So my dad and I went and saw Priest last night. It was surprisingly entertaining, vampires and cheesy villains and all. Plus is got me thinking about one of the things that makes me the most angry in my search for the truth: church authoritarianism.
In the movie, the mantra of the church was, "To go against the church is to go against God." They were insistent that the main character not pursue the vampire menace because it "doesn't exist," and to say otherwise was to be a sinner. Now, for better or worse, I am a huge rule person. To do anything that even remotely smells of rule-breaking leaves me anxious and guilt-ridden. But, nowadays, I'm beginning to question this way of life. I've always prided myself on being "orthodox" in my religious views, but what if I explored some other avenues? One of my good friends, who definitely loves Jesus and talks with him regularly, hates all rules and deliberately breaks them when they are placed upon him. Is he to be shunned for his heterodoxy or applauded for his life of liberty? I'm not sure yet. But I do know that I want to believe things because I actually believe them, not because I'm told I should.
I was impressed by a line in the movie that went something like this: "Our power doesn't come from the church. It comes from God." Now, I'm not about to go off on a church-bashing spree; I just want to point out that being on good terms with the church does nothing for you if you are also walking away from God. So, for right now, I'm forgetting about the rules for a bit and simply focusing on what God might say about my life. Who knows, it might actually be something good for once.
On a semi-related note, since I wasn't allowed to drink at my Christian college, tonight I will be going out with my family for dinner and my first drink of alcohol!
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