slippedaway wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 8:59 pm
The church has not been a place of comfort for me for the past 5 years or more. I'm tired of putting on the everything's ok mask.
I remember people asking each other "how have you been" or "how's your sister (or brother)", etc. What I realized over time is that the topic of discussion was really primarily about health. A response might be, "well I had a cold for a few days, but I'm felling better" or "well, my sister still is having difficulty getting around", etc. Any discussion of difficulty beyond that, whether spiritually related or not, was a red flag of your lack of faith. The "putting on the everything is ok mask" gave you a pass on any such accusation against you.
After all, everyone in the CofC was always attaining sinlessness, then falling back a little, then regaining sinlessness again by going to church and partaking of communion to let the blood of Christ flow back over them again and take out all those newly accummulated sins (like when they were originally baptized). What therefore would be the reason for anyone not to wear an "everything's ok mask" in the CofC? If you didn't do that, especially in church, something was very wrong with you. In other words, "we don't have sad or troubled people here, we're THE CHURCH".
I believe that situation also, to a great extent, comes from American culture where everyone is on their own and expected to take care of themselves only, and it then becomes a weakness or a sign of shame to ask for or admit you need help in any way. The Church of the Self-Sufficient should never really need the help of others or God Himself. After all, they've got the scriptures, you know.
