James Brown<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"journey\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/361\/2017\/04\/journey.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I once thought that perhaps I was a progressive Christian, but I\u2019ve come to realize that that label includes me with a lot of people with whom I clearly disagree.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, I can\u2019t associate myself with \u201csocial Christians\u201d who drive their $50K SUVs to church on Sunday but do precious little else to express their \u201cfaith\u201d other than stick a plastic fish on their bumper or a cowboy kneeling before a cross on their back window.<\/p>\n
I certainly can\u2019t associate with the fundamentalist \u201csmall p\u201d Pharisees who place themselves above others, using politics and their majority social positions to try and impose their version of only outward morality on the rest of the \u201csinful\u201d world.<\/p>\n
The same with the mega-church evangelical \u201cbig show\u201d devotees who apparently only experience God if it\u2019s to a remake of a John Mayer song with Jesus words. (Though I do like some of the music \u2026 and some not.)<\/p>\n
Or the radio and TV evangelists who really only do it for the money until they\u2019re caught snorting meth in a whorehouse and are shown to be massive<\/em> hypocrites. <\/p>\nNeither can I embrace the various \u201ccharismatic\u201d denominations, who seem to be addicted to \u201codd\u201d outward shows of devotion, and who gave themselves away to me in Guam when, as a young man, I was told to \u201cfake it.\u201d I did, and I\u2019ve been ashamed of that moment ever since\u2014I have this thing about authenticity.<\/p>\n
Neither am I able to fully embrace being a Catholic, though I gave it my heart trying. <\/p>\n
There are few places left for me to turn to anymore. My most recent investigation involved a long hard look at Greek\/Russian Eastern\/Antiochan Orthodoxy, but to tell the truth, they have been so insular for so long, they don\u2019t seem to have much of a place in the larger society, though they do<\/em> have deep, mystical theology going for them.<\/p>\nBut I\u2019ll probably find reasons they don\u2019t or can\u2019t fit, express, or enhance the relationship I feel with God and with the Word, at least not any better than the others I\u2019ve rejected\u2014though maybe I\u2019m wrong. <\/p>\n
So after all the label-trying-on, trying to place myself somewhere, anywhere, that I can call myself part of a Christian community, I\u2019m beginning to understand that this has really been a fool\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n
I find peace and internal expression listening to both Catholic and Byzantine chant (sometimes for hours on end, many times all through the night as I sleep) and, in the midst of it, I find myself in long, deep, and honest \u201cconversations\u201d with God. Sometimes I swear I hear a separate voice in responding to me. I see that as a very good, if only a solitary, worship experience. <\/p>\n
I know I am supposed to, or at least I try to, form myself to the faith as expressed by Christ (and I have been, as best as I can, for almost 50 years), but do I have to want to be part of something I see as hopelessly and often adamantly wrong-headed? I don\u2019t think so. I know for certain I am a follower of Jesus, and maybe that\u2019s all I am, or ever should be. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ever going to look for \u201cchurch\u201d again, but I do know that I\u2019m not alone, that there are at least a few of us un-churched, full-time devotees to and followers of Christ. I am not alone\u2014am I?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by James Brown.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAbout James Brown<\/strong>
\nJames Brown is a Dad, a husband, a brother, a son, and a truck driver. Once a Jesus People Army \u201csoldier,\u201d always a Jesus People.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I once thought that perhaps I was a progressive Christian, but I’ve come to realize that that label includes me with a lot of people with whom I clearly disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[150,588,290],"class_list":["post-9107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-spirituality","tag-faith","tag-james-brown","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\n
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