9/11/12 Jake, 21
A young man skillfully
skateboarded through Chicago's busy downtown traffic and sat down to rest on
the sidewalk ahead of me. He looked like
he might have some time to talk, so I asked about his spiritual beliefs. Jake, 21, believes that the Bible and other
religious books should only be read figuratively, to the point that, for
example, he believes Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, and other religious leaders are
all one and the same, that the Bible is just a result of centuries of exaggeration
and distortion, and that the Tree of Life in Genesis represents cannabis, which conveniently supports his recent
discovery of the pleasures of pot smoking. Jake told me he grew up in a strong Christian
family, attending a non-denominational Bible Church. I asked when he had veered away from his
families' beliefs. "I was just as zealous about my faith as
my parents until about a year ago, when I had an atheist girlfriend. She got me questioning my beliefs, and there
were a lot of questions I couldn't answer. Then I started experimenting with pot, and it
was like it expanded my mind to all sorts of other questions I had never
thought of before." Jake viewed his
parents as deeply faithful Christians, so I asked "Have you ever seen your
parents sharing their faith with anyone besides yourself and people they know
at church?" "You know, I
really haven't..." he said. "...and I thought that's what
Christianity was supposed to be about!"
Could it be that since your parents haven't been sharing their faith
with others, they weren't aware of or didn't see any need to prepare you for
the challenges to your faith that you would face from the world?" Jake's response was like I had really hit the
nail on the head, and that the problem was prevalent in the whole church. I acknowledged the failures of our churches,
telling him that "Too often our
Sunday gatherings are like a team gathered around its quarterback in a huddle. He gives them plays straight from the playbook
and an inspiring motivational speech, they give him great praise in return,
they break with a resounding "Let's go!" - and then they do go - to
the water cooler, the sidelines, the far end of the field, anywhere but the
front lines. The quarterback gets sacked
and they wonder what went wrong!" Jake
and I talked about several other things including the love and justice of the
Gospel, but I think it was my honest appraisal of his church experiences that
helped him to see he has missed out on much of what biblical Christianity is all
about, and that this has left him unable to defend what faith he did have. He thanked me for talking to him. "This is what its all about -you're
doing what you are supposed to be doing!"
I appreciated his compliment, but I still hope he listened.
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