I've grown up in church most of my life, so the Christian myth is very much ingrained into my DNA. As I approached college age, my interest in the myth began to morph. Some of the rituals seemed archaic and outdated to me, and soon I, like many of my other Christian friends, began to leave this church. The issue wasn't that the myth itself was outdated or inapplicable--in fact, I am more engaged with the myth now than I ever have been--but the concrete death-grip many proselytes held to these myths seemed outdated and inapplicable. It was suffocating the life out of myth, all in the name of "honoring God."

The Christian tradition of the Apocalypse seems to be its swan song - it is the event we are all counting on to finally separate the sheep from the goats, and get vengance on all those 'others' who keep screwing up our world with their pagan ways; it's the time we will all be transfigured, in the blink of an eye, and whooshed up into the heavenly abode forever. Sadly, this 'uncovering,' this literalizing, this Apocalypse is the very thing that is going to destroy this church, rather than destroying the pagan hordes. 

It struck me during this week's webinar just how dangerous such a literalization of the Apocalypse can be. The ecoresiliance law #1, "Align with your time and place or die," has never been more realized than within the church. Their numbers are dwindling as the faithful die off, and no one comes in to fill the now-vacant space in the pew. It is this rigid approach to myth, this holding on for dear life, this waiting for the Apocalypse to come and purify the world, that is killing my mother's church off.

To survive, the church will need to undergo a conscious Apocalypse, one brought about willingly, for the sake of survival, and not out of divine retribution. This Hellfire and Brimstone message needs to become de-literalized, regardless if there is or is not a literal Hell teeming with demons in a lake of fire. Out of this conscious Apocalypse will arise a newer myth, transformed, Phoenix-like, and offer a transrevolution which brings about co-union and communion with all that is Divine. Then, my mother's church won't be trapped within four walls, with rigid-backed pews. It will be taken out and brought to every place each parishioner goes. And ultimately, isn't this what the church was intended to be in the first place?