When my children were growing up, i believed we needed, as a family, a church home. We went to lots of churches; covered every congregation within miles. It came to a complete stop when my daughter, very young was traumatized by a Sunday School teacher. The teacher didn't know that it was her first time there and asked her a question she couldn't answer. She told my daughter that her parents were going to hell for neglecting her Christian education. The poor kid was so upset and cried all the way home (she was maybe 5 or 6 then) and it took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to tell me what was wrong. She didn't want me to know that I was going to hell.
Well, I couldn't have gotten her into a church again if I had wanted to...any church. Well, many years later, two college degrees, a husband and an excellent job, she went into a church again last Sunday. It was a huge church in Texas with a complex of buildings and lots of wealth apparent in the clergy parking lot (a Mercedes and 2 Lexus') and lots of clunkers in the regular lot. She noticed a huge crowd outside and slipped in through a side door. Bet you can guess what happened next! It was all about money, tithe, tithe and more tithe. If you pay you will be rewarded with wealth beyond your dreams. If you aren't, it's because you haven't dug deep enough into your pockets. She decided to quietly slip out....not her cup of tea. This is when she found out why the huge crowd was outside.
It was some type of riot going on. A protest gone crazy. When she tried to leave, people tried to stop her. "Don't leave, it's still time to save you, sister." Outside, people were yelling "Nazis" and other people came outside. Shoving and cursing and people outside waving signs. People inside yelling "baby killers." She had no idea what was going on but it was so heated that she felt she was in a situation where someone just might pull out a gun and start shooting. She felt like they were crazy on both sides of the church doors. She got to her car by shoving her way through a mob but was too shook up to drive, stopped a few blocks away and called her husband to pick her up. So much for the serenity and love of Christ being found in church. She called me while she waited for her husband to get there. I've never seen her so scared and upset since her church visit as a child. I suggested she call the police to quell the mob but she simply wanted out of it. I am amazed that of all the Sundays, she picked that particular day to go to a church. Maybe God was sending a message loud and clear. She went in search of Christ and found political fruitcakes on both sides... the worst of the radicals.
You can bet that this was the last church visit she'll ever make. She and her husband have decided to have a baby and she thought maybe she should have more Christian spirituality. Now I think she knows that she won't find Christ there. He has been inside her all along. She can teach their child-to-be by example, learning the Holy Bible herself and talk at home and by not turning the job over to people who will lie, cheat and steal from the poorest of humanity.
I humbly thank God for seeing her home safely and showing her where she doesn't belong. He is wise beyond anything I can imagine.
Hugs to all,
Pogo
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Topic: My daughter's experience in church (Read 3557 times)