Struggles of faith

I came across this link on the facebook page of a good friend from college. It talks about how what are now being called Post Evangelicals. Chaplain Mike says the culture of Evangelicalism has turned us off, not the theology.
For many post-evangelicals like me, it is the culture that became a primary problem. When I say I am in the wilderness, I certainly don’t mean I’ve lost my faith. I have lost my “world,” my “culture.” I don’t fit any more. Some of us may agree with one tradition more than another when it comes to beliefs; we may even feel perfectly comfortable with a simple, basic set of evangelical doctrines as the content of our “faith.” But its forms can no longer sustain us.

This brought to mind belonging to De Molays the teenage axillary of the Masons. My grandfather and father were masons and brother and I were encouraged to join. Once a month we had a meeting, it had an opening ritual where most of the older members had memorized parts, but the business meeting was usually about fundraisers, dances and other social gatherings. I liked the dances. They were held in a special lodge had a band or two and lots of Job's Daughters from all over the city for partners.
On the surface everything had a religious basis, but the culture of the group I was in was far from spiritual. Some of our parties revolved around playing penny ante poker at other gathering most of the guys were smoking and drinking (under age) which their parents winked at. I can't complain too much about the language since Dad was a marine and taught me all the words growing up.
A couple of years of this and I had enough. I wasn't into phony friends.

For the past thirty years we've bounced from one church to another. We belonged to one church where we were very happy and in one Sunday school lesson it turned rabid by outsiders brought in to make sure the church toed the new evangelical doctrine of "Sanctity of Human Life." Those who thought differently were shunned. It is the culture, but in many cases it's an enforced conformity and mind control. And I'm not going to go down the path of John Calvin's tyranny set up in Geneva, or Oliver Cromwell's England, or Puritanical New England.
At least here the worst rabid conformists can do is exclude you from fellowship, look what ISIS is doing in Syria and Iraq. Believe me if they could get enough control of our government they would do the same things here, and I'm not exaggerating Rushdoonie, before he died and the Dominionists that are his followers are openly saying what they will do or ought to be done to homosexuals, atheists, and Muslims.