Domestication.

I've often felt that our faith has been domesticated. But more recently, many of the artists I run around with have shared that one of the major reasons they have "left organized religion" is the fact that the faith they once held dear has been watered down, ripped of its danger, and made vanilla.

CNN ran THIS ARTICLE.

"it seems like Christians are uncomfortable with how earthy the Bible really is. They feel the need to tidy up God...God’s message was not meant to be run through some arbitrary, holier-than-thou politeness filter. He intended the Bible to speak to people where they’re at, caught up in the stark reality of life on a fractured planet."

I couldn't agree more!

We attempt to expose a life-altering faith with our peers, but often times all that's experienced is a temperate, mundane, safe, far-from-revolutionary, nominal, set of beliefs that aren't much more than ideals we don't ever really expect to fully-believe, critically examine, or stand for in the face of any kind of scrutiny.

We've overcome the grit of broken lives with our choir robes and 3 chord praise songs; concealed the pain and doubt of life with freshly produced 1 hour services that tell us what we want to hear, so that we sleep better at night knowing we're right and they're wrong; and push us to dream only as big as we have left overs for.

I'm sorry, but when I open the pages of the scriptures, I just don't find a rationale for this domestication that's become the gold standard of church. I'm beginning to believe my friends that have walked away from faith were onto something, and the Church needs to reclaim what's withered.

Peace,
Ross