Posted by:
derrida
(
)
Date: July 27, 2013 08:59AM
It strikes me that when people stop attending a normal church, they just stop going, and their own unfrought, typically offhand, normalizing response is along the lines of, simply, "I stopped going to that church." Sometimes they'll add, very briefly, that they didn't agree with the pastor's politics, or views on women, or something pretty easily pinpointable and conveyable like that.
If someone from a normal church is asked about someone who doesn't go to church, they'll typically say something along the lines of, "I don't know. I haven't seen him at church." Or, if they happen to have any actual information and insight about that particular person's circumstance, they'll say something respectful and decidedly not expansive, like "he's working things out," or "I don't know what she believes right now," or maybe "I think he's into X now."
Generally, in normal churches, people don't know why other people aren't coming. They typically assume they are simply doing other things, and beyond that they don't think about it because it's none of their business. They definitely don't judge them unless they have a bone to pick with that particular person. And they don't say stupid, presumptive, momentous sounding crap like, "She fell away," as though the person died or got cancer or ended up in a psyche ward. How culty is that?
So the response? "What? Did he die? Did he have a falling accident?" Or, "No, I didn't fall over. I started to question it and left."
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2013 09:09AM by derrida.