Redefining sin

So if you haven´t figured it out by now, churches here are very different. As sad as it seems to say this, Christians here don´t seem to have much of a social life because so much is considered sin and therefore off limits. (Note: I am living in a rural town with no movie theater, one ice cream store and only a couple restaurants. The closest big store is 30 minutes away and though people here get excited about it, its worse than a Walmart. Being a Christian here is much more restricting than say in Santo Domingo where a) there are more things to do and b) less things are culturally considered to be sin). So I struggle here not only with making friends, but with upholding a Christian-code I don´t agree with.

Dominican sins (according to Seybanos):

• Earrings- especially on boys
• Make-up
• Dyed-hair
• Pants on women (aka- can´t dress like opposite sex)
• Dancing
• Alcohol
• Smoking
• Non-Christian music
• Divorce & Re-marrying

Luckily, I brought mostly skirts. Not all Christian women here wear just skirts, so its ok if I wear pants. But other women don´t wear pants outside the house. I once heard a woman in church tell a story about rebuking a boy for having an earring, saying he had a demon or something. Then she heard that he was in a car accident but didn´t die and she attributed that ¨miracle¨ to her rebuke. Everyone in church applauded. Ironically, I have seen men wearing bracelets that in the states would be only for women. I have seen girls wearing shorts that were designed for boys. But culturally they don´t know the difference. I have seen Christians wearing shirts that talk about drinking in English. Ignorance is holy, I guess. I didn´t bother to tell them. I´ve passed the discos and though I am sure some are worse and the smell of alcohol is overwhelming, Christians refuse to delineate sin between being drunk and having a drink. Not that I don´t understand the rational, cause alcohol only adds to the poverty and domestic abuse. So therefore, simply entering a disco is sin. Plus there is the dancing, which is supposedly bad. Yet every time I pass by, the couples have about a foot between them, leaving plenty of room for Jesus, haha.

The sad part is, there are a lot more pressing issues that ought to be added to the list, such as domestic abuse, disciplining children too harshly and laziness. I worry that the Church, instead of being a great motivator for change, is isolating people with its rules. It´s not uncommon here to talk to someone and hear him/her say ¨I was a Christian for X amount of time¨ but didn´t stick with it.