Joel Troxell

You know, that saying reminds me up by past JW upbringing. Though JW does not refer to their human board of leaders as "Mother"...They do consider their "Organization" THEE channel to God.

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As since they speak for God, they MUST be infallible, no?

That is pretty much what has kept me from going. As I was discussing with a friend recently, I'll probably go to the Episcopal church close to where I live. It's "high church," and they have classes all the time (religion, art, poetry) which might offer me some of what I yearn for, and yet leave me the "experience and reasoning" portion of my faith intact.

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Yeah, the Anglican Communion is the via media between extremes (sometimes). My wife and I attend an Episcopal church currently. I had to listen to my dad's griping about me going to a communion that elevated Robinson to the Episcopacy, and a parish that has a woman priest. I told him I didn't care. It has taken a while for me to realize that church is a lot like AA - who cares what everyone else is doing, it only works if I work it.

I'd consider myself as having a classic Christology, perhaps even in the Orthodox sense.    (At least I'm thinking about it.)

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Interesting. I've flirted with Eastern Orthodoxy for some time, but I doubt we will go to the dance together.

I very much like theology from the East. It is not as "wooden" as Roman Catholicism and all subsequent soteriology derived from the image of the Divine Courtroom. But you have to be willing to take everything EO has to offer - the culture, the authority of the Church (with a big "C"), and the notion that everything the Church does is holy. The first time I visited a parish, the priest quoted St Cyprian to me - "You cannot have God as your Father without the Church as your Mother." I should have responded with Augustine's, "The Church, she is my mother, and she is a whore." but I bit my tongue.

The liturgy is beautiful. The experience of God in the EO church is full. But I had to say thanks, but no thanks. But if it is for you, by all means. I'm sure you will not regret it!

-Joel

THAT caught my attention! 

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How so?

Good post, btw, I wish I was not such a late-comer to it!

I consider myself "born again" I guess in sort of the evangelical sense, although for me the journey for me was from fundamentalism/pentecostalism to where I am today. For me, it is an experience/process that goes beyond mere assent to a set of cognitive ideas and ethical/moral ideals. While I do hold to fairly classical Christology in the orthodox sense, there certainly has been an iconoclastic thing going on with me the past few years where I have painfully realized that many things I thought were "christian", certainly were not: infallibility of the written Bible, strict doctrinal assertions about salvation, assertions that there would only be Christians in heaven, American "manifest destiny", conservative religio-political ideals, etc. But I do not believe that there should be a marraige of "progressive" Christian beliefs with a blanket dismissal of religious experience. A life of prayer/meditation and piety is still important, and perhaps something that should be wrested from fundamentalism as well.

-Joel

I like to think I'm pretty conservative (depends on the day actually), but I don't see what the big deal is. It is probably more realistic in portraying a minister's life than Seventh Heaven, no? My wife and I are planning our evening around it so we can watch.