The Church: must it be physical, or can it be online?

So, I have been struggling lately with the idea of having to be in a physical church. Don't get me wrong, I love my faith. It's more that I am moving further into progressive Christianity, yet live in a fairly fundamental area. A blue dot in a sea of red, so to speak. My wife and I have attended a few different churches, and my wife still finds a home in the one we last attended for some time, but I have some issues with it, theologically and practically. There are a few churches I haven't tried in the area, but I am struggling with this: if I am part of a community online, and have trouble finding a like-minded group in my local area, should I just accept this as my current reality, until a group or opportunity presents itself? Can I accept this as my time in the wilderness?

Why are Christians so vicious anymore?

I've been on Twitter for over a year now, and I've noticed a disturbing trend: Christians here in America tend to be polarized, and viciously attack anyone who offers an alternative point of view.  For instance, there is an increasingly nasty debate over women becoming pastors, over which doctrines should or should be required for one to be Christian, and even over if someone is a Christian even if they say they are.  I am not saying there shouldn't be some debate, even lively debate, over these issues, because the Lord knows I love some lively debate.  But when these issues take up more time than what Jesus asks of His followers to be doing, I just wonder: did we take a wrong turn somewhere?

I know Paul writes in his epistles that women should not be teachers, but if one church feels they need women pastors, and yours does not, why can't we live and let live? Are they ministering to the community, feeding the hungry, caring for the widows and orphans? Isn't that the more important thing to look for in a church's ministry, not who is teaching it?  If you do not agree with women pastors, then there are still a variety of churches with male only clergy.  I personally agree with Paul, but I don't go around slamming the churches that do not.

There is also frightening and disturbing conversations about President Obama, who says he is Christian, talks about how the teachings of Jesus guide him in his policy decisions, and attends Christian churches is really Muslim, or the "abomination of desolation" mentioned in Daniel.  Really? The "Obamination"?  Because he is liberal?  Because he believes the government has a responsibility to ALL its citizens, and even just anyone within its borders? (I'll leave specific policies to future blogs.)  Rick Warren continuously denies Chrislam, or the belief that Muslims and Christians follow the same religion, and yet so many continue to nag and harass him for trying to institute it anyways.  Is the thought of converting Muslims to Christianity by using similiar points in their own religion so bad?  We are not the new Israel:  God has not asked America to completely destroy any and all who oppose us, I mean Him.

All in all, what I am seeing is that many Christians are not being a light to the world.  Jesus talks about the world knowing us to be His followers for the love we would show to each other.  And the very sad thing is, that love is all but non-exsistent anymore.  We should never let disagreements, I think, get in the way of the greater issue: Are they showing the love of Christ?  Are they preaching the full Gospel?  And if they do some things we don't necessarily agree with, can we let them be?

Lively debate is like a whetstone: it sharpens your positions.  But we should be careful not to let those sharp positions cut, for they cut both ways: both the person we debate with, and ourselves.

So I created a blog...

I am starting this blog mainly because I have a vast multitude of thoughts and ideas but really no place in which to discuss them, or share them. I enjoy lively discussions and debate, and here I hope it occurs.

Some reading this may wonder what the Fields of Arbol mean: the term is from C.S. Lewis' fantastic series, the Space (or Cosmic) trilogy. It refers to our Solar System, but as a part of Deep Heaven, and not just the astronomical sense. I liked a plural rendering better; to me, there are many fields in this Field of Arbol. My hope is that I inspire, educate, and debate with readers. I don't have all the answers; no one walking these fields presently does,but perhaps through sharing my thoughts and reading comments made I can gain a few more than before I started this.

So here goes...