Church God and Protecting Our Children

After reading Brandy's God poem I had originally intended to write a piece about a personal, loving God, who will not be defined by the chronicles of mortals. I am feeling and seeing God everywhere these days and at the very same time I am struggling with my faith in religious institutions. I use to have great faith in the church or at least the one I attend (Brandy may insert her laughter here.) I feel more naive then ever, recent events have made me realize that anything organized and run by humans will be flawed. My church is not a sanctuary, or a comfort. It is just a group of people that gather and praise God. What do child molestation, our litigious society, insurance, God, being a part of a family, and a 25 year old drug charge have in commen. Well I'll tell you and I'll try to present it in an unbiased way and I welcome your insight into this matter and I assure you I can take anything that you have to say. It is no secret that I prefer the children of the church to the adults. I've mentioned before that I'd rather hang out in the nursery with Ranger than hear the word of the Lord. Well except for the short lived period of time that we had a pastor intern who was a lovely human being and really shook things up and helped me to love God so much more. I have enjoyed working in the nursery, being part of vacation bible school, being a youth leader, and now teaching Sunday school. Kelly has not had the same opportunities at church as I, being that with his old work schedule he was gone over half the time. Gradually I have just become more involved . Kelly taught sunday school with me this August and he really dug it. He actually helped some children to feel comfortable with sunday school that had not previously wanted to attend. Well to make a very long story a little less long I'll get to the point. We recently attended a meeting for parents in which a new plan to protect our children was outlined. We had never had a plan previosly and at face this seemed to me like a good idea as protecting children is always a good thing. Never mind that this was a direct resault of a lawsuit brought against a Presbyterian church in Texas by the family of a little girl who had been molested either at church or a church related activity. So this is where the insurance company comes in. In order to continue to be insured our church must have a policy regarding who will supervise and lead our children, how these people will be screened and monitored. It's beginning to sound like government in the house of God, but it's to protect children right so it's a good thing and I'm not opposed. There's a bunch of stuff that seems over the top like no adult shall be alone with any child that is not thier own at church or a church related acivity. I know what your thinking, this is smart right? I believe that these people are my family so this is sounding ludicrous to me. I think it is my responsibility to decide who I wil entrust my child to. Still I'm not concerned with the new policy. Backround checks for every sunday school teacher, youth leader and volunteer. Sounds pretty police like but what the heck, I'm squeaky clean. Not going to effect my family any. WRONG! I rarely think about the fact that my husband is a recovering addict. It just so happens that about 25 years some marijuana paraphenalia was found in Kelly's car. He's got four 25 year old DWI's also. They are so old they don't even effect what he pays for car insurance, but they will effect our church experience in a big way because he will no longer be aloud to work with children. One of Kelly's favorite things to do was help in the nursery with the babies when he was needed but he will no longer get to do this. I think that young people would benefit from being around someone like Kelly. There are so many things that Kelly has done silently for the children in this community for no other reason than because there was a need. We are very hurt, and confused. My God, and my church are not one in the same and I am very soured on the whole church thing. Did I mention that Kelly has been going to this church for the last 44 years. He has never gone to any other church. I'm thinking of looking for another church. Okay so I'm venting here but to comment on my last blog where I mentioned my prank call to Brandy about a place to store my mobile meth lab (which was actually inspired by my Dona quote). I do not actually have a mobile meth lab but if I did it would be okay with my church for me to hang out with the kids seeing as I've never been stupid enough to get caught.