Posted by Helen on: 07.06.2006 /
(This is a follow-up to Why I Don’t go to Church Anymore)
I got some! This afternoon I saw a couple of Christians I know who go to evangelical churches (one goes to my ex-church).
1) This afternoon I was at one of the local swimming pools with my children and saw someone I knew. I said “hi” and she said “Hey, I just read something by you in the newspaper yesterday!”
She doesn’t actually live in my neighborhood but her Dad does . She was at his house yesterday and saw what I wrote in his newspaper.
We were both Bible study group leaders about six years ago - that’s how we met. We haven’t had much contact since. It turns out that she now goes to the Vineyard church I visited and reviewed a few weeks ago.
Anyway she asked me a couple of questions and we had a good chat. She was nicely open, saying it seems like I’m on a journey. So I was very pleased how that went.
2) The daughter of one of my friends was at our house today. This is one of my friends I’ve been honest with, who has been very kind and accepting. When I saw her, she said she’d read it and there wasn’t anything in it she didn’t know. She said her husband (who didn’t know what she knew about me) ‘didn’t get it’ and she’d tried to explain it to him. Her family currently goes to my ex-church; before that they were very involved at Lawndale (a church Jim has visited which does very well at MTWABP in its local community).
Neither of them tried to ‘fix’ me - which I really appreciated!
Comment by: jim
1 07/6/06 9:33 PM | Comment Link |keep us posted on anymore local feedback
Comment by: Eliza
2 07/6/06 9:58 PM | Comment Link |Helen - I’m so glad these people were positive about it! I’d imagine that’s something of a relief - to have the first reactions go smoothly.
Comment by: Julie Marie
3 07/7/06 3:41 AM | Comment Link |whew. I’m glad people have been accepting too.
Comment by: Helen M.
4 07/7/06 6:19 AM | Comment Link |It definitely was encouraging that my first local responses were so accepting.
I’ll be interested to see if anyone writes to the newspaper to ’set me straight’. (I probably won’t be able to report back on that until after vacation, but y’all can check the Wednesday Journal Online next Wednesday - click on Viewpoints, then Letters - and see if there’s anything there in response to my article)
Comment by: Siamang
5 07/7/06 4:57 PM | Comment Link |So far so good!
Comment by: Marty
6 07/11/06 9:40 PM | Comment Link |Helen did a get a response. Here it is - http://www.wjinc.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=17&ArticleID=5019&TM=2123.391
Comment by: Eliza
7 07/11/06 11:16 PM | Comment Link |Hmmm. The letter-writer took something very different away from Helen’s article than I did.
I suspect the letter-writer was reacting to certain parts of the last few lines of Helen’s article:
But it seems like the letterwriter missed the part about this being Helen’s own life & views she’s talking about, and missed also the part about respecting how other people get on with [their lives], and missed also the part about valuing making the world a better place - and thought Helen was generalizing to say that church doesn’t help anyone “do that”. But maybe Cs here will see something different in the letter-writer’s response?
Also kind of interesting to jump on Helen’s essay, which is full of I/me/my/mine - clearly her own personal reflection - & conclude the world is full of people who are eager to categorize and judge others. My reaction is a “sheesh, you missed the point” but again I may be missing some meaning & nuances you Cs can see…
Comment by: NCxian
8 07/12/06 4:51 AM | Comment Link |That looks like a good assessment to me, Eliza. The letter writer seems to have gotten stuck on the sentence “I don’t want to belong to any group claiming their way to God is superior to some other group’s way” and ignored the rest of the letter.
I think many progressive/liberal Christians have a sore spot where they are constantly having to defend themselves against folks who have a view of Christianity as only FE. Helen apparently poked that sore spot for the writer, which blinded her to everything else Helen said.
Do you think Helen’s column could come across differently if you don’t “know” her as well as we do? I guess I need to try to read it with fresh lenses!
Comment by: Julie marie
9 07/12/06 7:49 AM | Comment Link |yes, the letter writer seemed to get stuck on the perceived barb. I see how that would “smart”, although I missed it in the article the first time, because I already know quite a bit about Helen’s journey and her sensitvity.
It just goes to show, we need work hard at not being “reactive” and closing our ears. Its hard. Even between spouses who love each other…its hard work to assume the best and work towards understanding when we are offended.
Comment by: Helen M.
10 07/17/06 4:12 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for posting a link to that letter, Marty.
I don’t know the author of it.
I agree with NCxian that the author seems to be very sensitive about her kind of Christian being accused of not being a real Christian both by more conservative Christians and being overlooked by people who aren’t Christians.
As Eliza wrote, I thought my essay was about me and my experiences and I wasn’t sure why the letter-writer thought I was trying to tell her anything.
I sent a response to the letter to the newspaper. I’m not sure whether they’ll print it or not.
I’ll post more about local feedback soon. A few people sent me things while I was away.
Comment by: Julie marie
11 07/17/06 11:47 AM | Comment Link |I think we Cs are conditioned to be on the lookout for sermons everywhere ;)
We would do well to lighten up!