Published on 12, July, 2020
I know we have a few really isolated people here, and I know we have a few Christians, but I'm interested to see if there many (or even any) who exist in both groups.
*EDIT* Thank you all for your answers. It's been a nice discussion to be a part of for once! It seems fair to say that the christian faith fro those who have it seems to help a bit in most cases, greatly in others, and fail for some. A common cause of "failure" seems to be a mis-selling of the basic message, the nature of which varies depending upon which imperfect human tried to give you the faith. The God I believe in, has given us everything we need to have a great life, if we can only just learn to use it right.
Most of us need to live a long life just to figure that out, then we die!
I once read ' The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you , it's not found in bricks and motor ' I was raised Christian but I am very curious about facts and ideas surrounding religion. The problem is it's difficult to talk about it with people . I always believed that any faith is a personal thing and never understood why it was necessary to share it or the need of a Priest , Vicar etc. Why can't you talk to God yourself , why do you have to go to church ? Monks Isolate themselves . So isn't Isolation and worship the perfect union ?
Church isn't the building, it's the community, we are the living stones built into God's temple with Christ as the cornerstone, we are supposed to carry each other's burdens and love each other. Which ideal sadly is not what we experience in many churches as humans are flawed. We are all supposed to be priests though, that is not something which belongs in the church, Jesus is the intercessor between God and humans, so we can indeed talk with God ourselves.
Monks aren't totally isolated, they live in community with each other. Even hermits weren't completely cut off as people would visit them all the time to ask their wisdom. Isolation seems to be right for some periods of life but not for all. We are supposed to serve others as Jesus did.
Well, yes! Bricks and mortar means institutions and hierarchies.