I had a conversation with a friend last night that made me a little bit despondent about what we're trying to achieve here at The Transit Lounge.

 

 

I had just come back from Elaine's birthday dinner, which my husband had decided not to come to.

The conversation was around that dilemma of invitations and couples: if you're part of a couple, should you always assume and invite includes your partner or, if you're the person doing the inviting, do you have to include partners even if you don't know them?

Then we got talking about the people at the dinner party, and my friend (who I've known for many years and who is staying with us for a few days) said he thought it made sense that jeff (my husband) didn't go, because he wouldn't have anything in common with ‘that churchy crew.'

My husband is an atheist and he's pretty down to earth - he doesn't have a lot of time for god talk, so that's fair enough in some ways. But I did say there was one person there who, even though he's a few years older than us, Jeff would probably get along pretty well with because they have a fair amount in common.

My mate laughed and said, ‘what, does he listen to Pink Floyd and ACDC?'

To which I said, yes, I'm pretty sure that's in his CD collection somewhere.

But no! How can churchy/religious people listen to rock music? Hasn't ‘The Church' come out and said that's bad?

I did try to explain that what is reported in the media as 'what The Church says' isn't always entirely accurate and/or reflective of every single Christian's position on the subject. I don't think it really helped.  

I'm not sure if I can explain why this conversation stumped me so much. Possibly because it was with someone who I've known for a long time, who I consider a friend, and who (I think) knows that:

• a) I'm a Christian
• b) I have a ticket for the ACDC concert next year.

So I'm presuming he thinks either:

a) I'm not really a Christian

b) I'm a complete hypocrit nut case.

We started The Transit Lounge as a space for people to talk about where faith and life meet. But sometimes I think it's a losing battle, because for so many people they just don't!