Member-only story
No Room for the Smug
Church is for the wonderfully flawed and boldly broken; the smug don’t quite understand
“The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.”
- Flannery O’Connor
I’m not a pastor, so I shouldn’t really cast stones about a line of work I’ve not yet experienced firsthand. This is merely an observation from the pew as a layperson and budding seminarian.
Pastors have a hard job. The security of their vocational future comes from getting people to show up at church, come back, bring friends, and — yes — give money. And in this postmodern, secular era (not to judge — again, just an observation), this is a tall order for anyone to bear.
The result of this in large swaths of the country’s parishes has been pastors doubling down on the premise (that worked so well for so long) of claiming they have the answers. They know the way. And if only we, their sheep — I mean, congregants — could be as pious and spit-polished (you could also throw in adjectives like ‘woke’ or ‘spiritually perfect’ here) as they and their God expect us to be, we’d get to whatever end-place they promise in their marketing materials (some promise a golden country club in the sky full of people who look like ‘us’ after we croak; others promise absolute…
