I found my church

Now this I never thought I would say: I might just go to church regularly.

This Sunday I went to a gospel mass at Glide’s methodist church on 330 Ellis St. and it was amazing! Having never been religous or cared about church or hymns this came as quite a surprise to me. But it was totally different from Denmark.

An Amen! to everyone

It was pure joy. Much more a pure praise of love than the dull Danish praise of God. But most of all it was an inspiring gospel concert with a great band and choir. It was so crowded that people had to sit in the window frames but a lot of the time we all stood up, singing, dancing, clapping to songs like “This little light of mine”

(I recorded a bit of video from the mass)

The thing that really made me like this church, though, was that it wanted to be a church for EVERYONE. Pastor Donald Guest with his big body and bald black head spoke passionately about everyone being welcome.

- Even if you don’t believe in God I know you believe in love so you on the right way! I don’t care if you Jewish or Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. I don’t care if you democrat or republican…

At this point there was a silence in the audience who had so far been cheering. Then we started laughing at our selves, and Don went on:

- I come from a family of republicans, believe it or not. There are gays, lesbians and transgender here. We don’t tolerate nobody – we celebrate everybody!

Outside of Christmas, churches are only packed at funerals in Denmark. I wonder why.

Well, if you don’t have to believe in any diety to join a church I guess I could go. It was a beatiful experience to feel so much love and joy and hope between people. And when pastor Don said “show your neighbor there is love!” we all got up and hugged the people around us whom we did not know.

Also, I can certainly identify with the ideals of Glide’s. Not only did Don speak about how identifying with Jesus is identifying with the poor and the outkasts – it was also clear that this included non-heterosexual people. For example the big screen at the mass (yes, they had a slideshow) had signs saying “NO on 8″, the proposition that could ban same sex marriage in California at the election.

The (to put it mildly) frowning upon different sexualities – and, indeed, sexuality altogether – is one of the things that has caused my deepest disrespect for many religious groups. But this one did not frown. Now I just have to find out how they view things like abortion and research in stem cells.

However, I think I will leave it at going to church without joining. I still cannot stand the whole obsession with Jesus. Why do we need this guy to praise joy and love? I don’t. And I don’t believe in anything beyond that.

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