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Originally Posted by shakran
listening to and therefore approving of
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I have major problems with this statement. I sat in a church for many years, and OFTEN did not approve of what was being said. Among a church membership of 3,000 (as my church was) with 10 different pastors, 3 services each Sunday (not to mention youth group and Sunday school), all taking turns speaking on a rotating basis, do you think it was my duty to go up to each and every one, every time he said something I disagreed with, and start a discussion about it? Maybe you do, but I didn't, and I still don't.
The point of going to church is not to fight with the pastor. For me, the pastor was just a sidenote, 20 minutes out of an almost 2 hour long service. I went because I used to love to worship God in that place, and I went because of the sense of community and fellowship that I felt with others there. There were a lot of things I did not like about the church(es) I attended, but disliking something (or even just listening to something scandalous) is not enough reason to walk away from a place like that, on its own. I was a Protestant, but I don't even think Catholics have much reason to walk away from the church as it is, even after all the shit that a lot of their priests have gotten away with... I would call that a cop-out reason to leave the church. Any church is bigger than its priests and pastors, if it's worth its salt. It is a body of people, a community, a place that transcends individuals. That's the whole point.
/waits for this to fall on very deaf ears, as usual.