In late spring, our church took a strong stance on only allowing “masked-up attendees” into worship after first opening the doors, to which (some of you might remember) I shared my opposing views directly with our Pastor. I truly respect our Pastor, and thoroughly enjoy (and find clarity/hope/direction in) his sermons, but I have personal convictions that strongly conflict with these recent policies.
So I tried sharing my point of view to our Pastor, but surprisingly, was basically told that I should stay home and watch via livestream if I couldn’t comply…. and/or find another church.
Shortly after that, in early summer, our church changed their policy—-allowing “fully vaccinated people into worship without masks”. Well, my vaccination status is none of their business…. So my children and I took it as a green light to start attending worship again, mask-free! It was awesome to be back with our church family, and to see (and feel the love from) all of the sweet people that have been around my kiddos since they were babies.
Well, that policy lasted a couple months at most… and now a new more restrictive policy was just sent out to all of us:
“Masks are required for everyone inside the building, regardless of vaccination status. Medical or cloth masks that cover the nose and mouth should be worn by all persons over the age of 2 while indoors. During coffee hour, people are welcome to unmask while actively eating or drinking.”
In my opinion, there are so many ridiculous points to this policy, it’s almost laughable. Two year olds, really? Give me a fucking break.
With this policy, they have:
1. Let my maskless family know that we are no longer welcome,
2. Let my maskless family know that we are too dangerous to be around,
3. Shown the congregation that they’d rather use their positional power to mandate restrictive policies, than offer middle ground options where families can choose how to participate in the in-person option (i.e. by offering a “masks are recommended but optional” policy, results in no one in the congregation being turned away, but all have a choice to make).
So, our church has essentially kicked us to the curb again.
And it’s my fault. First time, shame on them, second time shame on me. I swallowed up the breadcrumbs they offered greedily the first time they tossed them. But I should’ve known better. When a church gets to a point where they are excluding members of their congregation, it is very clear that their moral compass is broken.
Therefore, I am officially on the hunt for a new church… preferably one that has a good amount of children & one that welcomes all to communion. I have a few that have been sent to me earlier this year that I will be starting with, but excited to hear about more, too.
I’m looking forward to this new spiritual chapter & journey, as I:
(1) introduce my children to more and more different formats of religion,
(2) get to meet many more God-fearing humans:),
(3) get to teach my kids through example, that they have the freedom & personal control to design their own life & interactions, and
(4) get to teach my children through example, that no human or policy can stop you from finding your path to connecting with God.
#bealion
#beaGodfearinglion