New Sunday series: #OutsideTheChurch | The Pink Church — Leadville, Colorado

I grew up in the valley of the shadow of organized religion.

Organized religion is one of those things that works for some people, but not for everyone. Unfortunately, the people it does work for are often blindly caught up by a misguided mission to make their particular brand of religion work for the whole world. And, directly or indirectly, intentionally or otherwise, that leads to a lot of pain and suffering.

I was in my early 20s when I finally came to the difficult realization that organized religion just does not work for me. Not at all. Not even close. It builds some people up, but it tears me down to hell. It gives some people hope, but it robs me of mine, and then it tries to pin the theft on me.

So one day I just walked away from it all. I quietly stepped out of the church and into a totally different world where there was no god, no sin and therefore no atonement needed for it, no heaven or hell or any afterlife at all. It was a pretty wild feeling. Liberating, but also terrifying.

To this day, whenever I see a church, I'm struck by a mix of very opposing emotions that compete for control of my mind:

• Anger & bitterness at the people who told me what I should believe, and at myself for believing it for so long. These emotions are the ones that are easy to give in to, but I try my best to push them aside because they do not help me or anyone around me. I don't always succeed, but I try.
• Gratitude & relief that I found my way out of a worldview that didn't work for me, and that I was able to move on and strive to live a fulfilling life. These emotions are harder to accept at first, but in the end they are the ones I aim to give rein to.

Since churches have this effect on me, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to start posting a picture of a church every Sunday. (I was brought up in the evangelical Christian fold, so Sunday was our holy day.) I want to see if there's anything in this process that would help me — and perhaps other people out there, too — explore and come to terms with the emotions that go to war inside a person who walks away from religion. I'll be tagging these Sunday church posts as #outsidethechurch if anyone wants to follow or participate.

Outside the Pink Church

My first church for this series is in the photo at the top of this post ^^. It's the Old First Lutheran Church at the corner of Hemlock and East Eighth streets in Leadville, Colorado.

According to reliable internet resource Wikipedia, this church has been called the Pink Church ever since a guy named Brian turned it into a dance studio and painted the exterior pink.

According to reliabler internet resource me, however, this church has been called the Church of the Crooked Cross ever since I noticed that the cross on top of the steeple is falling over. 🙂

I don't know how many times I've run or walked past this church since I moved to Leadville. It's pretty close to where I live, so in my head it's become sort of a landmark I notice when I'm starting a walk/run, and also when I'm finishing.

Is it kind of strange that a church serves as a sign to me that I'm almost home after a long run? Yes … but thank the gods, I get to run past it, and I never have to go inside.