Rachel Held Evans is a rock star.  While this post is personal to her, it also has a number of elements that will sound familiar to many.  How many of these reasons have you experienced?

I left the church when I was twenty-seven. I am now thirty, and after trying unsuccessfully to start a house church, my husband and I are struggling to find a faith community in which we feel we belong. I’ve been reluctant to write about this search in the past, but it seems like such a common experience, I think it’s time to open up, especially now that I’ve had some time to process. But let’s begin with fifteen reasons why I left: 

1. I left the church because I’m better at planning Bible studies than baby showers…but they only wanted me to plan baby showers. 

2. I left the church because when we talked about sin, we mostly talked about sex.

3. …..

Dear Entire World,

Mark Driscoll is not a typical Christian.  I promise you, the majority of us by far do our best to embrace the infinite loving-kindness of God, as shown to us in the person of Jesus.  While none of us is perfect, we do know that we must value and respect all persons. We know that, while sex and gender and orientation are fundamental to our identity as a person, these have absolutely nothing to do with God’s love for anyone.  We agree with Rachel Held Evans when she says:

Mark Driscoll is wrong. 

Godly men stick up for people, not make fun of them.

Godly men honor women, not belittle them. 

Godly men love their gay and lesbian neighbors, not ridicule them. 

Godly men celebrate femininity, not trash it.

Godly men own their sexuality, not flaunt it. 

Godly men pursue peace, not dismiss it. 

Godly men rise above violence, not glorify it. 

Godly men build up the Church, not embarrass it. 

Godly men imitate Christ—who praised the gentle and the peacemakers, who stood up for the exploited and abused, who showed compassion for the downtrodden,  who valued women, and who loved his enemies to the point of death.

Christians take seriously the charge Jesus gives us to forgive each other, forgiving over and over and over.  We also take seriously the charge Jesus gives us to take care of every person, most especially the least of these, those who are unable to protect themselves. 

With each word spoken, each blog posted, each tweet or facebook status message, Mr. Driscoll does harm to the least of these. He puts stumbling blocks between God’s children and God’s kingdom.  Christlike forgiveness does not mean we have to allow this harmful behavior to continue. 

On behalf of Christianity, I am so very sorry for the harm Mr. Driscoll continues to do to anyone who isn’t just like him.  I hope you will be able to see that no one person can represent the Church as a whole; we are so varied, so many, so different.  Please don’t let Mr. Driscoll be your only experience of God and God’s church.

With love,
the Undercover Nun