These contemplations were written in Vienna in May and June 1986. They are entirely unstructured and split into the separate sessions when I originally wrote them. They are, perhaps my first ever blogs although that long ago there was no www around to host the blog 😂 that is how old I am. They can be seen as an early attempt to “feed my ignorance” in precisely the way that this blog later took form. They are, of course, representative of my thoughts back then which have inevitably changed in many ways since that time.
This discourse starts without any aim at all. There is no particular question uppermost in my thinking. So we shall develop from a “nothing” starting point.
Actually, nothing is a good point for today. It is Pfingstsonntag – Pentecost. What have I done in the way of organised religion today? Nothing. Does that make me any better or worse as a Christian. I haven’t done anything that I shouldn’t do on a Sunday, I believe. At the same time, I haven’t been to Church.
Is that necessary for a true experience? If SK is to be believed the reverse is true. While I wouldn’t go that far, I am beginning to realise that, for someone who is genuinely interested in pursuing his own personal beliefs to a successful and “neat” conclusion, as I am, the organised Church is a drawback. It is too easy to sit in the service week in, week out and believe that you are becoming a better Christian, but what do you learn beyond the “basics”. Let’s face it, in an evangelical organisation like the SA the teaching must be of the basics. They must be first and foremost concerned with the “outsider”. The spiritual well being of the soldiers especially those who are ‘true’ must by definition take a secondary place.
How many soldiers realise this? Few, I venture to suggest. There are fewer still who would be concerned by this, since, for the most part, they are content that they are living a good life without the necessity to understand the deeper implications. For younger people the CCs offers an opportunity for wider teaching but how many are capable of that teaching. I certainly wasn’t. I’m still not I don’t think.
For the ‘older’ members of the corps no such teaching exists. The bible study, by its very nature, is too restrictive for this general teaching. I have little knowledge of other churches and religions and only this stay in Vienna has opened the opportunity for me to “learn” and educate myself in what must be a very important facet of my life.
So, the organised Church has a problem when it comes to dealing with it’s “faithful”. Why is that? Obviously, it is going to be reluctant to accept criticism the like of SKs, but surely this is wrong. Nobody can say categorically that their idea is the right one for everybody. This whole religious “can-of-worms” is too convoluted for that. The changes have come in the past often by the creation of “splinter-groups” and that because of the reluctance to change on the part of “mainstream” religion.
At every change, no doubt, people have murmured “this is the beginning of the end”. They could not reconcile their ideals with the “new-wave”. Undoubtedly a number of these changes were wrong – possibly a majority. That does not excuse an inability to change in the present. That includes serious consideration of ideas like DCs. This will be put down as heresy in some parts of the church I don’t doubt. Why is he wrong and they right though? To be continued…