We're not in the 1700's anymore

As most of you know, I am a religious person. Of course, in this day and age, the term "religious" has such a negative connotation that no one likes to use it. I, for the purpose of this blog, will hold on to this term. Being religious is nothing more than devoting your life to a specific end, the end of which is formed and guided by a tradition and community who seeks to honor and commune with God. That being said, lets move on to the point of this introduction.

Kelli and I went to lunch the other day in a place called Soul Cafe. Soul Cafe is a pub that resides in a church that had to close its doors due to the declining number of people in Scotland who would use the term "religious" of themselves, but who no doubt call themselves the more ambigious and self-serving term, "spiritual." I thought a pub in an old church might have an unusual atmosphere, so we went in.

Now, I will be the first to say that a building is just a building. But there is also something to be said about a building that was created with an end in mind, and that end was to speak something to the world; that was now being used to speak the opposite message. As we entered this pub I was suprised to see the stain glass was all still in tact and eluminated. The stain glass of this building was particularly beautiful (see picture below), and surrounded the entire bar area. To further my shock, they had kept the pupit in tact, and it loomed above the open area towards the back of the large room. In the pulpit, there was no one who would now proclaim words that were meant to guide people to a life of love, but there were turn-tables set up for the DJ who came during the night hours of operation.

While I understand the appeal to use an old building, with all of its beauty and depth as a place for people to hang out - that is not what bothers me. What struck me as especially sad was knowing the hearts of the people who first built it, and what they wanted this building to say to the people who saw it. I couldn't help but look at the stories being told in everything from the stain glass to the details in the architecture that pointed to something much more than the sum of its parts. There is something to be said for a space that was built as sacred space, as someone recently said to me - and I find this to be true. Interestingly enough, the pub hasn't ceased to be sacred space, but it has ceased to be a certain kind of sacred space. The people here have not ceased to be religious, they have just developed a different kind of religion. Worship happens everywhere, and this place does not differ from any other - the difference is that it was designed for the worship of God, and now it is used for the worship of man.