The ScArlet Letter of Apostasy

 

The ScArlet Letter of Apostasy

By Olya Lambert

 

 

 

During times of transition in the world of religion and spirituality, the Old and the New tend to rub against each other “like tectonics plates”, creating massive friction and the kind of discomfort most would rather not put up with. It is then, that the Old recognizes the blasphemous “deviation” of the New and hurriedly brands it with the shameful scarlet letter of Apostasy!

 

 

In our culture the term “Apostasy” is very damning. When someone calls another person “Apostate” they presume the worst about the spiritual welfare of that individual. The very use of the term creates the kind of energy of condemnAtion only the Adversary, the chief Accuser, would be interested in generAting.

 

 

It’s putting the Apostate person in a box, as something contAgious, almost leprous and someone we should be Afraid of. We Assume that Amorality is involved or that spiritual Apathy has occurred, leaving no room for Alternate explanations of why someone might be exercising their agency in such a way.

 

But what is Apostasy, really? It is none other than Alienation from God. Such spiritual disconnection is likely to happen when we feel ‘unworthy’ to communicate with God directly and require a mediator of sorts, a church leader or a clergyman, that will receive guidance for us as a group, since he ‘knows better’. When such dependence is practiced long enough it is actually MORE likely that the church as a whole, speaking collectively and not individually, will enter this state of Alienation from God.

What tragedy and irony, when those in error point their condemning fingers at those that are actually following the Truth...

 

Tomorrow, the day after, or even today, when someone we know chooses to embrace the restored New or exercise their agency in ways we can’t comprehend, may we refrain from using our scArlet letters, for Christ Himself brought forth the New, when the mainstream majority was clinging to the familiar Old.