“Go. Be apostles of this peace.”

This morning we posted on the Unfundamentalist Christians Facebook page (here) a link to my blog post for today, Eight “Bible-believing” churches vs. one progressive church.

In response to that link a commenter wrote:

I find all of it so nauseating I can’t even stand church anymore. Church culture and all of the nonsense has fatigued me in a way that I’m so over saturated with the BS that I honestly feel sick. I feel this exhausted eyeroll/shudder when people say “I’m a christian”. It usually means that someone is going to shove some political or “biblical” load of crap down my throat or judge me because I don’t think like they do or believe the way they do. I’m somehow “less than” “not of the faith” “in rebellion” “not in the covenant” or whatever.

Another commenter concurred:

That is what drove me away. All of the judgement and competition, and we are better than them crap. Just couldn’t take church anymore.

And that’s when our beloved Christy Caine (who wrote the viral post The lies Christian fundamentalism taught me) chimed in with this:

Which is part of the reason we created this group. There are Christians who are different. There are Christians who are intellectual. There are Christians who are welcoming and affirming. There are Christians who believe in gender equality. There are Christians who have high emotional intelligence. There are those of us who care for the environment and all people no matter who they are, what they wear, what language they speak, or where they are on their spiritual journey. There are Christians who love atheists and all other people of faith and believe we have things to learn from them. There are authentic people who have a healthy sense of self who aren’t helicopter parents, who aren’t consumerist, who aren’t trying to keep up with the Joneses, who value authentic and meaningful relationships and dialogue with a goal of better understanding each other and producing more light than heat.

There are Christians who want to make a difference in poverty, homelessness, education, who want to be humble, meek, gentle, kind, long-suffering, compassionate peacemakers. There are Christians who believe in the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam—who want to be part of God’s kingdom that repairs the world.

Sometimes we feel like we are alone … like Horton Hears a Who: We are here! We are Here!! WE ARE HERE!!!

But—here—we are.

We are Christians who value direct commune with God in many different ways, most often contemplation, meditation and nature. We are Christians who understand mysticism and a deep sense of knowing that can be understood as the movings of the Holy Spirit. We value wisdom and connection and realness.

And we are not alone.

Never believe that you are alone in this journey…

Because even when you see no one else like yourself … you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who went before you who, if you pause and pay attention, will show you the way.

Jesus said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Go. Be apostles of this peace.

Boy. Sometimes people just nail stuff, don’t they?

Thank you, Christy. Thank you from all of us.

Photo of Not All Like That (NALT) Christians.