thanks to a tweet from @emergentvillage, i came across a great blog post from curtis honeycutt (@curtishoneycutt) today speaking to—as the title suggests—those who have been burned by church. it’s a beautiful, vulnerable, honest conversation with an ever-growing group of people. so, if you’ve ever felt put off, not by jesus, but by the church, take a minute to read this. curtis, no doubt, shares many of my feelings.

—————————————————–

Just the mention of the word “church” leaves a bad taste in your mouth and may cause you to throw up in your mouth a little. You recall old scars that you’ve been trying to cover up for years. I get that.

At some point (or maybe for much of your life) someone or a group of Christians have blatantly mis-represented Christianity to you. Maybe you got turned off by a televangelist or street preacher. Perhaps you received a million dollar bill tract as a tip at a restaurant where you were working the dreaded Sunday lunch shift, full of high maintenance, crabby Christians who are fresh out of a church service. To you, “church” has become a four-letter word.

Someone has turned the Bible into a blunt weapon against you.

Someone has told you that the “good news” is that you’d go to hell if you died tonight.

Someone has emotionally torn you down and left you in a heap of tears.

Someone’s arrogance/ignorance made you cringe and want to disappear.

Someone has caused you to never want anything to do with Christians, church, or God ever again.

Those people are condescending assholes. There is no excuse in the universe for these kinds of attitudes and actions. My heart breaks for you and what you have experienced. I don’t think therapists are qualified to deal with the kind of hurt and pain that has been inflicted on you and continues to weigh you down at just the glimpse of a lame saying on a church marquee.

I am no better. Sometimes I cuss (see above). I have looked down on people who I perceived as “big sinners”. I’ve had hateful attitudes towards those who I deemed “unrighteous”. I don’t want you to follow my example.

Thankfully, though, I have caught a brief glimpse of the church living up to its full potential. I think God wants Christians to wage war not against Democrats or hippies or homosexuals, but on poverty, HIV/AIDS, and injustice. I think that God loves when we ask lots of questions and when we honestly struggle with life.

I believe that God loves you just the way you are; God made you very specifically with all your quirks and idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately, people aren’t perfect and often warp the idea of what God is like.

What I ask is that, if any of this stuff strikes a chord with you, you will let some of these words sink in and you’ll take some time to process what this means to you. I totally understand if it takes quite a while before you trust Christians, church, or anything that has to do with God.

My hope for you is that at some point you are re-introduced to God in a new way–whether you see God in the eyes of a homeless man, in a gorgeous sunset, through a friend who cares about you, or even on a Sunday morning, inside a big room with stained-glass windows.

You’ve been burned, but you don’t have to stay burned…

With All Respect,

Curtis Honeycutt