Sometimes I think churches and christians thrive on fear. It doesn't matter that the Bible promises "perfect peace". Fear keeps people motivated to follow the rules of the group they are part of so the group continues to find ways to incite fear in it's followers.
This election had a lot of that. Fear that McCain would push the country into another world war. Fear that Obama was the anti-christ. How much validity is there to either claim? Not much. But say it loud enough, attach some vague Bible passages to your ranting, and say it often enough and people will equate the person with what you are saying and fear their election.
But it's not just about elections. People can fear that if they go to a particular theme park they will be supporting evil. They can fear that if they listen to particular music the devil will take over their soul. They can fear that certain books or types of entertainment will make them unclean. Fear, fear, fear.
What's really sad is that God doesn't control through fear. It's just some people who purport to show people God that try to. Unfortunately sometimes they're the only "God" that is seen.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
God's Will
Churches give lip service to wanting God's will. With this election some are now saying "God is still in control" as though they need to be reminded of that. Maybe it's time to truly believe that God *is* in control and that the results of the elections, whether they are what you personally would prefer or not, are exactly what God has willed for us. We don't have to understand God's will; we just have to accept it.
True acceptance of God's will means not working against it. That means no preaching about how awful the world has suddenly become. No preaching about how the anti-christ is now walking in the White House. No preaching about how quickly the end of the world is coming "just look around you." It does mean praying that the Lord will use the Servant God has chosen to lead the country. It means allowing God to do whatever is best for this country without complaining because the Lord chose something different than what you thought was best. Amazing how we think we know better than God!! What arrogance!
True acceptance of God's will means not working against it. That means no preaching about how awful the world has suddenly become. No preaching about how the anti-christ is now walking in the White House. No preaching about how quickly the end of the world is coming "just look around you." It does mean praying that the Lord will use the Servant God has chosen to lead the country. It means allowing God to do whatever is best for this country without complaining because the Lord chose something different than what you thought was best. Amazing how we think we know better than God!! What arrogance!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Transparency
There is within people the need to belong. There is also a need to be known completely. Many people join religious organizations so they "belong". Religious organizations would seem like a safe place to not only belong but also to be known. But they aren't always.
Lately I've been spending time in groups where one can belong AND be transparent without fear of reprisals. What is said or done in those groups is kept private. Everyone involved knows that it is safe to voice their issues without worrying about being judged or condemned. To me, that is what church should be like.
Unfortunately I grew up in churches and learned very early on that there was no privacy and a LOT of judgement if anyone broke down and confessed who and what they really were. I listened to the snipping and snipe-ing that went on. The "prayer requests" that were obviously a way to righteously gossip about someone else's ills. I learned not to be real at church but to put on a pretty face, proper behavior, and get along with other people's facades.
I wonder sometimes what Jesus would do in those kinds of churches. He obviously already knew each person's foibles and weaknesses yet accepted each person as a valued child of God. Jesus tended to get angry at those would would make being accepted, known, and belong difficult for people who were honest about their need. So, it makes me wonder how Jesus would act toward the pew people in churches and the leadership in those churches. It's scary to consider.
Lately I've been spending time in groups where one can belong AND be transparent without fear of reprisals. What is said or done in those groups is kept private. Everyone involved knows that it is safe to voice their issues without worrying about being judged or condemned. To me, that is what church should be like.
Unfortunately I grew up in churches and learned very early on that there was no privacy and a LOT of judgement if anyone broke down and confessed who and what they really were. I listened to the snipping and snipe-ing that went on. The "prayer requests" that were obviously a way to righteously gossip about someone else's ills. I learned not to be real at church but to put on a pretty face, proper behavior, and get along with other people's facades.
I wonder sometimes what Jesus would do in those kinds of churches. He obviously already knew each person's foibles and weaknesses yet accepted each person as a valued child of God. Jesus tended to get angry at those would would make being accepted, known, and belong difficult for people who were honest about their need. So, it makes me wonder how Jesus would act toward the pew people in churches and the leadership in those churches. It's scary to consider.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Submit
I've been thinking about all the churches who have problems with dissention in their midst. (And every church I know of has that kind of problem to one degree or another.) What would happen if pastors started teaching Ephesians 5:21-22 from a different angle?
Ephesians 5:21 says, depending on your translation, "Submit yourselves one to another". It's obviously intended for the church at large so if we tie verse 22 into it "Wives, to your husbands" then you've got church people submitting to one another the way they believe wives should submit to their husbands.
If the church is egalitarian then it will remind them that their submission does not mean that they get to do whatever they want all of the time. They need to find a way to mutually agree on answers and decisions.
If the church believes that women are to be silent in church and obey men, then they've got a whole new way to look at how they treat other church members and their spouses. After all, if the women in the church believe that they should be obeying their husbands, then how can they insist on their own way within the church at large? And if the men believe that women are to always submit to men, then what happens when they find themselves in a "female" position of submitting to someone the way a wife would to her husband?
'Course this also opens things up to even more manipulation within the church since so many women in patriarchal systems manipulate the heck out of their husbands to get their own way rather than just stating it clearly and logically discussing it. Now you could end up with a whole church of people manipulating everyone else to the point of being so dysfunctional that it falls apart and has a church divorce.
But just pointing this out (the church divorce stuff) could be the clue-by-four a church body might need to get the idea of submitting to one another. Maybe.
It could make for an interesting sermon though.
"Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 5. This morning we are going to examine verses 21 and 22.
It is obvious that verse 21 is talking about the church body's attitude toward one another. Each person in the congregation is to submit themselves to one another. How do we do this? Paul provides an example in verse 22 when he tells us to look at how a wife submits to her husband. It's obvious that all church members should model their submission to each other on how a wife is to submit to her hubby.
How do wives submit to their husbands? Whose wants and needs does she put first? What does a husband expect from his wife's submission? These are the things that we are all called to do for one another within this church body.
Men, this may be uncomfortable but it's like being the Bride of Christ. Jesus calls us to uncomfortable places of humility as we become more like Christ. It is as we work to understand the submission we are to have toward one another that we most exemplify Christ's foot washing with the disciples."
Shoot. Might be a good sermon in an egal church too, especially one with in-fighting and back-stabbing. IS this the way Christians should act toward one another? Of course not! We're to be known by our love for one another. Love is shown by putting another's wants ahead of our own and doing our best to ensure that their needs are met to the best of our ability while they work to meet our needs and put our wants ahead of their own. If everyone in the church did that, then there would be more real Christian love and concern expressed, felt, and experienced. Church squabbles would be minor and easily resolved. So would issues within marriages. Open, honest communication and a willingness to defer our wants to meeting another's needs.
So, come on churches!! Lets all act like the submissive women Paul has called us to be!
Ephesians 5:21 says, depending on your translation, "Submit yourselves one to another". It's obviously intended for the church at large so if we tie verse 22 into it "Wives, to your husbands" then you've got church people submitting to one another the way they believe wives should submit to their husbands.
If the church is egalitarian then it will remind them that their submission does not mean that they get to do whatever they want all of the time. They need to find a way to mutually agree on answers and decisions.
If the church believes that women are to be silent in church and obey men, then they've got a whole new way to look at how they treat other church members and their spouses. After all, if the women in the church believe that they should be obeying their husbands, then how can they insist on their own way within the church at large? And if the men believe that women are to always submit to men, then what happens when they find themselves in a "female" position of submitting to someone the way a wife would to her husband?
'Course this also opens things up to even more manipulation within the church since so many women in patriarchal systems manipulate the heck out of their husbands to get their own way rather than just stating it clearly and logically discussing it. Now you could end up with a whole church of people manipulating everyone else to the point of being so dysfunctional that it falls apart and has a church divorce.
But just pointing this out (the church divorce stuff) could be the clue-by-four a church body might need to get the idea of submitting to one another. Maybe.
It could make for an interesting sermon though.
"Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 5. This morning we are going to examine verses 21 and 22.
It is obvious that verse 21 is talking about the church body's attitude toward one another. Each person in the congregation is to submit themselves to one another. How do we do this? Paul provides an example in verse 22 when he tells us to look at how a wife submits to her husband. It's obvious that all church members should model their submission to each other on how a wife is to submit to her hubby.
How do wives submit to their husbands? Whose wants and needs does she put first? What does a husband expect from his wife's submission? These are the things that we are all called to do for one another within this church body.
Men, this may be uncomfortable but it's like being the Bride of Christ. Jesus calls us to uncomfortable places of humility as we become more like Christ. It is as we work to understand the submission we are to have toward one another that we most exemplify Christ's foot washing with the disciples."
Shoot. Might be a good sermon in an egal church too, especially one with in-fighting and back-stabbing. IS this the way Christians should act toward one another? Of course not! We're to be known by our love for one another. Love is shown by putting another's wants ahead of our own and doing our best to ensure that their needs are met to the best of our ability while they work to meet our needs and put our wants ahead of their own. If everyone in the church did that, then there would be more real Christian love and concern expressed, felt, and experienced. Church squabbles would be minor and easily resolved. So would issues within marriages. Open, honest communication and a willingness to defer our wants to meeting another's needs.
So, come on churches!! Lets all act like the submissive women Paul has called us to be!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Magical thinking
Recently I became aware of a therapist saying that my generation indulges in "magical thinking" too much. I've been mulling that over since hearing it wondering how that could have started. As I reviewed the entertainment of my childhood (Disney movies, Bewitched, etc) I could see where magical thinking could come from, in part. Then I started thinking beyond the "world's" influence and looked at the religious teaching I grew up with. Wow! Talk about magical thinking!!
I grew up Pentecostal. I have talked to enough people who grew up in non-Pentecostal (OMG I *hate* Pentecostals churches included) to have realize that they were taught some, though not all, of what I was taught as a kid.
While people like to quote the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" it is NOT a Bible verse. It would be nice if it *were* a Bible verse given the way some people are so God-dependent that they can't dress without Divine Intervention.
The stories I heard growing up were about how God miraculously healed people, gave people money in just the nick of time to keep them from foreclosure, provided groceries when they had nothing to eat, etc, etc, etc. I believe God is perfectly able to supply one's needs and heal people but is this something we should depend on?
I can remember being told that God would do whatever we asked if we just "believed" enough. It didn't seem to matter what it was, God would do it if we just said the right words and did the right things. The "name it and claim it" folks were alive, well, and preaching when I was young long before the newest batch of them started preaching.
There were times I'd go to bed at night, lay in bed and pray God would make me magically lose weight until I was Twiggy thin so I could be more popular. Forget genetics. God could change my genes to make it work. Forget looking at the reality of me and realize I wasn't fat, just built larger than others. (Now is a different story.)
Being told over and over that God would supply our needs sounded lovely until I grew up some and started looking at history. Did all of the Christians murdered in the Nazi camps sin so badly that God wanted to punish them? If God supplied all our needs, wouldn't a loving Lord have rescued those people from the death camps? Whatever happened to the God who saved the 3 Hebrew children and Daniel from the fiery furnace?
If God can heal us, then why isn't everyone alive and well? It seems like no church worth it's salt should have any members who get sick and stay sick. If you want to be healed of MS or diabetes or cancer, just go to church, live the life God wants you to, get prayed for, and you should be able to quit all your meds and go on about your life as though you were never sick because, obviously, God should heal you!
But life isn't like that. People get sick and die no matter how much the people here don't want them to and pray that God will intervene. People work hard to do the right thing yet their jobs disappear, their mortgage becomes too much and they default (or are foreclosed on), medical bills mount up and they can't pay them, feeding their kids becomes nearly impossible, life gets too hard to continue. Does God care about those situations?
I know what I believe about it. I think it's time for churches to stop promising things they cannot deliver. Part of those sermons and Sunday School classes from my childhood stick like they do because I hear the same messages coming from various preachers even today. Be honest people! Tell people the truth about what God *might* do for them but don't promise that the Lord absolutely will.
I grew up Pentecostal. I have talked to enough people who grew up in non-Pentecostal (OMG I *hate* Pentecostals churches included) to have realize that they were taught some, though not all, of what I was taught as a kid.
While people like to quote the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" it is NOT a Bible verse. It would be nice if it *were* a Bible verse given the way some people are so God-dependent that they can't dress without Divine Intervention.
The stories I heard growing up were about how God miraculously healed people, gave people money in just the nick of time to keep them from foreclosure, provided groceries when they had nothing to eat, etc, etc, etc. I believe God is perfectly able to supply one's needs and heal people but is this something we should depend on?
I can remember being told that God would do whatever we asked if we just "believed" enough. It didn't seem to matter what it was, God would do it if we just said the right words and did the right things. The "name it and claim it" folks were alive, well, and preaching when I was young long before the newest batch of them started preaching.
There were times I'd go to bed at night, lay in bed and pray God would make me magically lose weight until I was Twiggy thin so I could be more popular. Forget genetics. God could change my genes to make it work. Forget looking at the reality of me and realize I wasn't fat, just built larger than others. (Now is a different story.)
Being told over and over that God would supply our needs sounded lovely until I grew up some and started looking at history. Did all of the Christians murdered in the Nazi camps sin so badly that God wanted to punish them? If God supplied all our needs, wouldn't a loving Lord have rescued those people from the death camps? Whatever happened to the God who saved the 3 Hebrew children and Daniel from the fiery furnace?
If God can heal us, then why isn't everyone alive and well? It seems like no church worth it's salt should have any members who get sick and stay sick. If you want to be healed of MS or diabetes or cancer, just go to church, live the life God wants you to, get prayed for, and you should be able to quit all your meds and go on about your life as though you were never sick because, obviously, God should heal you!
But life isn't like that. People get sick and die no matter how much the people here don't want them to and pray that God will intervene. People work hard to do the right thing yet their jobs disappear, their mortgage becomes too much and they default (or are foreclosed on), medical bills mount up and they can't pay them, feeding their kids becomes nearly impossible, life gets too hard to continue. Does God care about those situations?
I know what I believe about it. I think it's time for churches to stop promising things they cannot deliver. Part of those sermons and Sunday School classes from my childhood stick like they do because I hear the same messages coming from various preachers even today. Be honest people! Tell people the truth about what God *might* do for them but don't promise that the Lord absolutely will.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
10 Commandments
I really like the 10 Commandments. They're pretty simple and straightforward. Can't really quibble with them because they make a lot of sense for inter-personal interactions. I like the logic.
So, why is there a question about homosexuality? I get that there are other passages that teach against it but those passages aren't as clear-cut for me as they seem to be for many other people. I don't see anything in the 10 Commandments about homosexuality. Not saying it's right just wondering about it. Anyone want to give me good, clear-cut Bible reasons to be anti-gay? It doesn't have to be join the Phelps campaign reasoning (I don't think they reason anything) but it would be nice to see something truly clear-cut about it.
See? Slippery Slope Speculating is a good title.
So, why is there a question about homosexuality? I get that there are other passages that teach against it but those passages aren't as clear-cut for me as they seem to be for many other people. I don't see anything in the 10 Commandments about homosexuality. Not saying it's right just wondering about it. Anyone want to give me good, clear-cut Bible reasons to be anti-gay? It doesn't have to be join the Phelps campaign reasoning (I don't think they reason anything) but it would be nice to see something truly clear-cut about it.
See? Slippery Slope Speculating is a good title.
Church
What is church? Is it a building? I was taught that the building isn't important, yet I've gone into church buildings that had a holy feel to them. Somehow the building itself seemed very, very 'church' like.
Is church a particular set of rituals and words said in a particular sequence? I know people who don't feel they've been to church without specific things happening.
Is it a group of people who meet together and call themselves a church? Maybe. What does their church consist of?
What makes something church?
As I was reminded yesterday, the Bible says that we are not to "forsake the gathering together". I'm just not clear on what that means. I know that I miss being with others in a "church" but I'm having trouble figuring out what that means to me.
Is church a particular set of rituals and words said in a particular sequence? I know people who don't feel they've been to church without specific things happening.
Is it a group of people who meet together and call themselves a church? Maybe. What does their church consist of?
What makes something church?
As I was reminded yesterday, the Bible says that we are not to "forsake the gathering together". I'm just not clear on what that means. I know that I miss being with others in a "church" but I'm having trouble figuring out what that means to me.
Odd questions
I tend to have these very odd theological questions tumbling around in my head. I figure I can't be the only one with these questions so this place is where I am going to post them and see what kinds of answers I get.
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