Proud to be a Christian…

Not long ago I wrote a piece on “Proud to be an American” with the accompanying piece of also be embarrassed by certain American behavior. Here is the follow up piece but on my greatest interest, Christianity.

I am very proud to be a Christian. We have a long history, in which I include our Judean history, of being a special people with a special relationship with God. It is a history of a people relationship with a deity which is essentially unknowable, (“My way are not your ways…”) and yet there is this passionate history of the relationship with God and God’s people. It is an amazing story to me as I do not see human beings as being all that loveable, and downright rude with God most of the time. But as one explained it, “God seems to be like a teenage girl with a crush on the most despicable of boyfriends.” It makes no sense but it for me it is the dominate theme of our history. Admittedly there are horrendous stories in that relationship, which taken out of context make no sense at all, and some I still do not understand. The story of Jesus, the incarnate God, who is more understandable to us, helps us get a better handle on the love relationship. Though my Jewish friends, in contrast of my Christian friends see this throughout the Old Testament whereas my Christian friends tend to see a nasty God running around punishing folk. Perhaps this is best illustrated in the 10 commandments which a lot of Christian folk see as a club God will use to beat folk into submission rather than a gift to an enslaved people who were clueless about how to live as a free people.

I am also proud of the church, which we often define as the visible representation of the body of Christ. Churches have done wonderful things throughout the ages as they have sought to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the teachings of the law to be good and faithful followers and disciples of God. Tremendous good has been done by the church that is just too huge to describe here.

We also know there have been the worst of things done in the name of the church as well, for example, the Crusades which were done in Christ’s name but were entirely against his teachings. I also embrace the teachings and wisdom of non-Christian beliefs systems and philosophies as we all seek for truth.

And now I come to the contemporary church. The church of my youth was dominated by what we called mainline denominations such as: Presbyterians like me, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Friends/Quakers, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and the like. These churches were at the center of communities throughout the country. It was where we learned our basic values and morals via our parents and Sunday school teachers. They did wonderful work in missions (except when they were trying to cram our beliefs down the throats of folk in foreign countries trying to make American Christians out of them at the cost of indigenous cultural values. They were also restrictive in that you almost had to belong to a church to be a respected member of a community and expect to make a living. And the clergy of these churches were remarkably well educated with undergraduate degree mainly in liberal arts colleges and universities and then received advanced degrees in theology to help them lead the congregations and their communities. These clergy were held in high regard and along with the other best know professionals in the community, doctors and lawyers, we the best of the best we had to offer in terms of community leadership. Those days are long gone.

The center of communities is no longer those mainline churches, it is the school. And schools today often feel they are legally tied not to teach values and morality; untrue but largely believed. They belief they are not to teach a religion but they may teach about religions and that is as it should be.

Also in the days of my youth communities were typically smaller so everybody pretty much knew everyone else’s business. So, if you deviated from the socially accepted norms, taught by the church and elsewhere, you would be quickly chastised. Today we live in huge cities in which we don’t even know our neighbors and there is little social pressure brought to bear on deviant behavior. It is a case of anomie, a state of normlessness which I believe is the great danger our society faces today.

Without more intimate relationships that we used to have people feel free to engage in outlandish behavior, lewd and crude and downright mean. How people drive cars in contrast to how they walk; ever heard of a case of car-rage?

We have our good moments. I remember when the presbytery I belonged was discussing whether should ordain homosexuals to our churches; a hot button issue in many churches today. When it came time for debate we applied strict rules of Roberts Rules of Order to keep the debate civil and on course. Folks on both sides of the issues has spent time in committees working together to find common ground. The debate that ensued was orderly, passionate, and respectful. And when the vote was taken persons from both sides of the issue embraced each other and we moved on to other business. I remember of elder that accompanied me that day was absolutely blown away at the civility which he thought would be a bloodbath as it often is reported by the media. What made it work, in my opinion, was a sense of community.

I prefer small churches where that sense of community is easily seen and embraced. The same can be true of mega churches, but they have to work hard to create small churches within that large church to ensure that same sense of community.

Today I fear for the church. Today we have many churches that call themselves non-denominational and are proud of it. To me that just means they don’t know traditions and history that attends denominations; not always true, but often true. These churches are also led by less educated clergy who may have attended a bible college but lack the broad based education of mainline churches. Again, good people doing good things, but not as adequately prepared as I believe they should be. And then there are the mail order ordinations which, again in my opinion, just make a mockery of the office of pastor.

All of this I believe had led to the radical religious practices and beliefs that are usually found on the extreme religious right. The positions they take, the intolerance they practice and the lack of insight and wisdom they display embarrass me. I am sure God loves them just as much as other Christians and I love them as well, but they still embarrass me and I believe are poor ambassadors of Christ.

When Jesus walked upon the earth he surrounded himself in community, disciples and apostles and with the religion of his birth Judaism and its synagogues and temples. He showed respect and love often to those who the current society condemned our looked down the collective noses upon. The ones he got angry with were the legalists of his day, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Zealots, especially the former. They knew the law and codes of behavior but they didn’t know the spirit and love the law was about. They were about condemnation and power over others. They are reflective of the churches the media loves to report about. And because of their extreme views in a media sensationalist world they make the church look ridiculous, hard and mean-spirited. And that embarrasses me and should not reflect the church overall. I am also cognizant to pointing fingers and those that points back to us. This is not a blanket condemnation of all non-denominational churches, but an overall observation of current trends.

Another measurement stick I use for religious institutions and charities for that matter is how mission conscious they are. Many of these extreme churches are very big on what they term “evangelism,” meaning how many people come trooping up front of the service on a Sunday or at a revival meeting and accept Jesus as their personal savior and then they keep track of how many people “they” have saved. Jesus is the only one who saved anyone, period. And then folk can proudly proclaim the date and time they were saved by the personal act of affirmation.  I believe everyone was saved at the same time, at Golgotha, when Jesus was crucified. That did it. You may accept it or come to understand it, but you didn’t save yourself by your profession; that’s just egotistical.

Pardon the side tangent there; now back to the issue of mission work. One of the things I think is important is to seek how a church or a denomination handles and is involved in mission work; taking care of our brothers and sisters as Jesus told us to do. Most mainline churches absorb the administrative costs elsewhere in their budget so most of not all the money raised for missions actually goes to mission. For charities, you hope they have no more than 10% to 15% in administrative costs. But if you examine a number of the extreme costs, very little goes where it is supposed to go and the rake a lot off the top for their own purposes. We all know the scandals of Jimmy and Faye Baker and how the ripped off their followers. There is too much of that. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse is a good example of one that does well; about 80% of the funds they raise go to their mission.

Christianity is both simple and complex. Churches should not make it simplistic nor so complex that it seems like a secret society. To be a Christian is simple; a Christian is one who accepts Jesus as Lord. The practices are also simple in principle: Love God with you whole being and you neighbor as yourself. But to practice that simple principle is incredibly complex. To constantly fight our own selfish nature and to constantly see to being faithful disciples of Christ is just plain hard work. We fail most of the time, but God’s spirit is as lively as ever and caught up in it we do what we care called to do.

So with Micah we say, [Micah 6.8 TM)

 ⁸But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,

what God is looking for in men and women.

It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,

be compassionate and loyal in your love,

And don’t take yourself too seriously—

take God seriously.