The inconvenient truths of Christianity
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready. Henry David Thoreau
Welcome to my new Blog. The YLC Stl Blog will continue to post the occasional fascinating excerpt from the ministry's life. But to keep my personal life separate and clear from the ministry's I've decided to launch a Blog that is solely for my thoughts, experiences and expressions.
So I'll be serving up my own recipes of ideas, social commentary and just plain life experiences for whomever finds my brand of thinking digestible, and perhaps occasionally delicious.
The inconvenient truths of Christianity
So for my first offering I'd like to talk about the unfortunate habit we Christians have for talking about the ideal and ignoring the reality.
The sermon at Church this morning was about living in the tension of the Christian's transitional life. The paradox of both being at home here and also waiting for the eternal home after death.
The preacher set out the ideal of living a counter cultural life of tension.
- How we work but aren't working for ourselves and our own petty consumerists needs.
- How we marry but live in a way that is different from those outside Christianity. Again with the clarity that we aren't in marriage for our own selfish needs.
- How we are in the physical as a physical being but aren't like those outside who live only for their own selfish appetites.
What a wonderful sermon on the ideal of the Christian life. Unfortunately the sermon never reached the point where reality was allowed to rear its difficult and less aesthetically pleasing head.
- Christians donate 2% on average. This is the same as Americans who are outside of Christianity.
- Christians get divorced 33% of the time. This is the same as Americans who are outside of Christianity.
- Christians tend to suffer from as much obesity, heart attacks, eating disorders, addictions, and all other physical ailments and disorders as Americans outside Christianity.
Statistically Christan on average tend to act identically to any other American subculture, whatever their religious worldview.
I wish we would talk about the reality instead of the idyllic. I don't mind us setting the target as long as we spend much more time explaining how pitifully we miss that target.
There are times I truly detest attending Church. Almost always it is because of idealistic diatribe that refuses to discuss the ugly reality sitting in the room and in Christianity as a whole.
I'm so utterly tired of ignoring the inconvenient truths of Christianity. Utopian sermons from the pulpit only encourages dysfunctional behavior from the pews.
Sobering, ain't it? Wish there was a simple solution. Ashamed that there isn't. Please pass on our regards to Bethany, and please, please, please consult with her on the font colours before you next post ;P
ReplyDeleteI felt it would be good to make you all pay for the sobering content with the font.... :) Give th family a hug from us.... we miss you English people...
Delete.
What you are talking about is exactly why I love the Bible. It shows us God's ideal, and shows us by how much we miss that mark. David, a man after God's own heart, was as scurrilous a of dog as you could find. But because he would acknowledge his failings, was broken over them, God could use him to do great things.
ReplyDeleteI was sitting in church today, praising God and I felt the weight of my sin crushing me and then I felt peace in knowing that Christ poured himself out for me, a sinner of no small stature, because of his love for me. Wow!
Peace doesn't come from a sermon. It comes from the Spirit of God touching a sinful but open heart.
I miss you so much, brother. Please give my love to Bethany. Mike, if you happen to read this, love to you and your family as well!
You too bro'
DeleteHey, just found your blog. I agree with all that you said here. One interesting thing about that stats though is what really is a Christian. I mean in the bible belt everyone is a "Christian". Having done my fair share of online dating I would tell you that almost everyone puts "Christian" for the religion category. I'm not suggesting that just because someone falls short that they are not one - that would be bad news for me. But I do think that there are a lot of people who are fooling themselves.
ReplyDeleteSounds you would probably like our church. :) Sometimes it is a bit to much in your face/reality check for me, to the point where I have to remind myself of successes instead of just focusing focusing on failures. Gotta balance grace and truth.
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