This post is in response to Oliver's post titled, "Religious Expression". I can understand where he is coming from and have felt the same sort of frustration. Though, I am not the son of a pastor, I have had very close relations with different pastors, churches, and the like. I have found that even today there is still little religious tolerance.
My family has never been overly religious. My parents are both well versed in religion, but don't profess any specific form of religion. Both of them were raised in very small towns with various Protestant beliefs. In recent years my dad has explored Buddhism. He has even spents weekends on retreats. My mom is less experimental and usually just sticks with taking what she wants from the Sunday church sermons. However, where my entire family found the most trouble with religion, and more exclusively Christianity, was in the tolerance of homosexuals.
In my opinion U.C.C. churchs and Unitarians are the most tolerant of Christian churches when it comes to progressive ideas. However, the lack of tolerance showed through when we were voting for a new minister. The most appropriate minister happened to be a gay female. Instantly, there was an uproar and people who claimed to accept those who are gay showed their weakness. Some church members even mentioned beastiality. Where does beastiality fit into homosexuality? Even so, a group of church members decided to start a new church, an "open and affirming" church. It was nice to see that some people are willing to break the religious norms and do things like that. I guess my purpose here was just to reassure Oliver and people like him that there are churches out there that don't believe they are "religiously superior".
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