highlighting the elusive blindspot

We all have them, and very often we are all blissfully unaware that we have them - blindspots. Not necessarily the physical, vision-impairing kind, but philosophical, emotional, personal, or otherwise intangible blindspots in ourselves. Think of them as subconscious smudges that we place on our personal lens which we use to look at the world around us. We usually don't intend to put the blindspot there, but because of our personal experiences in life, they have a tendency to develop over time if we don't take the time to "clean our lenses" so to speak. Let me recount a recent example I experienced...

Claire and I attended 2 Easter services this past Sunday, a Catholic and a Church of Christ service. The Catholic mass was filled with the traditional Easter service aspects: choir, Eucharist, readings of the resurrection, and homily with a touch humor. The thrust of the message was that the resurrection is the pivotal belief of Christianity, the event that separates Christ and his followers from other religions and the foundation of faith. After this service ended we drove down the street and attended the Easter service at the Church of Christ. Oddly, the service followed a very Catholic model - reading with responsorial sections, room arranged with communion placed at a central table which was accompanied by a word for word Catholic Eucharist blessing, and the congregation praying the Lord's prayer in unison. I had nothing against the service, there are aspects of Catholic mass that I believe have value in bringing a more spiritual experience to worship. However, the sermon was what really got to us. The basic topic had a similar thread as the Catholic homily - without the resurrection Jesus could have been just a regular guy who was knowledgeable beyond his years. The problem is that the speaker started making broad statements that claimed that doctrines and ceremony and tradition had no importance, because the core of our faith was all that mattered. This is one of those kernel of truth situations... yes the core of our faith (Jesus was the Son of God who died and was resurrected in fulfillment of scripture, et al.) is of prime importance, but I do believe that some tradition and ceremony has its place. He also brushed aside the celebration of Lent, Good Friday, etc as essentially worthless in the long run and at one point called out some other Christian faiths as teaching false doctrines - which was the point Claire almost walked out and I would have followed her right out (after a brief public verbal exchange of course). However, we didn't leave; and in staying we witnessed the speaker showing his blindspot. He was raised in the Catholic faith, had converted to Church of Christ, and I later found out that he has recently been interested in the movement towards a more post-modern church experience. The problem is that he is missing some of the key points in post-modern/emergent which is that despite their differences, each incarnation of Christianity brings something valuable to the table. It was clear from his tone that he was highly prejudicial against Catholicism, essentially turning his back on his up-bringing, and at the same time leading a service that was firmly rooted in the traditions of a Catholic mass. I have been known to do the same in the past, due to certain kinds of churches having left a bad taste in my mouth, but now I know that I have done it and try to avoid it by keeping an open mind. I spoke to someone about the message the speaker was sending, intentional or not, in the hopes that this blindspot can be highlighted and recognized by the speaker.

Blindspots like these can be harmful, because they have the unintended effect of turning people away from what should otherwise be a positive message. The church that we attended should be commended though because they are helping themselves and the speaker by learning from each other and providing feedback to this relatively new speaker. He is still getting his feet wet in church leadership, but has been exposing them to other styles of worship by bringing in aspects of other denominations and challenging them to stretch their comfort zone in new ways. The problem is that the growth of the church will continue to be severely limited when his personal views on other Christian denominations are brought out in sermons. I try not to be a 3 strikes kind of guy, but considering everytime I go to this church I hear something that just rubs me the wrong way, I wonder why I keep going back. Plus to complicate matters, it offends Claire and that hurts me since I want her to enjoy worship, or at least not feel like she is being attacked - something which never happens to me when I go to Catholic mass with her. I suppose I keep going back because of the hope that the next time he'll have had that epiphany and turned a corner in his ministry... well and the fact that I grew up in that church so I have a special place in my heart for it.