One of the blogs I subscribe to is Real Live Preacher. A great blog by a “authentic” pastor. I like him because he just says what he thinks, exactly like he wants too. One of the things I hate about Christendom right now is they freak out about the wrong things, and you are worried when ever you talk to your Christian friends your going to say something that will piss them off.

For example, we’ve been in Houston for over 2 years now, and my wife feels she doesn’t have many friends. I think this is strange considering how many people she knows enough to talk to them regularly, a heck of a lot more than I do. But one with the story. So she wants us to both have Christian friends. We haven’t connected much with people at church, but we do know this couple that lives two doors down. They’re homeschooling parents like we are and Christians.

Now one of the things we like to do is go to a local Comedy Club. They have a non-smoking show on Friday nights and we go occasionally when we can find a babysitter. So I said, why don’t we invite the couple from two doors down (now to be referred to as TCFTD). She says OK and calls and asks them. They say no because they are afraid something might happen they wouldn’t approve of. WTF.

Obviously pissed me off. They later asked us to dinner, but I made sure we already had plans. They have the right to not want to go somewhere they might hear a sexually related joke, but that doesn’t mean I want to waste my time getting to know them better.

And this isn’t just me. My best friend feels the same way. When I moved to Houston, one of the main reasons was to live near my life long best friend M. Both of our wives are now disappointed in our lack of enthusiasm for church. At least my wife – who is the best wife in the world – is willing to look for a church I’d be interested in. His isn’t willing to leave the denomination we grew up in.

M and I have talked about it, and our primary gripe with church people is this fear of disapproval. They just aren’t any fun.

I’m not one to believe in gross generalizations. So I know there are people who aren’t that way. But finding them is hard because they keep a low profile. Like I do.

Any way I feel better getting that off my chest.

Here’s an excerpt from my comment on Preacher’s blog today.(sorry I posted it twice, my browser gave me an error and I thought it didn’t go through)

For what it is worth the best church I was ever part of was Hope Chapel in Austin. I’ve since moved to Houston and haven’t found a church that was all that inspiring. There seems to be something missing in church-dom out here. There’s kind of a cultural malaise, that hangs over everything. Kind of like being high on marijuana, you feel good, but really don’t want to do anything.