Struggling With Religious Separation
From James Donahue’s Diary
That first church we turned to was not located in a church building at all, but rather a large structure that may have been an old house or perhaps an old school building. It offered a room on the main floor large enough for church services, and lots of smaller rooms for Sunday school classes. The minister lived in a house nearby.
The congregation was small enough that once Doris and I joined the church, we were put right to work teaching a class of young teenagers. This forced me to do a lot of personal Bible study so I could teach something of value to those teens. Doris had been in the Bible for years and was the main pillar in that project. I was glad we were in it together.
We got into a strange situation one summer day when we took our class on a picnic in a park near a lake. What I remember about that event was that the young girls in the class quickly stripped down into bikini swim suits and were parading around almost nude during a church sponsored event. We had not expected this. Of course I struggled with mixed feelings about what happened. I was not so buried in the prudishness of religiosity that I did not enjoy looking at scantily clad young girls prancing around us, yet I was troubled because such an event, so frowned upon by the church fathers, happened on our watch.
After that incident I began examining the church and what was occurring there with a more jaundiced eye. There was a campaign among church members to give extra money each week for the repair and maintenance of the church building. But I discovered that the money in that special fund was going, instead, into improvements on the parsonage and not the church. These were not necessary improvements. Instead of more important projects, the pastor was building a two-car garage that would be attached to his home. I did not like what I was seeing.
At the time, as an active member of the South Haven Volunteer Fire Department, I had a social life outside the church that I really enjoyed. There is a special camaraderie that goes on among people who actively put their lives on the line and go into burning buildings, and I was part of it. We had regular gatherings at the fire hall, fixed big dinners shared with our families, and I even belonged to an active bowling league with other members of the fire department.
One day the church pastor approached me with a notice that he had learned of my involvement with the fire department. He said he wanted me to quit the fire department because it was important that as a “born-again Christian” I was instructed by the scriptures to separate myself from things of the world. I was dumbfounded. What he was asking me to do was something I could not and would not do. I found it hard to believe the verses he used to prove his case . . . something from one of Paul’s letters . . . could be correct.
Rather than submit to the pastor’s order, I went to a Christian book store, bought all of the literature I could find concerning the subject of Christian separation, and launched an intense study of this subject. I found that some of the leading theologians had an entirely different interpretation of separation. They argued that separation involved a separation “unto Jesus” and not from the world. They said this kind of separation gave the practicing Christian believer a better testimony of his faith when he went out into the world in which he lived. I found no one advocating a total physical separation from the world. In fact, doing such a thing would make hermits out of believers, thus making it impossible for us to be an effective witness to others.
I brought this argument to the minister of the church and found that he would not budge from his personal conviction. I decided that he was a fool as well as a thief. Consequently, we left the church.
After that, Doris and I found fellowship in a Bible church in nearby Bangor. We brought the kids to church there every Sunday, but we did not join this church. Once stung, I was reluctant to get too involved again.
Like all things I have developed an interest in, however, I poured myself into learning all I could about the Christian belief system. And by picking fundamental churches where the people believe every word of scripture as the inspired Word of God, I found myself in the perfect environment for learning. Every sermon was a lecture based on a few verses or perhaps all of the verses in the Bible that supported a church doctrine. Every Sunday school class usually involved a detailed study of one of the Books of the Bible. We even attended Wednesday night prayer meetings that began with even more Bible study.
My personal reading interests switched from fiction and technical material to Christian oriented literature. I dug into doctrine, searching for everything I could learn about every aspect of this faith that offered such an incredible and unbelievable story.
My education in the ways of Christianity had officially begun.
From James Donahue’s Diary
That first church we turned to was not located in a church building at all, but rather a large structure that may have been an old house or perhaps an old school building. It offered a room on the main floor large enough for church services, and lots of smaller rooms for Sunday school classes. The minister lived in a house nearby.
The congregation was small enough that once Doris and I joined the church, we were put right to work teaching a class of young teenagers. This forced me to do a lot of personal Bible study so I could teach something of value to those teens. Doris had been in the Bible for years and was the main pillar in that project. I was glad we were in it together.
We got into a strange situation one summer day when we took our class on a picnic in a park near a lake. What I remember about that event was that the young girls in the class quickly stripped down into bikini swim suits and were parading around almost nude during a church sponsored event. We had not expected this. Of course I struggled with mixed feelings about what happened. I was not so buried in the prudishness of religiosity that I did not enjoy looking at scantily clad young girls prancing around us, yet I was troubled because such an event, so frowned upon by the church fathers, happened on our watch.
After that incident I began examining the church and what was occurring there with a more jaundiced eye. There was a campaign among church members to give extra money each week for the repair and maintenance of the church building. But I discovered that the money in that special fund was going, instead, into improvements on the parsonage and not the church. These were not necessary improvements. Instead of more important projects, the pastor was building a two-car garage that would be attached to his home. I did not like what I was seeing.
At the time, as an active member of the South Haven Volunteer Fire Department, I had a social life outside the church that I really enjoyed. There is a special camaraderie that goes on among people who actively put their lives on the line and go into burning buildings, and I was part of it. We had regular gatherings at the fire hall, fixed big dinners shared with our families, and I even belonged to an active bowling league with other members of the fire department.
One day the church pastor approached me with a notice that he had learned of my involvement with the fire department. He said he wanted me to quit the fire department because it was important that as a “born-again Christian” I was instructed by the scriptures to separate myself from things of the world. I was dumbfounded. What he was asking me to do was something I could not and would not do. I found it hard to believe the verses he used to prove his case . . . something from one of Paul’s letters . . . could be correct.
Rather than submit to the pastor’s order, I went to a Christian book store, bought all of the literature I could find concerning the subject of Christian separation, and launched an intense study of this subject. I found that some of the leading theologians had an entirely different interpretation of separation. They argued that separation involved a separation “unto Jesus” and not from the world. They said this kind of separation gave the practicing Christian believer a better testimony of his faith when he went out into the world in which he lived. I found no one advocating a total physical separation from the world. In fact, doing such a thing would make hermits out of believers, thus making it impossible for us to be an effective witness to others.
I brought this argument to the minister of the church and found that he would not budge from his personal conviction. I decided that he was a fool as well as a thief. Consequently, we left the church.
After that, Doris and I found fellowship in a Bible church in nearby Bangor. We brought the kids to church there every Sunday, but we did not join this church. Once stung, I was reluctant to get too involved again.
Like all things I have developed an interest in, however, I poured myself into learning all I could about the Christian belief system. And by picking fundamental churches where the people believe every word of scripture as the inspired Word of God, I found myself in the perfect environment for learning. Every sermon was a lecture based on a few verses or perhaps all of the verses in the Bible that supported a church doctrine. Every Sunday school class usually involved a detailed study of one of the Books of the Bible. We even attended Wednesday night prayer meetings that began with even more Bible study.
My personal reading interests switched from fiction and technical material to Christian oriented literature. I dug into doctrine, searching for everything I could learn about every aspect of this faith that offered such an incredible and unbelievable story.
My education in the ways of Christianity had officially begun.