Tuesday, March 2, 2010

6 churches in one day

I'd love to hear what going to 6 churches in one day was like if you have time, which ones and your impressions and reactions?

I must have been around 12 years old. Bruce asked me to go to church with him... so I asked my mom. She said, no, that I was too impressionable. At the time I grew up my parents were atheists (years later they claimed that they were always agnostics (doubting, but not sure)). Both of my parents were Jews. My mom had an uncle (Lewis Browne) who had been a rabbi but gave it up partly because he saw a need to be part of a world rather than part of a tribe (my words, not his). My dad, as a kid, lived with an orthodox grandfather who prayed all day long. One day in Lebanon a bomb came through the roof and landed right next to the grandfather. The praying continued and the bomb did not go off. Then they both ended up at the University of Chicago where they learned that nothing is true that we can't prove with the scientific method. God was not provable, and therefore did not exist.

I'm not quite sure if I snuck out, or if my mom had a change of heart... but soon I started going to churches on Sunday. I found nice people who were willing to talk about their beliefs. I even joined a Baptist youth group. Baptists at the Univ. of Chicago were as liberal as they come... so liberal that the minister said that you believe in God if you imagine him. So I now believe in King Kong too.

When I was younger, maybe 6 or 8 years old, I remember walking past this great wall of St. Thomas Catholic Church. The wall was solid, and I imagined that the afterlife was on the other side of the wall. Why shouldn't it be a few blocks from where you grow up? One time I went to that church and thought it was awe-inspiring to hear the Latin and to see the seriousness of everyone, but boring that it went on so long. I think I ate the wafer and drank the wine. Little did I know that it was the blood of Christ.

Now, back to when I was 12 and doing religious globetrotting. I suspect they were: Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Quaker meeting, Catholic, and a couple of others. I was an atheist, but loved the spiritual feeling of the churches. Something seemed to be missing from my parents' analysis of the world. There was too much that we just don't know.

2 comments:

jashbaug said...

Nothing is true scientifically that can't be proven with the scientific method,this would be a logical statement in view of regulated thought.

jashbaug said...

Forgot this: Love is not provable, yet many claim it real?

Who's in the world?

Xiushan said, "What can you do about the world?" Dizang said, "What do you call the world?"