This week she was at work but her daughter who is at my age (married and have kids) invited me to their church. The invitation came right after we left a movie theater yesterday. My housemate knows that I have been bored at weekends and asked me yesterday if I would be interested in going out to see a movie with her and her daughter. I said yes and we saw Soul Surfer, a drama that teaches some Christian values. A young girl who loves to surf and lives in Hawaii gets attached by a shark and loses her arm. She does not turn her back to life. She embraces it. She continues surfing and participates successfully in the national surfing contest only a year after the shark attack.
My housemate told me that her daughter cried during the movie. She is a lovely lady. Not that I know her much but she seems to have a heart of gold. She is one of those people who are good in nature and who spread positive energy around. I could relate to her crying during the movie even though I myself am not good at crying.
After the movie, she asked me if I’d be interested in going to their church with them. I said I would love that. I am not the first Muslim to go to a Christian church. My experience was no special in that respect. However, non-Christians generally go to churches for one of two reasons: (1) To build network or convert into Christianity for spiritual or materialistic reasons. (2) To spread their own religion and to understand “weaknesses” of their competition. I wanted to go to church to understand them and know them better. I wanted to observe and learn. I went to church with open mind and no prejudice. It was overall a nice and spiritual experience.
This church does not belong to any Christian denomination according to what I was told. It is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural church in the sense that you would see not only white Americans but also African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. They are very active at “spreading the word.” I do not have much knowledge on different sects of Christianity, however, this one seemed like an Evangelist church to me. In fact, discipleship and evangelism are two of their core values according to their website.
I have made some observations during the ceremony. I compared many things with Islamic practices in mosques. This is not the first time I went to a church but I was very open minded and observant for the first time.
Let me start with some "shallow" observations. The church was very clean. The ceremony was well organized. Nothing came out as disturbing. People were dressed up. Ladies, in particular… I do not remember seeing a girl in jeans, which is quite unusual in US. Most women wore nice dresses, skirts, and high heels. Seeing women in short skirts during a religious ceremony was quite interesting. For a Muslim, when religion and women come together, an automatic implication is women in very conservative clothes, which would cover most of their bodies. This is the first sharp contrast. I do not want to be misunderstood of course. I do not mean to criticize it. As I said, I was there to observe, not to criticize or appraise.
There was music and lots of it indeed. A choir and singers were present on the stage all the time. They performed at least 3-4 times during the ceremony. The audience joined them and sang together. People were asked to approach the stage to pray together with the church officials. At some point, families with new born babies were invited to the stage to perform some sort of baptism of their babies. All of these made the ceremony very interactive. That is quite different from what you would see in a mosque where the imam would preach and the rest would listen quietly. Interactive events take place in mosques as well but not at the time of obligatory prayers. Also, women do not mix with men in mosques. Their interaction takes place in a disjoint manner.
In the church today, people would cheer and sing religious songs with singers while standing in their seats and waving their hands. They do not act. They seem to be sincere and enjoy the spiritual state of mind they are in.
People were asked to contribute at least twice during the ceremony. Ushers would walk and collect donations from the audience. People seemed to be responsive. However, I know from my other friends that people do not like to be asked to make donations. The pressure of having to give money makes the whole supposedly spiritual experience pushy and uncomfortable. You would not see people walking in mosques asking for money. There are some Islamic groups in which people are expected to donate a good part of their income if they want to support and be members of these groups. However, in regular gatherings in mosques, people are not expected to donate, at least not while in the mosque. The husband in the family who I went to the church with was one of those people who were not quite happy about being asked to donate constantly. However, churches do not get paid by the State in US. They depend on donations for survival. Especially churches with missionary trips apparently need a lot of money. In most Islamic countries, mosques get paid directly by the states for their needs. In addition to that, almost no mosque actively involves in out-of-the-mosque activities such as missionary trips or cultural or social activities.
I had good time today. I met nice people. No, I am still a Muslim and planning to stay that way. However, I benefited a lot from this experience. The only way people could understand each other is if they make the first move and are willing to listen to one another with open hearts and no secret agendas.
During the ceremony, I decided that I’d visit different churches in the next 52 weeks and share my honest thoughts and experiences.
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