Why do you care?

Why do you care so much about if I go to church and what church I attend?  I've lived in states where that is the first thing out of people's mouths when they meet me is "Where do you go to church?"  It is as if this defines who I am.  I personally would rather you ask me if I were kind to others today.  Did I help someone in need?  Did I treat each and every person I encountered today with kindness, respect and with equality?  Ask me those questions and I will answer and make myself think about my day.  Did I do the best I could to follow the good and kindness that the church is suppose to represents? That's what I want to define me.  Not what church I attend. 

It makes me want to build a church.  A Church of Good and Kindness.  A church without any walls, no ceilings and no floors.  There's no maintenance required, no utility bills to pay and no employees, well except the employees of good and kindness.  These employees are paid with the self-gratification of doing something good and kind for others.  They live by this motto.  They don't need to go to a building to worship and they don't need a place to go so they fit in.  Just the opposite, they take each day and try to help others in need, if just by picking up a can of soup that a grocery clerk dropped.  If it's just letting someone go ahead of you in line because they are in a hurry.  Now this is everyday stuff that we all should be practicing but how many actually do it, but don't miss a Sunday sitting in a church pew all dressed up asking God to help them be better and to forgive their sins.  But what if, just what if instead of spending an hour every Sunday going to a building that cost a lot of money to build and maintain, that hour and money be spent showing our children how to help others.  Sitting down at the kitchen table with your spouse and/or children talking and discussing how you can individually and as a group make society better. Take the money that you would have put in the collection basket and give it to a family in need or a cancer patient that cannot afford his/her cancer treatment. Can you imagine the value that this would have on our children in today's society?  Letting them be a part of a weekly decision on who are we (your family) going to help this week? 

I think this concept is difficult for many to understand because we have been programmed by our parents, clergy and society at large that a congregation is the center of religion and it is through that center where goodness comes from.  But if you were to really think of what the center is, isn't each of us as individuals providing that goodness to each other?  Would it even matter if we never stepped into a church and just practiced what each of us and the bible preaches?  Wouldn't God be grateful and bless us with all his serenity just for being good to each other?