{"id":2486,"date":"2014-03-15T08:26:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T12:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2014-03-04T10:34:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T15:34:42","slug":"i-still-like-my-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/03\/i-still-like-my-pastor.html","title":{"rendered":"I still like my Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike my contemporaries, who have drifted away from religion and either started attending another church or stopped going to church altogether, I haven\u2019t drifted from my religion. But, I no longer attend church regularly.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the day, I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday. I held every position possible in the church and liked the work rather well. I even volunteered for 15 years to serve in the Christian Science Reading Room.<\/p>\n<p>I became increasingly uncomfortable, not with the theology of Christian Science, but with the rituals and expectations of the church organization.<\/p>\n<p>The shift was gradual. It certainly was not a matter of, \u201cI don\u2019t want this anymore, I\u2019m outta here.\u201d It was more, \u201cI want this religion and not the rituals and expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than half of American adults have changed religion in their lives, a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. &#8220;You&#8217;re seeing the free market at work,&#8221; said Gregory Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. &#8220;If people are dissatisfied, they will leave. And if they see something they like better, they will join it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t found anything better than the religion I follow. Fortunately, the Pastor of Churches of Christ, Scientist, is the Bible and the book <i><a href=\"http:\/\/bookstore.trafford.com\/Products\/SKU-000137085\/21st-Century-Science-and-Health-with-Key-to-the-Scriptures.aspx\">Science and Health <\/a>with Key to the Scripture,<\/i> by Mary Baker Eddy, and can be with me all the time. I read from modern versions.<\/p>\n<p>I periodically attend churches of<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/07\/investing-in-profitable-spiritual-emotions.html\"> all faiths now<\/a>. The religious landscape is diverse out here, and I&#8217;m learning that these Americans changing religions are breaking the barriers of unsatisfying rituals and expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike my contemporaries, who have drifted away from religion and either started attending another church or stopped going to church altogether, I haven\u2019t drifted from my religion. But, I no longer attend church regularly. Back in the day, I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday. I held every position possible in the church and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[877,1317,1316],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-spiritual-leaders","tag-god-and-satisfaction","tag-god-with-us","tag-new-religion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I still like my Pastor - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/03\/i-still-like-my-pastor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I still like my Pastor - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlike my contemporaries, who have drifted away from religion and either started attending another church or stopped going to church altogether, I haven\u2019t drifted from my religion. But, I no longer attend church regularly. Back in the day, I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday. I held every position possible in the church and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/03\/i-still-like-my-pastor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-15T12:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-04T15:34:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I still like my Pastor - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/03\/i-still-like-my-pastor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I still like my Pastor - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"Unlike my contemporaries, who have drifted away from religion and either started attending another church or stopped going to church altogether, I haven\u2019t drifted from my religion. 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