Culture Shock?

I'm thinking of silently avoiding extra-iglesia activities so my life doesn't turn into the movie Saved.

I'm Baptist, and I think the church I'm going to here may be giving me a skewed perspective of Evangelists. Not the ministry or the people, so much as a few people's strict perceptions of what is right and wrong. But I shouldn't let a few spoil the whole church. Maybe I'm just taking things personally. I do that sometimes.

In the interest of keeping my life on track, I'm trying to stay religiously active for the next eight months. The Catholic Church seemed a little too distant, but I wasn't expecting to be judged by the Evangelist one. What the heck does Evangelist mean anyway? I thought I knew, but maybe in my mind I just relegated it to televised ministries and mega-churches in the Bible belt of the South.

Basically, Church and the people in it have never been my whole life. I really like going but I'm not one to go to all the activities, although I usually mean to attend more. I've been to church with my friends before, but I've always had friends outside of it who balanced my life out with a bit of debauchery and non-church related fun. So, I believe, but I also leave; when the sermon's over, I feel like I may have gotten some questions answered, and have some more reading to do, but it usually doesn't leave me feeling bad about myself or permeating everything that I do. other than trying to be a good person. Still, I'm not used to having friendly neighbors who check in to make sure I'm going to this birthday or that one, or to see if I want a ride to church, or if I want to walk there with them. I don't so mind so much the invitations to lunch or dinner after the service, and people telling me to let them know if I need anything, that's all great. I really appreciate it.

On the other hand, I occasionally feel like I'm being punked when social gatherings always end with Christian video watching; when I get asked after going to a concert whether or not the artist was Christian... I don't know...? Neither am I used to people telling me that there's nothing positive going on in the club, just a bunch of drunken people ready to fight, or looking at me funny when I say that's where I'm headed. I feel like I'm being judged on a regular basis by people who haven't gotten out that much, and to be honest, I don't even know why I'm still listening. Listening gives their arguments more strength and makes me feel like I'm somehow more a sinner than they are. Not like I'm serving a different God than them, but I guess I've been feeling like where in the world did they come from with all this judgment that I don't even get in my own church or from my own family?

Anyhow, I've learned that anyone who makes me feel bad about who I am is no one I want to associate with. At least there are just a few, the rest are pretty cool, but who knows. Once they start talking it may be just as bad. Alas, Bollullos. Debating whether this should be lumped in with culture shock or Punk'd...