There are No Stupid Questions: From the Question Box

​QUESTIONS DEEPEN OUR FAITH
 
I invited your questions about God and the church. I asked not because I have all the answers (I don't) but because a church that doesn't invite questions in favor of shallow answers is more interested in maintaining the institution than deepening faith. Here they are, broken into categories. I will attempt to respond to them in sermons, in newsletters, in Facebook live videos...whatever way I can. I was in tears reading them. May you know that you are not alone in your questioning, beloved. We are so lucky to be fellow travelers on the journey.
 
Questions about how hard it is to love human beings:

1. Afraid to ask: how am I to love my neighbor as myself when there are people I cannot forgive for their actions; a pedophile; a murderer of people of other religions besides their own; haters of LGBT folks, etc.
2. Why is there so much hate in the hearts of those who call themselves Christians especially?
3. Why can’t people stop hurting each other?
4. How do we better love people who hate?
5. How can “good people” support amoral/immoral leaders?
6. God reveals Him/Herself in many ways: why do some believe their faith is the only faith, and all other faiths are damned? And faith leads us/allows/encourages this?
7. If Jesus is love and the church is love then WHY are so many people who claim to be of faith so negative toward others?

 
Questions for the Pastor/Questions about our church:

1. On a scale from 1-10, what’s your favorite color in the alphabet?
2. How much can a member do?
3. We are open and affirming but most of our congregation is “mainstream.” How do we get better at bringing those who are on the fringes into our family (ie. LGBTQ, brown and black folks, disenfranchised…)
4. Why did you decide to become a Pastor?
5. Who and why did they change the name of the parish hall to the Sterling auditorium?
6. Why can we have a sermon focus on happiness rather than sadness?
7. What’s the difference between denomination and faith?
8. What denomination built the First Church structure and when did the church/congregation become multi-denominational?
9. How does one say to another that some spaces are best left to those who really need it?
10. Why can we have more silence during communion meditation?

 
Questions about the role of Church and the Bible in people’s lives:

1. What does church help?
2. What would the church look like if it had followed Jesus’ theology? Would it have been a version of Judaism? What would it look like?
3. Did Jesus have any siblings?
4. Are we in church today as sincere, or worthy, as those who were here before us?
5. Why are some unable to believe in spite of opportunity?
6. How do we instill and foster God’s love and presence in the lives of children and young parents with so much to fear and violence in daily exposure to the world and news?
7. Why does the Catholic Church Bible have four more books/chapters than we do?
8. How can the church help veterans reconcile the peace in their hearts with what we have experienced in wars against non-Christians?
9. What do you have to do to be accepted by a church that doesn’t require a lot of time and money?
10. What do you think will happen to the Methodist Church?
11. How do I interpret the passage about the women who have oil in their lamps and those who do not and are left outside. As a person who came to Christ than left the faith, it feels I am now “lukewarm” and left outside.
12. Where in the Bible is the part on how churches shall be run? (rhetorical question)
13. Why isn’t there an understanding that evolution can exist in the theory that it is God’s recipe for development?

 
The “Big Questions”/Ultimacy questions:

1. Is God real?
2. If God is real, why do so many bad things happen?
3. Why?
4. Why? –my dad
5. What does salvation really mean?
6. How do I reach God when struggling with relationships, death, others suffering. I pray but am not sure if there’s a response, as the issues go on and on.
7. How do we know if there is a heaven?
8. What does Jesus do to help the homeless?
9. Where is God?
10. Is evil an active force, or is it just the absence of love and an excess of fear?
11. Is there a common thread among all religions that will help us better understand God?
12. If we believe God chooses how we live, does he not also choose how we die? Whatever form it takes?
13. How do we put our faith in God when things go wrong?
14. Why does God allow terrible things to happen?
15. Why does Jesus allow children to be crippled by illness?
16. Why do good people get hurt so badly?
17. For Jesus: why is love the most important thing we can do?
18. Question for God: Why are we all here (on earth?) What is the point? Are there other beings somewhere? Is this (are we) “just” a great experiment? Is what occurs or exists in heaven really worth all of the suffering that occurs on earth?

 
Questions about God’s gender:

1. Why do you refer to God as a woman when we pray the “Our Father”?
2. Is God a boy or a girl?
3. God to me is non-gender, more spiritual than female or male. How could we cover up “…and Father” on the carving above the altar creatively and inexpensively with a Gereda altarscape so it says “One God of ALL”?

 
Personal questions for God:

1. Will I ever feel OK?
2. What if my faith never comes back?
3. Why do we allow distractions to both fill us up with stress and cover up our ability to reflect and answer/ponder answers that came into our mind?
4. Is my dad without cancer and comfortable in heaven?
5. Why does God leave people in nursing homes for months and years when they are no longer able to care for themselves or even be aware of who they are or who their loved ones are? They have already lived an active full life so why do they need to go on like this? Where is the purpose? What is the reason?
6. Lord, why do I feel so empty when I have everything?
7. Why does it have to be so hard?