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about the author...  Happy Lee Del Canto is a Chilean poet and short story writer currently living in Santiago, Chile. She spent her childhood in Los Angeles, California. Raised a nominal Catholic, she converted to Christianity at the age of 18. Her writings have won her second place in two national short-story contests sponsored by DUOC-UC, a branch of Chile's Catholic University. Her current concerns are the legalistic practices and lack of culture inside the Chilean Christian realm. She maintains a website here >>>
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Meta-narratives in Chilean Christianity: A Church in Shackles by Happy Lee Del Canto
While the world is concerned with Post Modernism (and so is
Christianity), Chile
continues to live its faith inside the boundaries of Meta-narratives. Postmodernism seeks to disrupt or banish Meta-narratives
altogether and considering that humans are a kaleidoscope of various colors, hues, textures
and knots, the idea of bringing them all under a certain unmovable set of
truths (many of them man-made), which does not speak to their individual
experience; then we can state that Meta-narrative Christianity (a term I will
use in a figurative sense to describe several aspects such as legalism and a
God-for-the-religious) does not minister to the people as much as to the
"religion" they profess.
Christ comes to save a "person" (an individual: the word speaks for itself), ministering to the specific universe this individual inhabits. If the one who has converted needs comfort, he will experience Christ as the Ultimate Comfort; should he need refuge, Christ will become his Fortress, should he lack knowledge and/or wisdom, Christ the Teacher will lead the person to new heights of understanding. Christianity has always been of a personal nature. God has always been a personal God, dealing in different ways with His children. Moses' experience with God is different from that of Abraham's. Paul's experience is different from Peter's. And how can they not be? We are speaking of "individuals", different temperaments and personalities. Chile, a country where 15% of the population is Evangelical and counting, the Christian Church seemingly values "herd Christians" over those who would question and seek to experience God in a fuller sense. A waste of potential considering the high percentage in a Catholic country. “Wear a tie”, “Grow your hair”, “Remove your makeup”, “Don’t read, it’s a waste of time that belongs to the Lord”, “You look worldly, were you in the world a long time?”, “Christ has saved you, start dressing differently and show it to the world...” And our individuality is wiped clean. A new character and personality is given us, new wardrobe and new rules for behavior: man’s rules. We have now become an army of dress-alike, act-alike, think-alike Christian soldiers. And the differences, the glorious differences we, as individuals have, are sought to be obliterated.And also the message itself, communicated in this biased
way, becomes stale and irrelevant to the times. It is no wonder that many youths desert Christianity some time after converting. They aren't shown the merciful God, the loving God, “the friend of sinners”. They are shown (to quote the words of Michael Pritzl – The Violet Burning), an "ogre in the sky". An ogre we must please at all costs lest He get angry and punish us. This attitude would entail not actually "loving" the One that saved us, but worshipping/serving Him in constant fear.The concept of Grace is lost on us and we begin to add human
acts to the story of our salvation. I began to think there was something seriously wrong with me and my service became hollow. Was this what Christianity was all about? Being set free only to be chained again under a man-made system of beliefs and behavior?I gave up and went my own way. It took five years of my running from this type of Meta-narrative Christianity to experience God in a whole different light. After turning my back on Him, He gently lured me to Him with threads of love, ministering to me as an individual; ministering to every recess of my soul and human experience. Christ became personal and dear to my heart. I could now experience Him in Love.After this occurred, how could I remain silent? I longed to show my Christian brothers and sisters in shackles that God is Alive and Thriving outside the boundaries of legalism and man-established norms. The church I now attend has been a blessing in the sense of identifying this silent aspect of Chilean Christianity and speaking out against legalism and man-imposed behavior norms. Antonio Roa, our Pastor (a man of only 32) has it in his heart to work inside this area of negative Christian influence.There’s still a long way to go, but the times are changing. There are new ministries being founded that reach out to certain young Urban Tribes in distress, preaching a real, living God who doesn’t mind they have long hair or tattoos; a God that will embrace them all the same. There is more room for discussion and debate. There is a space to question, to seek and to express.In all my years of being Christian
and all I’ve gone through and seen, this is certainly a leap towards
happier times. Happy, Print-friendly version of this page Mail this article
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