prairie sermon for a march evening.

I went to church today.

Even now I can hear people saying “uh-oh, where're you going on this one Stu?”

Don't worry, it's not nearly as scary as you might think.

Today I went to church, and that's always an odd experience for me. I sort of fell away from the church when I turned twenty – as it turns out it was pretty difficult to hold my leftist views and attend church all at the same time. Since moderation and compromise are not concepts I grasp with ease, something had to go – church was the loser.

For the most part, quitting church was pretty easy – the majority of my friends being lapsed Catholics, secular Lutherans, or atheists seemed to put me in good company. I think that I learned a lot about myself in that time. In fact, I would have to say that most of what I think and know about the nature of the world was formed during that time.

Call it a (nearly) quarter-life crisis, but I've been re-evaluating a lot of what I think I know over this past year. In fact, as much as anything I think that's what this blog is all about – rethinking my place in the world (albeit it in an amusing and frighteningly public way).

(“Oh Lord,” I hear you say, “here we go with the creepy religious experience talk.” Dear reader, have no fear – read on and your mind shall be set at ease.)

Why do we live in a society where we are required to have both feet in the same camp? Why is it that, as a fervent left-winger, the fact that I cling to my religious beliefs is considered ignorant? Why is it that, as a religious believer, my adherence to a political theory is considered to verge on sin? In what way are they truly contradictory? Why do I have to choose between the supremacy of scientific or religious knowledge? Is there any objective way to prove that one has more value than the other?

Post-modernism has always left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'm about to make the closest-to-post-modern statement you'll ever hear from me: I fully reject the idea of many truths, but I'm starting to think that there are many ways to understand the Truth. It's the fact that many of us are working towards something better that deserves attention, not the fact that we disagree about how to get there.

Will I start going back to church regularly? I don't know. Somewhere in the transition from dirty-anarchist-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder in university to married-rural-teacher on the family farm I learned you have to play it by ear. At the moment, I'm not sure what I'm listening to.

The one thing I know for certain is that Church has value, just like hanging out in the Strat on Whyte Ave, or going to the cattle auction in Stettler, or listening to Against Me! underneath a bust of Marx has value.

And so my friends, I take my leave. Now go out, have a little fun. As they say at the Dead Dog Cafe; stay calm, be brave, wait for the signs.

Happy Sunday from Alberta's brush plain.