Smrnda on Troubler of Israel:
"Church Membership Isn't Optional."
Another comment on that rather long-ago post on church membership being a mandate from On High. This time, the author goes by the name of "Smrnda," and like to read blogs by atheists and Christian progressives.
"A mark of adulthood is
when a person no longer needs some external authority to keep them in line.
Adults don't outsource their decision making to outside parties. Sure, they
might consult with people, but in the end, adults make their own decisions and live
with the consequences, and take ownership of them. Perhaps in simpler times
people could merely do as they were told and get by, but those days are long
past. Even in employment, the value of people who 'do as they are told' is
declining. People who can make autonomous decisions are more valuable. A person
who needs to be told what to do is basically a failure unfit for much of
anything.
"So, if people aren't eager to belong to
organizations that 'we will make decisions for you' it might simply be that,
once people realize that they can make their own choices, such an organization
has no utility? It's like offering fit, active people some rudimentary personal
training sessions. They'll only feel patronized, and the 'sessions' will waste
their time. In the modern era, people understand the need to abide by laws, but
laws ought to be the least restrictive possible.
"If churches are wondering 'why won't people
submit to our authority' they should ask the opposite - what do they have that
would make anyone willing to do so? You seem to take as a given that functional
adults would seek out people to run their lives for them and tell them what to
do. Virtually nobody needs that, except perhaps the most unstable and troubled."
Posted by Jennifer A. Nolan
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