Conversing with the Shepherd
Well, this should be interesting.
I received a phone call this morning from Pastor Bolhagen of Trinity Lutheran Church in Hampton, which is the church I used to go to (before I reached the Age of Reason) and continues to be my mother’s church. He said he wanted to talk to me sometime, and I asked why. “Well, you’re still listed as a member here.” I nearly laughed. I said, “Uh, yeah. I should probably take care of that. I haven’t really formally renounced it but should have gotten around to it.”
“Oh? Are you attending anywhere else?” he asked. “Well, I’m attending the Methodist Church on a casual basis. It’s not a permanent relationship yet, but so far suits my needs.”
“Why don’t you want to remain a member here?”
“Well, suffice it to say that my beliefs no longer align with what Trinity believes.” (I nearly snorted, but held myself back.)
He was terribly curious as to what those beliefs were and I told him that it would be a very long telephone conversation if we got into that. I said if it was burning him up inside that we could get together and have a conversation about it sometime and he said that he’d like that, why don’t we do lunch? So, we decided to meet at the Ridgestone Golf Course on the 11th to have a talk over food.
Now, I’m all for conversations about religion and philosophy, but I get nervous when I have ones with persons dedicated to their point of view and not open to other viewpoints. This is why my mother and I don’t talk about religion anymore — she is so staunch in her position — it is right, dammit, and nobody’s going to tell her otherwise — that having a conversation about it is damned near impossible or at best, frustrating. The last time we had any sort of comprehensive argument about beliefs she ended up getting incredibly immature about it and we just cut it off. We haven’t discussed it since, thankfully.
The last time I had a talk with a preacher was when the pastor from my grandparent’s church (Richland Lutheran, Thornton, IA) had lunch with me. Instead of having an interesting conversation, it ended up being pretty one-sided, me saying what I thought and him going, “That’s nice, but that’s not what the Bible says.” Well, if that’s all you have in your repetoire, then we might as well not have a conversation at all. My world understanding extends beyond religious tomes and pamphlets and if yours doesn’t, you have ISSUES.
So, I have something to prepare for. Because this guy is considered an expert in his field (as such), I had better make sure my Ps and Qs are dotted before I attempt the fray. I’ll have to lay down some framework before we start the discussions; then it might be interesting. If not, it could end up just being another free meal with no meaningful outcome on either side.
Some might say, “You know, you’re just asking for it by doing this,” and perhaps I am. At the same time, I do want people to understand that where I come from has a lot of thought behind it, even if that thought doesn’t necessarily align with what they believe. Just because I view the world differently than you doesn’t make me evil or to be shunned. It simply makes me different.
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