Tricia

Exactly. It *would* be a big step to talk to amore liberal pastor.

And like you said, I only talked to my youth/associate pastor. I haven't spoken to the head honcho. Maybe I will soon.

You would think my former youth pastor would be young (like the guy who is now-24yro), but actually he's 35-40. That's why he's kinda scary to talk to.

Oh, about BYC- I might go tonight. I couldn't go yesterday because I had to paint my room. Just depends I guess on how I'm feeling...

Siren - I never thought of God that way. I'll think about what you said.



The only way I could see that happening is via the internet, because my family goes only to one church. I don't think I've ever even met a liberal pastor before. But maybe I'll look around...

~Tricia

NOGO

What it comes down to is this. You need to talk to and have friends that think the way you do.

If you find yourself surrounded by people who think very differently and don't know anybody else you will suffer from loneliness and end up thinking that there something wrong with you.

I am a non-smoker and none of my friends smoke. This did not happen by accident. I have to admit however that I have many friends who are Christians but I would find it hard to have fundamentalists as friends.

If the people around you make you feel like the odd one then you either go back to the fold or change the people around you. Admittedly, this is not easy when your parents are fundies.

HelenM

Be careful though because a liberal pastor isn't necessarily going to be attuned to what a 15 year old female from a conservative Christian family might be going through...it's somewhat the luck of the draw. If he/she was once a conservative Christian then he/she will likely understand pretty well. But if not, who knows...

Also you have the issues of not wanting people to know, necessarily, that you are talking to a liberal pastor.

But, maybe you have enough freedom you can just go do it. That would be neat.

If you look at it as 'education' then maybe you can avoid expectations that might trip you up if they aren't met.

I wouldn't try to go to another service. I'd just go during 'office hours', if you want to do this. No need to cause a stir by not attending your own church on Sunday...

Fwiw, I really enjoyed when I went to talk with the local Unitarian Universalist minister at the beginning of this year. We'd had some e-mail exchange first since his e-mail address is on his site.

So it wasn't as if he was someone I'd had no interactions with at all.

I wanted to meet him and I was really glad I did have the opportunity to since he just moved out of state.

love
Helen