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Path: utzoo!laura
From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: How "Useful" Is The Church?
Message-ID: <4092@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Jul-84 03:30:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4092
Posted: Sun Jul 15 03:30:15 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Jul-84 03:30:15 EDT
References: <342@ihuxo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 35

The T/A (teaching assistant, for those of you that use other words)
of a philosophy course I took last year had just arrived in Toronto
to get his Phd. At the same time he is at whatver you call the last
stage you are at in the Baptist Church before they give you your own
congregation. So he got a transfer to a Toronto Church at the same
time.

Now, there is one thing that you have to know about Toronto. In a
very large part of it it is true to say that ``Torontonians never
laugh or cry''. It is the old British ``stiff-upper-lip'' bit.
I gather he wasn't used to this and was used to people actually having
fun in church. Around here, church is not for fun. He was astonished
to discover that almost all of the congregation was at church because
they were all sure that if they didn't go they would go to hell.

The rest were there so that they could tell their neighbours (and God)
about how hard they suffered to get to church at some early hour of
the morning.

He said that it was enough to make him not want to go to church, and
his conclusion was that the whole place was full of the sort of
people that you don't want to have in church at all. He said that
he would have just told everybody to go home for a few weeks until
the people who were thoroughly peeved abnout this would stop coming 
and then he could see what could be done about the rest.

Something tells me that he isn't going to get very far in the Baptist
heirarchy, whatever that is...

If this is what all churches are full of I figure you would be better
off talking to your dying trees. At any rate you wouldn't be seething
with resentment the whole time...

Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura