Key Concepts

When I became the youth minister at my church there was a curriculum in place. It shall remain nameless. All of our youth activities sprang from it. The truth - it was the dumbest excuse for youth curriculum I'd ever seen... and I've seen terrible stuff.

The badness started with it's "key concepts" which were, 1) manhood and womanhood are gifts from God and 2) adulthood must be earned. First of all, I understand there are some gender politics issues with the concepts. Second, I have no idea what the hell they mean or how they connect with Christianity.

There is nothing revolutionary. Nothing about a deeper connection with God or those around you. Nothing about fighting against injustice. Nothing about anything that would make this in any way unique from something someone could teach at a damn etiquette class. It is precisely the kind of bullshit that makes people think Christianity is simply a system that makes people nice and very supportive of the status quo.

It's gone now.

Something Different

I think we're doing a bit of talking past each other, so perhaps something new would be good (at least it would for me).

This week is the Lambeth Conference, for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) with the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion, it is a once every 10 year gathering of all the Bishops of the Communion. A number of Bishops were not invited this year (most for very good reasons), but one was not invited and for no good reason: Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was left off the guest list because he is openly gay. This is a shame in my opinion.

However +Gene will be in Canterbury this week, and is blogging! If you are interested in the relationship between religion and human sexuality, you may want to check the blog out here.