“Which woods?” you ask.
“Good question,” I respond. “Just look around: hundreds of denominations. Buildings. TV and radio preachers. A music and film industry. Hundreds of millions of dollars in donations. Preachers. Crackpots. Programs. Rules and expectations. Meetings. And theologies—hundreds of them. A dark, dank, and often frightening forest full of wolves and gingerbread houses and utter nonsense.”
“Is all of it nonsense?”
“No, of course not. But some of it is.”
“Which parts?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Christianity is a relationship with God that began several millennia ago, as was revealed to our ancestors and handed down through the years. During that time, the people of God were embattled, enslaved, exiled, persecuted, and dispersed around the world. Prophets and kings came and went. God himself showed up at times. Stories were written down and structures were put in place to hold the stories. Ideas were added, removed, or changed. Groups split. Teachings were lost and others were invented. Along the way, religion became big business, and a lot of “fluff” (to put it very nicely) was added.
People are leaving Christianity in droves. Church leaders and laypeople alike spend too much time talking about postmodernism, deconstruction, and other big words that no one seems to understand (and that I try not to use). I don’t claim to be postmodern. I am not a progressive and neither am I a conservative (which, to me, is simply yesterday’s progressive that stopped progressing). I’m just a wanderer and a wonderer seeking truth while remaining rooted in the ancient creeds and beliefs.
Many years ago, a friend called me “the eternal seeker” because I refused to be satisfied with his or anyone else’s pat answers. I think it’s a good phrase. I believe that once God is freed from our mental, philosophical, and theological boxes, there’s always something new to discover. Seek and you shall find. Go where no man has gone before. Wonder. Wander. Grow.
From Unboxing God–An Unevangelical Guide To Christianity, release date October 15, 2024.
Copyright ©2024 Alden Swan
