Churchgoing—My (Self-assigned) Ten Commandments
Any self-respecting writer assigns himself a few rules before embarking upon a project. These are mine, and I endeavor to follow them as best I can.
1: Thou shalt give credit where credit is due—good ideas are good whether they’re religious or not.
2: Thou shalt limit thine bias—why go at all if I’m not going to be open-minded?
3: Thou shalt take copious notes—overall impression is the name of the game, but specifics make the blog worth reading.
4: Thou shalt write up thine observations on the same day that thou observest—no simmer down periods allowed. (I fall short of this one on occasion–my apologies in advance.)
5: Thou shalt not distract the faithful—impartial observing 100%
6: Thou shalt have no gods, but also shan’t mention it—when asked what I’m doing in a church, I am “looking for a church I like,” unless otherwise pressured.
7: Thou shalt remain skeptical—no matter how outlandish, claims will be taken at face value (and duly noted).
8: Thou shalt not pick fights—I’m not here to start a riot or cause undue negative attention toward Atheists.
9: Thou shalt not dawdle—when church is out, so am I.
10: Thou shalt bear no false witness—I will tell the whole truth, but nothing but the truth, so help me scruples.
A note on length:
I am a writer first and a blogger second, thus, I must point out that my entries are not always bite sized. Before you dig in for the long haul, feel free to glance down and see how far the page scrolls. My entries on church visits are necessarily long because I want to give a full account (no gory detail spared) of what I encountered in each church. As someone who has written hundreds of pages already, a twenty page blog entry isn’t beyond me. It is my hope that the writing will sustain you in your reading, and I have attempted to make each one as readable as possible. There are those who suggest I simply give a check mark system or some numerical value for each church (the choir is a ten, but the pastor is a two), but the reasoning behind my project is that I want to see what religion is actually doing. If you desire a checklist, send me an email and I’ll give you a quick rundown. If you actually want to learn something, bear with me and allow the pages to wash over you like so many waves of enlightenment.
