Going to Church

I went to church today. A co-worker, B, told me about it last week--that there would be a carnival at his church on Saturday and asked if I wanted to go. It sounded like fun, so why not, I thought. Well, B+I and one of his friend's picked me up. I was surprised at the similarities between this right-wing Christian church (or so it seemed by being at the carnival) and the Orthodox communities I was around the past 3 years: older couples, young couples my age (or a few years older), tons of kids, and everyone deeply committed to their religion.

I met a lot of wonderful people, including the husband of a couple who invited me to church this morning. I wasn't in a position to decline his invitation so I accepted and made plans to carpool with a couple this morning.

We arrived at church just after 10. The service started and my jaw mentally dropped. The singing, the arms in the air, it was just like those Evangelical church services you hear about, and/or see on TV! Everything was 'Jesus this' and 'Jesus that!' Something about mourners being sinners so they have to be forgiven (or something like that). Why do mourners have to be forgiven? They're just mourning someone who died.

And then the Preacher started talking about a prophet named Stephen and how he went against everything that happened before, and that he didn't believe in it: how the temple was destroyed, Joseph and his brothers went down to Egypt, the Israelities made a statue of the Golden Calf, received the 2 Tablets...He equated the apple pie, George Washington, and motherhood to things that America is quintessentially American. And then he went off about abortion, homosexuality, and adultery. He even said how some of his congregants admitted to 'killing their [unborn] children.' I thought he was kidding. I mean, in a church where the Preacher mentions 'Billy Graham,' 'Evengelical (twice!),' and is against abortion, among other things, I would have thought that none among the congregation would willingly have an abortion. Apparantly that's not the case.

I was really uncomfortable during the whole service. After, the couple I rode with this morning brought me home. Well, the husband of the couple did. On the way, he, like a few people yesterday, asked me if I went to church, and what church was like for me growing up. Well, since he was the first to ask me outright, I told him that I'm Jewish. [If you're just tuning in to the blog, scroll to the bottom to get caught up.] We were then discussing Orthodoxy between the 2 religions, and figured that Fundamentalism (a) and Evangelicalism (b) were like Ultra-Orthodoxy and Modern Orthodoxy, respectively. At least, I think that's what we agreed on...Fundamentalists follow the Bible+everything else to a T, and Evangelicals follow only the Bible, and consider the other things, but all don't necessarily do them; (Drinking, swearing, and smoking, for example). The movie "Jesus Camp" is Fundamentalist and TLC's "The Duggars" are Evangelical.

Yeah, my first and last time at church. After I got back to school, a friend took me out for lunch since it's my birthday today. Yes, I'm 24. Hopefully next year around this time, I'll be going on shidduchim, but we'll see how things go. :-)

Maybe I'll go to the Reform shul next week, where I'll see the Frum couple that offered to teach me Yiddish! But for now, I'm watching the third Lord of the Rings and enjoying the rest of my day.