We continue to hear great debate on whether to include the words
“under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag over and over again ad
nauseum. One wonders where we would be had those two words not have been added
in 1954.
Frankly, it seems to me unnecessary as the nation is under God from
my biblical and religious perspective no matter what our pledge to the flag is
or is not.
It also does not reflect our nation true beliefs. Yes, the majority
of the nation claims religious affiliations but they don’t attend those
religious institutions. Over a quarter of our citizens have left their faith of
origin, many not just switching horses but have just quit the horse. From
personal observation those who attend Christians churches are basically
biblically illiterate and are hard pressed to know the basic teachings of their
faith let alone apply those beliefs in the daily lives.
The United States is following in the footsteps of Europe where churches
are mainly historical relics of the past. This has rightly been called the
post-Christian age.
There is also a great deal of unseemly competition between various
Christian denominations that I think would make Christ cringe. Even the new
pope, as gracious and as open as he has been bringing some fresh air into Roman
Catholicism, made his trip to South America primarily to keep people from
leaving the Roman Catholic Church to their evangelical counterparts.
And though I have spent a life of service to the Christian Church
I’m not all sure how bothered I am by the decreasing numbers of those
affiliated with religious institutions. I believe in evangelism as far as
sharing one’s faith with others, but I dislike competition and growth by any
means. It seems to me that Jesus’ call to his followers was basically to be
faithful, faithful to his teachings and recognizing his messiahship.
In all of scripture there is an emphasis on the faithful remnant
not just propagation of believers. Yes, I would like to see the church grow but
only if it is faithful. The vast majority of today’s Christian churches are
under 150 members. While many of those churches have vital and important work,
I believe the vast majority just wants to survive and have lost sight of why
they are a church as disciples of Christ. A telltale remark is how they refer
to the church as “my church” or “our church” referring to their primacy of
their membership and perhaps their families membership rather than seeing their
congregation as “Christ’s body” a visible representation of the invisible body
of Christ. When that happens, the church is just another social institution or
a “country club on its knees” as we used to refer to this phenomenon.
The church is visible when, despite the lack of media coverage, it
is feeding the poor, comforting the ill, visiting the disenfranchised of
society, of showing Christ’s care and compassion for all people.
I loved the folk hymn that came out during my early ministry, We are One in the Spirit by Peter
Scholte. The chorus was:
And they’ll know we are
Christians by our love,
By our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our
love.
I love it still and pray that it will continue to be practiced by
the faithful remnant despite whatever the official numbers of believers of
whatever denominations they are.
And yes that means working for minimum wages and all the social policies I have been writing about. They are expressions of love for for each other as found in working for the common good.
No comments:
Post a Comment