There are a number of problems with traditional Christian doctrines:

*
Infinite goodness and power are, together, incompatible with the reality of evil.
Maybe we need to revisit our concept of divinity.
*
A literal understanding of the Bible is no longer viable.
It is now seen as a mix of literary media. metaphor, myth and story
composed within an agenda peculiar to the time of the assembly of each part.
Christian development later created further unsupported doctrine.
*
If any faith, is to be honestly, and effectively, proclaimed,
it needs to be consistent with the current and on-going world-view,
and be comprehensive and comprehensible to the present day,
It needs to be able to say that it makes practical sense.


Reappraisal of what we are called weekly to affirm can makes us rethink,
examine the bloody and divisive past of Christianity analyse its present ideas.

The doctrines and liturgy of the church seem structured
to affirm the church's empire, clerical power, control,
to exclude those people who might rock the boat
or expose the fragility of the structure.

Loss of trust in orthodoxy can lead to a spiritual desert,
the wasteland of lost faith, agnostic or atheist
or merely the rejection of all doctrine
unstructured, unthinking, ineffective,
but still believing, somehow.

However it can also open the door to new ideas, to re-evaluation
expose the possibility of freedom to find another way
uncluttered by accumulated religious bias,
by pagan saga, or political pressure
a way that rings true.

We have seen God's hand at work, known her caring love.
We have read the tales others tell in scripture
even heard the tales they tell of God today.
but where does that lead, and what is truth?