By Cheryl Ensom Dack ~ I was interacting with someone on Twitter and in my effort to explain why I take issue with this post by Fleming Rutledge about Advent , I ended up realizing something pretty big for me. Fleming Rutledge wrote, "When a culture of impunity is present human beings become bestial toward one another~that’s not an opinion; that’s a fact." She goes on to say, "Imagine a world without judgment. That’s impunity," and to basically imply that without impunity we'd all be doing atrocious acts of violence. I just don't buy it. As I was trying to put this into words, I ended up tweeting, "The problem is not our hearts; Our hearts are the solution." And then I had that sensation that you get when you have one of those rare but wonderful "a-ha!" moments. The heavens open up. The hallelujah chorus. Rays of sunshine. The whole nine yards. O.k. so maybe your thought is, "Duh..." Or maybe it just feels so fre...

T hat sounds like a goofy question, I know. I'm really asking it, though. There's a way I am attracted to the idea of being part of a larger spiritual community, whether that is six people that meet and eat/talk with one another, or a larger group. I like the idea of the same folks being a consistent part of my life. I miss that about church. I miss that "extended family" kind of feel about church. Image via Wikipedia I'm not, however, interested in being part of a spiritual community if that means I'm supposed to believe a set of things that everyone in the community is agreeing is "truth." I not only don't miss it, I won't be part of something that bases its sense of community around believing a certain thing or things. What happens naturally in such a setting is those who don't believe or who are doubting end up feeling that they "need" to move toward believing whatever that thing is. Many times they just end up talking ...

By Cheryl Ensom Dack ~ C ontrary to common Christian belief, the average atheist is not in fact someone who needs to have the Gospel presented to them in a clear way. They don’t need to have “the bridge illustration” doodled on a napkin for them. The average agnostic is NOT “not sure about God” because he or she doesn’t want to think too hard or is chronically fickle. In fact, according to an article in today’s L.A Times , “a survey that measured Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths.” Say, what? Yup…you read that right. Why, you ask, would an atheist or agnostic know more about religion than a Christian? The L.A. Times interviewed Alan Cooper , the associate director for research at the Pew Forum, the organization that released this survey earlier this week and he answers this very question. He thinks the reason atheists and agnostics know more about religion than those who ascribe to thos...

By Cheryl Ensom Dack ~ I would not say I’m an atheist and I resist labeling myself as an agnostic, mostly because I can’t stand labels anymore. But I definitely am not a Christian. I’m at a place where I no longer feel the need to believe or disbelieve anything. I know what I’m experiencing. I’m honest about it. I don’t need to label it. I don’t need to change or move. I’m where I’m at. Image by ~Liliana via Flickr Because the shifts that have gradually occurred in me didn’t happen overnight, I think it’s important to write about the various stages I went through in the deconstruction of my Christianity. I know I am not alone in the feelings I have or had, but I often feel like there is a lot written from a Christian stand-point and a lot written from an atheist or agnostic paradigm, but not a lot written about the “process” people go through in between. What about the places in between belief and unbelief? Lots of people are there, but unless they read something ab...

By Cheryl Ensom Dack ~ T oday is National Back to Church Sunday. My family and I won’t be inviting people to “come back to church.” In fact, we won’t even be going to church. Today is actually the first Sunday of a new phase in our family’s life: not attending church anymore, at all. We are five of the 8 million people this year that will leave the church, according to the National Back to Church Sunday website that defines my family and I as “un-churched.” Image by Bob Jagendorf via Flickr That’s where they’re wrong. We’re not “un-churched.” We are, what my husband and I have jokingly (but kinda seriously) dubbed ourselves as: “dis-churched.” Perhaps it sounds like semantics. I guess it’s rather like the naked/nude distinction that was explained to me long ago. “Naked” is when you’re without clothing and you are embarrassed, ashamed or caught unclothed when you didn’t expect to be. “Nude” is when you are without clothing and you like it! It’s not so much that our f...

By Cheryl Ensom “…and Cinderella and the Prince lived happily ever after. The End.” Golden-haired Cinderella was as magical to my little girl heart as it is to my own girls’. There is something deeply compelling about the story, as well as all the other fairytales in which “regular girls” are discovered by the handsome prince who can not help but be mesmerized by their beauty and fall desperately in love with them. The girl/princess does nothing more than walk through the forest singing, show up to a ball or simply lie asleep and the prince is overcome with love for her. He must have her. She is, without trying to be, the most beautiful woman in the world. The only woman for him. For several years of late girlhood and early teenage-hood I wondered if I would be beautiful. The verdict was still out for awhile. There were girls who were homely teenagers but became drop-dead gorgeous women; my aunt Donna was one. Perhaps I would wake up one day and be dazzlingly gorgeou...