embarrassment.
I was dressed in wine.
If you had a part of me, will you take your time?
Even if I come back, even if I die
Is there some idea to replace my life?
Like a father to impress;
Like a mother’s mourning dress,
If you ever make a mess, I’ll do anything for you.
Sufjan could read this and think I’m totally misinterpreting these few lines of his work, but I’ll just tell you what it means to me. Particularly the lines “Even if I come back, even if I die; Is there some idea to replace my life?” In this couplet, I like to picture an agonizing Christ on the cross aching over what will become of humanity. Wondering if there’s some idea that can replace his life. A life dedicated to bringing forth the Kingdom of God on earth, a life dedicated to the marginalized, a life spent loving and healing and caring. Is there any idea to replace that life? I speculate that the answer is yes. That answer is, to me, the Church.
So, if the purpose of the Church is to in some way serve as an–abeit imperfect–replacement for the work of Christ, if the purpose of the Church is to show the love of Christ to the world, then is it really necessary to be a part of the institutional Church? I think so. (Though, that is a necessarily qualified ‘I think so’ as evidenced by my previous post, there’s certainly a season that some can go through in which being a part of the institutionalized Church may be more detrimental than anything else.) The reason I say, I think so, is that it seems to me that the purpose of Church is bigger than the somewhat arrogant, ‘Let’s change the world around us.’ I call this arrogant because it somehow implies that we, as Christian individuals have somehow arrived, that we don’t need changing about ourselves.
More than JUST changing the world around us, Christians are themselves called to change. To be renewed creations just as we work to renew creation around us. Now, it’s probably not impossible to do this as an island. But, I’m guessing it’s pretty damned hard. So hard, in fact, that I’d say that next to impossible–especially as imperfect folk. I guess I just feel that community is essential to the work of both outward and inward growth.
I must admit, about 10 minutes ago, my thinking on this was recently and indellibly (sp?) shaped when I read this comment on McCarty Musings by Tim Youmans:
I think what I like about the formal church is being forced, if you will, to be in relationship with other imperfect people, particularly people who differ with me in often painful ways. I’m working on the assumption that this kind of community is part of the crucible for our sanctification.
What I really like about Tim’s comment here, and by proxy what I like, then, about the idea of the institutional Church, is that the Church shouldn’t be made up of just one kind of person. Now, as much as I like the idea of an ‘informal and impromptu’ Church, I just don’t think that, left to our own devices, we’re very likely to join anything more than an echo chamber of the likeminded. And, as nice and rejuvenating as this kind of community can be, (and may be necessary for our spiritual well-being from time to time) it doesn’t tend to foster an environment that encourages growth (even if that growth is the kind of growth that comes from discomfort).
Sure, Churches can sometimes be a tad ‘less than excited’ about welcoming members who act prophetically. But, truth be told, that’s kind of what makes the ‘prophetic’, well, prophetic. They’re a bit contrarian, and it’s probably not very fun to be in a small group with them, either. I think the odd truth is, though, that we all need eachother. As iron sharpens iron, we sharpen eachother. It usually isn’t the most comfortable process, but in the end, if you asked me, I’d say it’s worthwhile.
Tags: Sufjan Stevens, Outchurched, Emergent Church, Institutional Church
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Posted in faith at 3:00 am by
Eddie from Edge of Faith asked me to opine a bit on the nature of Church. I will, but not without a big disclaimer. I could, I’m sure, delve into the Scriptures, or find some doctrinal statements about formal institutional Church. I could do this, and, I’m sure I could find the ‘right’ answer about what church is supposed to be and do. But, quite honestly, that’s not really my style. I’d much rather spend some time thinking about what the institutional Church means to me, what has it’s purpose been for me, its role in my life.
Hopefully, somewhere here I’ll be able to meander over to the issue at hand.
Frankly, I love the institutional Church…well, perhaps, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Maybe, “I’m in love with the ‘idea’ of the institutional Church” is a bit closer to the truth. I mean, a group of people living in community together, being love to the world. The idea kicks ass. It’s an idea I believe to be good, difficult to implement, yes, but good nonetheless. So, that’s my bias. I really love the ‘idea’ of Church. And, honestly, I suppose that since I’m enamoured with this grand idea, the institutional Church (the real one, not the ‘idea’) gets colored by my love.
Despite my bias, though, the institutional Church has done some fantastically shitty things. It’s caused much hurt, division, and pain in many of its members. Some have felt so much pain that they’ve decided that rather than remain in fellowship, they’d rather move on, move out, and give up. I’ve been to that spot. It’s really only my committment (or God’s quiet voice manifesting itself as my committment, more accurately) to the ‘idea’ of Church that made me come back.
I’m not much of an ‘understander of deep musical lyrics’ but to me I interpret a few lines from Sufjan Stevens’ For The Widows In Paradise; For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti to have some bearing on this. Here are the lines I’m thinking of:
I was dressed embarrassment.
I was dressed in wine.
If you had a part of me, will you take your time?
Even if I come back, even if I die
Is there some idea to replace my life?
Like a father to impress;
Like a mother’s mourning dress,
If you ever make a mess, I’ll do anything for you.
Sufjan could read this and think I’m totally misinterpreting these few lines of his work, but I’ll just tell you what it means to me. Particularly the lines “Even if I come back, even if I die; Is there some idea to replace my life?” In this couplet, I like to picture an agonizing Christ on the cross aching over what will become of humanity. Wondering if there’s some idea that can replace his life. A life dedicated to bringing forth the Kingdom of God on earth, a life dedicated to the marginalized, a life spent loving and healing and caring. Is there any idea to replace that life? I speculate that the answer is yes. That answer is, to me, the Church.
So, if the purpose of the Church is to in some way serve as an–abeit imperfect–replacement for the work of Christ, if the purpose of the Church is to show the love of Christ to the world, then is it really necessary to be a part of the institutional Church? I think so. (Though, that is a necessarily qualified ‘I think so’ as evidenced by my previous post, there’s certainly a season that some can go through in which being a part of the institutionalized Church may be more detrimental than anything else.) The reason I say, I think so, is that it seems to me that the purpose of Church is bigger than the somewhat arrogant, ‘Let’s change the world around us.’ I call this arrogant because it somehow implies that we, as Christian individuals have somehow arrived, that we don’t need changing about ourselves.
More than JUST changing the world around us, Christians are themselves called to change. To be renewed creations just as we work to renew creation around us. Now, it’s probably not impossible to do this as an island. But, I’m guessing it’s pretty damned hard. So hard, in fact, that I’d say that next to impossible–especially as imperfect folk. I guess I just feel that community is essential to the work of both outward and inward growth.
I must admit, about 10 minutes ago, my thinking on this was recently and indellibly (sp?) shaped when I read this comment on McCarty Musings by Tim Youmans:
I think what I like about the formal church is being forced, if you will, to be in relationship with other imperfect people, particularly people who differ with me in often painful ways. I’m working on the assumption that this kind of community is part of the crucible for our sanctification.
What I really like about Tim’s comment here, and by proxy what I like, then, about the idea of the institutional Church, is that the Church shouldn’t be made up of just one kind of person. Now, as much as I like the idea of an ‘informal and impromptu’ Church, I just don’t think that, left to our own devices, we’re very likely to join anything more than an echo chamber of the likeminded. And, as nice and rejuvenating as this kind of community can be, (and may be necessary for our spiritual well-being from time to time) it doesn’t tend to foster an environment that encourages growth (even if that growth is the kind of growth that comes from discomfort).
Sure, Churches can sometimes be a tad ‘less than excited’ about welcoming members who act prophetically. But, truth be told, that’s kind of what makes the ‘prophetic’, well, prophetic. They’re a bit contrarian, and it’s probably not very fun to be in a small group with them, either. I think the odd truth is, though, that we all need eachother. As iron sharpens iron, we sharpen eachother. It usually isn’t the most comfortable process, but in the end, if you asked me, I’d say it’s worthwhile.
Tags: Sufjan Stevens, Outchurched, Emergent Church, Institutional Church
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zalm said,
August 30, 2005 at 4:40 am
I’m in. Actually, if you quote Sufjan to me, you can get me to do just about anything….
Truth be told, the institutional church is every bit as broken as we are. And while I agree that it’s (somewhat sadly) the best thing going, I don’t know that we can let ourselves be satisfied with that brokenness. But we also can’t help renew it if we’re not committed to the community it represents. Being a Christian on your own seems to me to miss the point. As Sufjan asks earlier in the same song, “What is there to answer if I’m the only one?”
I do love your reading of that song. In many ways, to ask the question “Is there some idea to replace my life?” is to also ask the question “Why the hell did Jesus get the ball rolling on the Kingdom and then leave town without finishing the job?” That the church is the answer to those questions is a little crazy. But it’s also beautiful in its own way. And I think that to be part of something as messy as the church, we have to be in love with and devoted to that idea. If church is just a place we go to because that’s what Christians do, then we really may as well stay home. Since we’re quoting music, your boy David Bazan puts it this way in “Secret of the Easy Yoke”:
Wounded Healer said,
August 30, 2005 at 7:07 am
I believe that once we are swallowed by the realization that this community that we are part of, by nature and by choice, is the place for relationship and healing to happen, we should be so humbled and feel so helpless that we have to proceed carefully and with great dependency on God and each other - I have been in the “let’s change the world since we have what those poor fuckers need” mindset and it breeds arrogance, suspicion, and self-righteousness - effectively emasculating the church from it’s intention.
May we proceed with care, humility, and dependency - for God’s sake and our’s.
Brandon said,
August 30, 2005 at 8:58 am
“the let’s change the world since we have what those poor fuckers need mindset”
I might just have to use that sometime, if you don’t mind, WH.
eddieO said,
August 30, 2005 at 11:34 am
thank you brandon, i really do appreciate you taking the time to explain yourself in detail to me. my question was sincere and i’m glad that you understood that. if you don’t mind me asking a few more questions, you state…
“if the purpose of the Church is to in some way serve as an–abeit imperfect–replacement for the work of Christ, if the purpose of the Church is to show the love of Christ to the world, then is it really necessary to be a part of the institutional Church? I think so.”
if the church is suppose to be the best attempt to replace the “work of christ”, what kind of work was christ doing while he was still alive (i’m assuming you aren’t talking about saving souls)? also, what exactly does “show the love of christ to the world” mean to you?
“I guess I just feel that community is essential to the work of both outward and inward growth.”
how would you determine how “change” or “outward and inward growth” is achieved?
“I think what I like about the formal church is being forced, if you will, to be in reltionship with other imperfect people, particurally people who differ with me in often painful ways.” - Tim Youmans
maybe i’m missing something here but in my experience, the church is by and large “an echo chamber of the likeminded” people or at the very least, similar minded people. they all call themselve by their group name “christians”, show up at the same place every sunday morning, speak the same language, sing the same songs, listen to the same guy talking, read the same book and with the exception of you… vote the same way too
“I think the odd truth is, though, that we all need eachother. As iron sharpens iron, we sharpen eachother. It usually isn’t the most comfortable process, but in the end, if you asked me, I’d say it’s worthwhile.”
by “eachother”, would i be correct in assuming that you mean christians need other christians? if so, how is being around other similar thinking people uncomfortable? also, what exactly are you sharpening?
i know that i can sometimes be a smart ass on other blogs but as i said before, i do respect your point of view and i sincerely ask these questions respectfully.
eddieO
Brandon said,
August 30, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Eddie, here are my thoughts on your questions, in the order you asked them:
what exactly does “show the love of christ to the world” mean to you?
To love the unloveable, to work to end poverty, to help re-instantiate the presence of God into society, to serve at soup-kitchens, to help to heal spiritual hurts, to be agents of renewal. Being Christ to the world can’t be narrowly defined down to ’some things we do.’ Rather, we’re called to be Christ to the world in the very way we do all things.
how would you determine how “change” or “outward and inward growth” is achieved?
I don’t know. I imagine measuring inward growth would be quite subjective. Though, I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we kinda know if we’re growing. Truth be told, though, I’m not entirely sure that it matters that much, if we sense that we’re growing or not. What matters is that we ACTUALLY are making personal headway.
Outward growth, that’s a tad easier to get a bead on. Are Churches participating in more social programs from one year to the next, are they reaching out to their communities in better, more tangible ways, is a significant portion of their money being poured back into the community? These things help us to understand the ways a church can grow.
the church is by and large “an echo chamber of the likeminded” people or at the very least, similar minded people. they all call themselve by their group name “christians”, show up at the same place every sunday morning, speak the same language, sing the same songs, listen to the same guy talking, read the same book and with the exception of you… vote the same way too
But, Eddie, isn’t this why you left the Church, in part? Because people were too likeminded? Therefore, aren’t YOU the one who might be the different one (much like I was when I took my brief foray into being outchurched?) I think what Tim was getting at here is the fact that being the ‘odd church member out’ isn’t necessarily all the bad that we like to make it. Yes, there’s a time and a place to take a break from this, but in the end, isn’t having painful differences within a body a catalyst for growth?
by “eachother”, would i be correct in assuming that you mean christians need other christians?
Yes.
if so, how is being around other similar thinking people uncomfortable? also, what exactly are you sharpening?
That’s just it, Eddie, like I said before, it’s you and me that are the ‘different’ folk. It can be painful for us to be involved with Churches. It’s this pain that’s a catalyst for growth. Through being involved in these painful disagreements, we’re submitting ourselves to the process of becoming who we’re meant to be. Likewise, we’re a royal pain in the ass to people who need a royal pain in their ass in order to become who they’re supposed to be.
Mutual ass pains, I guess you could say. And, that, in my opinion, is why the Church community is so vitally important for Christians. Because it forces us to be accountably and actively in the process of becoming.
P.S. All of this was a tad off the cuff so I reserve the right to swing by when I’m done with classes today and edit my thoughts, as they’re pretty raw at the present time.
la bona said,
August 30, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Here is a related entry …
Did God actually created man from scratch?
According to Intelligent Design Guru: If we are indeed created by God from scratch, then we are actually a very lousy design … a FLAWED creation, so to speak!
If you have any comment, please email it me at divinetalk@gmail.com or just leave it at http://divinetalk.blogspot.com/
eddieO said,
August 30, 2005 at 2:55 pm
i’m really glad to know that you believe in what you believe. i had assumed as much, but now i know for sure.
“…but in the end, isn’t having painful differences within a body a catalyst for growth?”
sure, i suppose it would be if i actually saw anyone within the walls of the church who were willing to embrace differences, people with doubt and/or were actually looking to grow.
please know, over the years i have been to many churches, have been involved in at least two and seriously involved in one. in fact, was so involved that i actually found myself at one of the highest level of influence. i’ll tell you though, in my experience, the only thing that i’ve found “painful” is to see a bunch of people who talk big about love all the time but are completely uninterested in putting it into practice. most christians i’ve known and meet today are only interested in “being spiritual fed”, knowing that they aren’t going to burn in hell, hanging out with like minded people, steering clear of the world outside the walls of the church and although most won’t admit it… feeling self-righteous about their faith.
for the record, i can honestly say that i was not hurt while i was still an active participant of the church and i only left because i no longer believed in the point and purpose of it as i had come to know it. i think the only thing that did hurt was finding out all the people i thought were my friends ultimately turned their backs on me once they realized that i was no longer a member of their social club.
yes, i am outchurched and you can think whatever you want of me, but i will say that i am still inspired by the life and teachings of jesus and i hope to live my life accordingly. my community now are the people outside my doorstep and believe me, we are not like minded people…. but, it doesn’t seem to matter to any of us. for now, i will do what is in front of me and serve whoever i can… even if they are a christian
eddieO
Kari said,
August 30, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Eddie - Your comments remind me of a discussion that I was a part of yesterday. A group of people that I work with are reading and discussing Steve Garber’s The Fabric of Faithfulness. In it he talks about the connection between telos and praxis and how this connection develops (or sometimes doesn’t develop) during the years between adolescence and adulthood, particularly the college years.
We discussed the apathy and cynicism that we observe among Christian college students today and where that cynicism comes from. One of the suggestions that was made was that they observe that disconnect (between telos and praxis) in their parents and other church members - they talk about being Christ to the world and yet they still live and attend church and school in the safe, clean suburbs and have their well-paying corporate jobs, all of which set them up for the accummulation of more stuff. They may write the occasional check to the mission organization. Some of them even voulunteer now and then or go on short-term mission trips which allow them to feel self-congratulatory about their grand realization (at least temporarily) that having lots of stuff doesn’t lead to true happiness because, after all, here are all these incredibly poor people who don’t have much but clearly love the Lord and are very generous despite living on less than a dollar a day. But that’s about as far as it goes. Thus the talking about love all the time but being completely uninterested in putting it into practice (e.g. to hell with admiring generosity - what about justice?) that you refer to.
No wonder their kids are cynical…
Steve said,
August 30, 2005 at 3:50 pm
OK I am going to take a stab at this…but I am not at the top of my game…yet I love the topic.
I love the church….or I did. But what I thought about the church is now “dead as I know it.” My dreams of what the church could be in my life are gone. It has actually been that way for a couple of years, but I just recently owned up to it.
There is a grieving process that occurs and I think that many of us are in varying stages of this grief process. Quite honestly I think that any of us that enters into relationship, once we are past the “honeymoon” phase, we begin to enter the stages of grief as the shine wears off the new of the relationship - whether it be marriage, friendship or church.
I don’t pretend to speak for anyone, but I feel this is the process I have been on in several areas of my life.
For those unfamiliar with the stages, they are:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
Now there isn’t an order to these stages and we can move in and out of them fluently and over time, but eventually as we move through them, we get to the other side…which is hope I believe. I am not there yet in regards to the church. I was asked why I don’t speak with much hope on the SCP site and that is because I currently have none. There is a sense of hoplessness in my relationship with the church.
To steal line from EddieO…but what do I know.
Brandon said,
August 30, 2005 at 5:14 pm
I’m really very glad to be involved in this discussion. And, I’m very glad it played out as amicably as it did. Thanks to all involved.
Especially you, Eddie, believe me when I say, that I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through, but I think I might have a taste.
Honesty, even if it finds two folks at odds in a debate (and I’m not sure you and I are really at odds in this one at all,) is an ethic that more should try to attain. If more people did, discussions would be more universally worthwhile. So, thanks for your story!
Jim said,
August 30, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Brandon,
Thanks for the blogroll link! That was kind of you.
I almost commented on this post earlier but upon reading it a second time decided that you (with a little help from Stevens and Youmans) said it all quite nicely and anything I tried to add would not have been worth the two cents pictured in the comment box.
serotoninrain said,
August 30, 2005 at 5:42 pm
church
Brandon at Bad Christian has written what, to my mind, is a beautiful post about the nature of the church.
Heidi said,
August 31, 2005 at 10:33 am
Brandon -
Thanks once again for a thought-provoking couple of posts on such a relevant topic to all of us “badChristians.”
I agree with most of what you have to say but I’m not so sure of the assumption I sense is floating around, the assumption that IN ORDER to be in community with other Christians, to really be the church, to fulfill the mandate of the church, to be with others who are different and sometimes a pain in the ass, MEANS to be involved in a formal, Sunday-morning, institutional church.
I stopped going to church a little over two years ago. I didn’t know there was a word for it until I read your “outchurched” post. I didn’t know anything about emergent or postmodernism or any of the church renewal stuff I’m finding out about these days. I wasn’t trying to be cool or edgy. No, it’s just that I’d been a part of the (formal, institutional) church for my entire life, and one day I started wondering why. I was at the time attending a very legalistic church that definitely only had “one type of people” - it was set up in such a way as to draw homeschooling, patriarchal, large-family sort of people. (You’ve never seen a place with so many families with 7 or more children. The only ones with less were the ones that had only been married a few years!) Anyway, initially I thought I’d just try a different church, so I went to one for awhile that focused a lot more on grace and the Cross. That worked fine until I got involved in a counseling session involving a single mother friend of mine and two pastors, and I found out that one of the pastors from this church I was going to had some really heinous ideas about women and abuse, two issues close to my heart.
I stopped going to (formal, institutional) church because I no longer saw the point. I’ve been involved in church for my whole life, but with very few exceptions, my friends have never been from church, I’ve never received fellowship at church, I’ve never been able to give much at church, I’ve never even managed to be a pain in the ass at church (maybe I’ve just been to churches where they marginalize people like me and then can ignore them?)
Meanwhile I was ministering (if you want to use that word) to the people God brought into my life, who all went to different churches or didn’t go at all…an abused teenager from a family on welfare…a single mom who had been spiritually abused by her conservative congregation…among others. I was flat-out told that my ministry to these girls was “nice but didn’t really count” because they didn’t belong to one local congregation so I wasn’t “serving the church.”
I left the (formal, institutional) church because almost all of my close friends had been severely wounded and spiritually abused there…different congregations, different denominations, different reasons…but God gave me a heart that feels the pain of other people - it enters into me almost as if it is my own pain - and I began to feel what all these people had gone through as if I had gone through it myself.
I left the formal, institutional church because I began to realize that maybe the point wasn’t going to church, it was being the church. And that I could be the church without going to church. All of the things I couldn’t get at church - friendship, fellowship, iron sharpening iron, being part of a community that is God to the world - I realized I COULD get, not AT church, but by BEING the church with other Christians that I knew. Everything you talk about - including being a pain in the ass to someone and someone being a pain in the ass to me (I have more than one friendship that at various times I could describe in that fashion) - I have found outside of the formal, institutional church but INSIDE “the church” as it pertains to two or more believers gathered in the Lord’s name…for there he is in the midst of them.
I’m not entirely content where I am - but it’s a hell of a lot better than any formal, institutional church I know of…and in all the ways that you said the formal institutional church was there for. Someday I would like to be in regular community with a few folks, but I am pretty sure (maybe I’m just being cynical?) I can’t find it at a formal, institutional church.
But…maybe some people CAN find it there, and if so, I’m all for it. I like what Brian McLaren said in “The Last Word and the Word After That” about deep ecclesiology: respecting the church in all its forms: all denominations, minichurches, megachurches, housechurches…right down to the two or three gathered in Christ’s name. It’s all church, and any one of those types of groups can be what Christ intended for the church…and any one of those types of groups can fall hideously short and do shitty things.
I guess to sum up this way-too-long comment, I think it’s a very individual thing where God calls a person to live out being part of a church…whether that’s in a formal, institutional setting, an informal setting, or as EddieO said, the community at his door…Christians and non.
Boltono said,
September 3, 2005 at 12:41 am
Well, I read, and experience, that the effective prayer of a human in right-standing with God avails much. It often avails more than the institutional many-membered disfunctional bunch.
And out of the institutional boxes there are others…many…who communicate, support, and encourage each other in the true good damn news which is that to grow into a new creation-being IS possible.
Heaven in you? Yes, it is. The Kingdom of God comes INTO your heavenly places in you, and do you know an institutional “pastor” who can guide about that because they are spiritually free from “religious” spirit powers in there themselves and beyond their external programs of building the same old thing over and over? Hmm?
Good, if you truly do. That’s remarkable!
You are very welcome to pop by and read a post called “Basic how to live” at my blog. Cheers!