Everybody talks about religion but no one does anything about it…
A Joke?
Why on earth would we want to associate ourselves with something like heresy?
It seems like a bad thing, why label yourself something with such awful connotations?
To be honest part of it is tongue in cheek. A joke if you will, but most jokes carry some truth to them.
This is no exception. We are a group of Christians with some different points of view.
Whatever you think Christians are like we are probable not that.
Don’t misunderstand, we love Jesus. We love God, we love the Bible, but we are not your mamas Christians.
Some of us have come to believe Christianity, like other religions, have become hijacked and turned into something totally different than the original intent.
The way I see it is Jesus came to earth to show the love of God.
He showed us how to love and forgive each other.
He showed us God wasn’t mad at us, and we didn’t have to follow the rules like mindless robots.
He came to say, “I love you no matter what.” But things change.
After some people get their hands on Christianity they change it up a bit.
Sometimes they have good intentions and good ideas and sometimes it was for power or money but regardless things got changed.
Even the good ideas and intentions seemed to change things for the worse. Something so simple and life giving eventually turned into something stuffy and religious.
It became about only following rules and living up to a certain standard.
There were hoops to jump through to make sure God was happy with you and still loved you because you were a good person, which goes against Jesus telling us that God loves us unconditionally.
Not to say we shouldn’t be good people. I am not saying God wants you to be evil, but God doesn’t want you following rules like a slave.
What if your spouse cowered in the corner in fear of you?
Obeyed you, yet trembled while you spoke?
Your children obeyed you because they feared you wouldn’t love them.
They cry themselves to sleep because they are terrified of you. Relationships like that end badly.
They escape in the middle of the night, or worse.
This shows signs of an abusive relationship.
This is what religion has shown us.
“God loves you but now you have to do what He says…”
The ones who escaped now call themselves different things. Not for a new label really, we don’t really need those. We are not attached to being called one thing or another. Some are “Free believers”, or “Free range Believers.” Some just say they are on a Journey. Some differentiate and say they are, “Outies” as opposed to “Innies”. Mostly because it invokes images of belly buttons and we need a little humor. Some are “Out of the Box thinkers” and others are just free. That is the point. It doesn’t really matter what we are as long as we are free.
If
it seems like we hate church or organized religion, you may be right.
People will counter this with “Jesus instituted the church so you
should love it!” We are confusing terms here. The church is really the
people. The Church is the body of believers not a building or
organization. Some of us see the organizations and institutions as
manmade and riddled with worthless traditions. At its best it is boring
and a waste of time, at its worst it burdens people, gives them a poor
view of God and wastes money and resources that could go to much better
use.
Some of us are bitter as our critics say, but some are not. Why shouldn’t we be? If someone manipulated you or stole from you or lied to you for years wouldn’t you be bitter too? As for me when I left I wasn’t bitter. I was just going on another step in my journey to know God better. After I tended to my wounds I was bitter. I left quietly and respectfully and was attacked personally, gossiped about, yelled at, was called names, among other things. Then I turned bitter. But again, some of us aren’t bitter we just found another way to be with God.
Which brings us to now. We have been called Heretics by our friends, family and clergy. There are certain things the church believes and if someone asks questions or has a differing opinion they are branded a heretic, which is ironic to me. Most of us go to the Bible, where the church claims to glean all their understanding and base all their operations out of, and come up with something completely different than what they have come up with. For example: They build big buildings with big budgets and payrolls, and we come up with, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”. They condemn people for being sinners and we see, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone” and, “Neither do I condemn you”. They support war and violence in the name of religion and we see, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Among other things.
They accuse us of straying from the church’s teachings. They call us Heretics for not obeying their every word. Which makes us wonder, is the Church’s word God’s word? Have the thousands of years of tweaking beliefs and practices brought us to the complete opposite of what Jesus was saying? Is this some horrible guilt producing version of telephone? Regardless, the question remains:
Back to the original question, what is “the Heresy” of which we speak? This, “heresy” is a heresy of love and acceptance, of being ok with not having all the answers and even rewarding questions. We believe in the Heresy of living more simply so that others might simply live. We believe that when Jesus said, “Love your enemies” he didn’t mean to kill them. We believe that all believers are priests and not just the ones that have a degree, for we all have God inside of us, teaching us, among many other things.
Although some of us may not believe these things either and that is the point. We are all at different points on this journey and we all have different opinions on things. This does not mean we can’t get along and learn from each other. This list is not an “Articles of Faith” but a starting point for those of you who don’t quite get us, and I’m sorry to say you might never “get” us, but some of you out there might be feeling this way. Like the way you were taught in church isn’t quite right. Like you were missing something, or maybe they were. Like church was a waste of time. Like you never learn anything anymore, or grow anymore. Maybe it’s not about going to church and being a good person. It might not be about “getting involved” or “giving more”. Maybe it’s simpler. Maybe it’s about living life and listening to God. Maybe it’s not about following an outline and becoming like everyone else. Maybe it’s about becoming who God made you to be…
We are sick of seeing the church give Jesus a bad name, and we want to bring Jesus back to where he belongs. We are taking Jesus away from the rich, self righteous , and religious and to the poor, the outcast and the sinner,
if that makes us heretics, then so be it...…
A Joke?
Why on earth would we want to associate ourselves with something like heresy?
It seems like a bad thing, why label yourself something with such awful connotations?
To be honest part of it is tongue in cheek. A joke if you will, but most jokes carry some truth to them.
This is no exception. We are a group of Christians with some different points of view.
Whatever you think Christians are like we are probable not that.
Don’t misunderstand, we love Jesus. We love God, we love the Bible, but we are not your mamas Christians.
Some of us have come to believe Christianity, like other religions, have become hijacked and turned into something totally different than the original intent.
“When someone within any institution in general
…and the institution of the church in particular calls the members of that institution back to the original intent…
of the founders or in the case of the church the founder Jesus
…they are often condemned as being radical and divisive”
Steve Brown
The way I see it is Jesus came to earth to show the love of God.
He showed us how to love and forgive each other.
He showed us God wasn’t mad at us, and we didn’t have to follow the rules like mindless robots.
He came to say, “I love you no matter what.” But things change.
After some people get their hands on Christianity they change it up a bit.
Sometimes they have good intentions and good ideas and sometimes it was for power or money but regardless things got changed.
Even the good ideas and intentions seemed to change things for the worse. Something so simple and life giving eventually turned into something stuffy and religious.
It became about only following rules and living up to a certain standard.
There were hoops to jump through to make sure God was happy with you and still loved you because you were a good person, which goes against Jesus telling us that God loves us unconditionally.
Not to say we shouldn’t be good people. I am not saying God wants you to be evil, but God doesn’t want you following rules like a slave.
What if your spouse cowered in the corner in fear of you?
Obeyed you, yet trembled while you spoke?
Your children obeyed you because they feared you wouldn’t love them.
They cry themselves to sleep because they are terrified of you. Relationships like that end badly.
They escape in the middle of the night, or worse.
This shows signs of an abusive relationship.
This is what religion has shown us.
“God loves you but now you have to do what He says…”
Labels
The ones who escaped now call themselves different things. Not for a new label really, we don’t really need those. We are not attached to being called one thing or another. Some are “Free believers”, or “Free range Believers.” Some just say they are on a Journey. Some differentiate and say they are, “Outies” as opposed to “Innies”. Mostly because it invokes images of belly buttons and we need a little humor. Some are “Out of the Box thinkers” and others are just free. That is the point. It doesn’t really matter what we are as long as we are free.
Hating Church
If
it seems like we hate church or organized religion, you may be right.
People will counter this with “Jesus instituted the church so you
should love it!” We are confusing terms here. The church is really the
people. The Church is the body of believers not a building or
organization. Some of us see the organizations and institutions as
manmade and riddled with worthless traditions. At its best it is boring
and a waste of time, at its worst it burdens people, gives them a poor
view of God and wastes money and resources that could go to much better
use.
Bitter
Some of us are bitter as our critics say, but some are not. Why shouldn’t we be? If someone manipulated you or stole from you or lied to you for years wouldn’t you be bitter too? As for me when I left I wasn’t bitter. I was just going on another step in my journey to know God better. After I tended to my wounds I was bitter. I left quietly and respectfully and was attacked personally, gossiped about, yelled at, was called names, among other things. Then I turned bitter. But again, some of us aren’t bitter we just found another way to be with God.
Heretic
Which brings us to now. We have been called Heretics by our friends, family and clergy. There are certain things the church believes and if someone asks questions or has a differing opinion they are branded a heretic, which is ironic to me. Most of us go to the Bible, where the church claims to glean all their understanding and base all their operations out of, and come up with something completely different than what they have come up with. For example: They build big buildings with big budgets and payrolls, and we come up with, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”. They condemn people for being sinners and we see, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone” and, “Neither do I condemn you”. They support war and violence in the name of religion and we see, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Among other things.
They accuse us of straying from the church’s teachings. They call us Heretics for not obeying their every word. Which makes us wonder, is the Church’s word God’s word? Have the thousands of years of tweaking beliefs and practices brought us to the complete opposite of what Jesus was saying? Is this some horrible guilt producing version of telephone? Regardless, the question remains:
Are we heretics for straying from the church’s teachings? Or is the church heretical for straying from Christ’s teachings?
What Heresy is this?
Back to the original question, what is “the Heresy” of which we speak? This, “heresy” is a heresy of love and acceptance, of being ok with not having all the answers and even rewarding questions. We believe in the Heresy of living more simply so that others might simply live. We believe that when Jesus said, “Love your enemies” he didn’t mean to kill them. We believe that all believers are priests and not just the ones that have a degree, for we all have God inside of us, teaching us, among many other things.
Although some of us may not believe these things either and that is the point. We are all at different points on this journey and we all have different opinions on things. This does not mean we can’t get along and learn from each other. This list is not an “Articles of Faith” but a starting point for those of you who don’t quite get us, and I’m sorry to say you might never “get” us, but some of you out there might be feeling this way. Like the way you were taught in church isn’t quite right. Like you were missing something, or maybe they were. Like church was a waste of time. Like you never learn anything anymore, or grow anymore. Maybe it’s not about going to church and being a good person. It might not be about “getting involved” or “giving more”. Maybe it’s simpler. Maybe it’s about living life and listening to God. Maybe it’s not about following an outline and becoming like everyone else. Maybe it’s about becoming who God made you to be…
We are sick of seeing the church give Jesus a bad name, and we want to bring Jesus back to where he belongs. We are taking Jesus away from the rich, self righteous , and religious and to the poor, the outcast and the sinner,
if that makes us heretics, then so be it...…
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