Tuesday, June 21, 2005

You are all sheep!

Editor's Note: For the life of me, I cannot remember where the above quote comes from. I really have no recollection whatsoever. I simply remember that I thought it was hilarious and it seemed to fit this situation.

I went to the Annual Conference for my area of the United Methodist Church last week. In short, 3000 people gathered in a tiny little village and trying to stuff themselves into an airplane hangar with ancient wooden seats. The worship services were really good, of course, but the meetings were incredibly disheartening. People said some incredibly closed-minded things that made me lose some of my hope for mankind and particularly the church. There were things said that were so ignorant that they made me sick to my stomach. I don't understand how people can be so prejudiced and belong to an organization that is based on spreading God's love and understanding! How can "evangelists" ever hope to reach people if they insist on being so judgmental and self-centered that they fail to acknowledge that the people they're rejecting and insulting are "Beloved, child of God, and beautiful to behold." I still don't understand. I felt like the onle person in that enormous auditorium who was appalled by the hurtful things being said. As Mary says in Saved!, "So everything that doesn't fit into some stupid idea of what you think God wants you just try to hide or fix or get rid of? It's all too much to live up to. No one fits in one hundred percent of the time, not even you. [...] Why would God make us all so different if he wanted us to be the same?"

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