Seinfeld on the spiritual walk

Observations on my faith journey:
One thing that has been difficult in discussion with people here at least is that I'm happy for anyone whose faith is real and nurtured. Just because I've gone elsewhere to find that doesn't mean I think everyone should go where I have. I'm genuinely happy. But it is either hard for them to understand, or hard for me to communicate, the grace of acceptance. They must feel that since I've gone elsewhere and thus have repudiated where they are, that I must hold out some secret resentment for them still being there. It's weird. (What grates me is the unreality of some people's faith experience, the smallness of its scope, the suppression of its questions. But that's their business...!)

Actually one thing I've noticed is a generational thing. Many of my younger post-modern contemporaries have more of a 'whatever works for you' mindset, so they don't respond unfavorably. But of the senior citizens I know.... the reaction is incredulity. I think there is much less that resonates within them of a personal quest, or the value of individually seeking to find whether one buys into what has always been taught. Or maybe it is just anti-intellectualism at work. Or maybe a fear that Truth shouldn't be questioned. It seems to shake the foundations -- and I guess in reality it DOES shake the foundations -- to look at both the fruit and the roots and to decide if you're climbing the right tree! :-)

I feel like this: if one is afraid of something, that's probably the thing one SHOULD look at. Perfect love casts out fear, we're told. So the presence of fear in the context of one's faith should be a sign that something isn't right. Sometimes I feel like the boulder that people trip against....if I just weren't there, they'd mosely happily down their path. But because I exist in the path, and must be confronted, I'm a problem. Most people just try to walk around the boulder with as little contact with it as possible.

This changing of path in midstream is viewed suspiciously! I really don't know how the majority of people respond to the news because they say nothing of it to me.

I remember the Sienfeld episode where Elaine says to her 'Christian' boyfriend Puddy, "I am not going to hell and if you think I'm going to hell, you should care that I'm going to hell even though I am not." So they go to the priest for counseling, and he says "Let me see if I understand this. Elaine, you're concerned that he isn't concerned that you're going to hell." Then when Elaine and Puddy mention that they are not married, just sleeping together, the priest replies, "Oh, well then it's simple. You're both going to hell."

Somewhere in that episode, I see a smidgen of truth about Catholic/Protestant relations!