I don't talk about religion on Facebook.

 First, I read this:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-ross/an-open-letter-to-the-lutheran-church-missouri-synod/10151202745810771

And then I wrote this:

I wasn't able to comment on this letter because I read it through a friend of a friend, but I feel compelled to share it because it is so beautifully written. I don't talk much about religion or my own journey in and out of organized Christianity, but Sarah sums up not only my problem with the LCMS, but with the ELCA and every church I have ever tried to be a part of with the exception of the incredible First Congregational Church, Santa Cruz. http://www.fccsantacruz.org

I was a member of the ELCA; a church I have a lot of love for because it gave me a solid foundation and love-filled home as a young person and I won't throw throw the baby out with the bath water. Nearly every denomination of Christianity does good and great things to commend it along with the ways each denomination is steeped in hypocrisy.

(Note: Hypocrisy isn't even really my problem; we're all hypocrites when it comes down to it. That's just the way the world is set up. None of us get a free pass.  My problem is with the inability to acknowledge and accept one's own hypocrisy.)

My eyes were opened to the painful truth about my own church when I was in college. My mom went to seminary and was treated unfairly and not on equal ground with men or even other women by any means. As a single woman and single mother, she was asked wildly inappropriate and personal questions about her dating life and desire to remarry, questions that never would have been asked of a man. She wasn't given equal consideration for ordination in her chosen field of ministry as others on her same career path. All in the name of dogma and fear. (And I won't even get into the politics of homosexuality--and wasteful spending around it--in that church, but it's not something, I decided, I could continue to associate myself with as an adult.)

If it's not dogma about women in ministry or the acceptability of interfaith services, it's wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars "studying" something controversial before taking a stand for what is right. If it's not fear, it's complacency.

I love FCC Santa Cruz because they don't claim ownership of a "true" gospel. They don't force absolute doctrinal agreement on their members. They value being in relationship over being right. They value growth over certainty. The pastors give sermons about big questions and problems and don't try to provide small answers in pat Bible verses. Christ is glorified, but what that means to each individual is allowed to be personal. Communion is open to all who wish to partake--baptized or not, Christian or not. Their church service on Santa Cruz PRIDE Sunday is held walking down the streets, inviting and welcoming all to love and be loved within their walls. They take a stand in a way I have yet to find another church take a stand. I love them and I miss them.

I respect everyone's religious and/or spiritual path, except those that determine that anything different is bad or wrong. Sorry if that makes me the loathed and dreaded "post-modern" Christian, but that's how it is with me, after all I've seen in this world and all of the outstanding people I love: Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic and everything in between.

And that's really all I have to say about religion.