“Ma’am, I am tonight.” Love that line.
Sis. Sensible sends this, Jonathan Edwards’ (no, not that one, the other one, the holy one) guide to knowing if you’re a Christian and she noticed something I noticed, too: Where’s the line about serving others?
Sis. Sensible says:
Fundamentalist evangelical Protestant conservative Christians are so focused on their own holiness and on spreading “the good news” and on where everyone’s soul is going after death, but most aren’t focused at all on meeting the earthly needs of the souls who are still here on earth. Why is that??
I happen to be able to answer that, being all of the above. Or, at least, I can take a shot at answering that. I think there plenty of my tribe who actually are concerned with the physical well-being of people, but there are far more who fit Sis. Sensible’s description. If you are raised on the notion that earth is just a passing thing, and we’re only here for a gnat’s eye-lash bat, then you are going to be focused on the Hereafter, assuming that’s where you (and everyone else) will spent eternity. You’ve been taught that your life here doesn’t matter much and so you are to prepare for the life after death. And that’s where your focus is, often to the exclusion of some very real pain right in front of you. It’s a spiritual myopia that helps contribute to Christianity’s lousy reputation.
You have idiots like that guy in Florida spending calories to organize a woe-begotten “protest” to burn Islam’s holy book. And for what? For. What?
Imagine if that guy and his followers spent time feeding the hungry of Gainesville, and I meant really feeding them. Imagine if that faith group worked for affordable housing, or threw their weight behind a message of love and peace, a message that more closely mirrors the message they’d find in their Book, should they ever crack it open.
But no. Instead, they create a Satan here on earth to help give their shaky beliefs some legitimacy when in fact, they’re robbing themselves precisely of that, all under the pretense of “saving souls.”
Jesus spent a lot of time feeding people, comforting people, dealing with their physical ailments. He spent very little time dealing directly with souls. I think he was on to something, myself. It’s like a prison minister once told me: The Gospel goes down better when it’s wrapped in a peanut butter sandwich. If your message is eternal, that message will come through from your actions.
That’s it. Sermon’s over. Get back to your regularly scheduled program.
Thanks. I was starting to nod off…
Thank you. Another vote for me to stay outta the pulpit. I accept that vote.
“If you are raised on the notion that earth is just a passing thing, and we’re only here for a gnat’s eye-lash bat, then you are going to be focused on the Hereafter, assuming that’s where you (and everyone else) will spent eternity. You’ve been taught that your life here doesn’t matter much and so you are to prepare for the life after death. And that’s where your focus is, often to the exclusion of some very real pain right in front of you. It’s a spiritual myopia that helps contribute to Christianity’s lousy reputation. ”
I think this is accurate, but it’s a distortion of the original message of the Church, once they got over the idea that Jesus was coming back Right Away. By the time of the 4th century Councils, there were many opinions about the true nature (human/divine) of Jesus. If he was fully human, how does he have any authority from God? If he’s fully divine, how can we poor weak humans ever hope to emulate him? The Councils decided that he was both fully human and full divine. What that means to me in this context is that *this* life *is* important. This human form that we take–the only one that we get–is the same human form that Jesus took. This is the form in which we love, marry, have children, and care for each other. We are God’s hands and feet in this world. Woe be unto those who use their hands and feet only to express their hate of other human beings.
I agree. I think it becomes a shell game for some, where they try to redistribute their fear by hounding others into some form of obedience they may not understand, themselves.
I wonder if that makes sense, that explanation. It does in my head.
Misery loves company? “I’m miserable here on Earth, so I’m going to make sure you’re miserable, too”?
“Your not believing what *I* believe is an insult to me, so I’m going to make sure you make some changes?”
It might make one question one’s beliefs, when there are so many eye-rolls when one is stating one’s beliefs.
I can only speak for myself on this one, but I did often wonder how people could always look so damn happy.
I think it’s too bad that so many of the Protestant churches dropped the whole idea of saints and martyrs–humans who did what they did out of love for God, not out of hate for other human beings who were [also] created in the image of God. The saints and martyrs show us what’s possible. Athanasius wrote that “God became Man so that Man might become God,” which probably sounds like the work of the devil to the ears of the average premillennial etc. etc. Christian.
“What that means to me in this context is that *this* life *is* important. This human form that we take–the only one that we get–is the same human form that Jesus took. This is the form in which we love, marry, have children, and care for each other. We are God’s hands and feet in this world. Woe be unto those who use their hands and feet only to express their hate of other human beings.”
Sharon, that’s awesome – you should be up there in the pulpit with DJ.
I had an awesome Sunday School teacher one year about 45 years ago. He used to take us over to the coffee shop across the street to hold class.
Even better. Meet you where you are. We used to try to sneak out of Sunday school to go to a nearby 7-Eleven, but that’s entirely different.
In fact? If Sharon wants the pulpit, I shall gladly step aside. She’s smarter.
Just parroting what the mainline Orthodox & Episcopal churches taught me.
That was my problem. I was far, far off the Main Line.
“Parroting” was a poor choice of word. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I don’t believe it. “Echoing” would have been better.
Well, Sharon, if it is good enough for Jesus, or for the various Church Councils, it’s good enough for me.
I was brought up on these verses from Ephesians: “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves – it is a gift from God. Not as a result of works, that no man should boast.” (sorry if I don’t have the punctuation right)
I don’t even remember how they always managed to explain away the book of James, but somehow they did.
All as a way to justify being more concerned with a state of being rather than a state of action.
And we were all about the works, for which I will be eternally grateful. Don’t just preachify. Serve somebody. Did I already mention a t-shirt I saw this summer that said: Shut up and serve? That could have been a tennis shirt, but I really liked it.
That grace stuff is a neat way to make it so the good works of non-christians don’t count. If works matter, then ye gods! Any good person might get into heaven, regardless of theological irregularity and we can’t have THAT!
The dominionist folks that I read like to brag about how they bought their house for cash (without mentioning the convenient death of grandma and inheriting her money) and how horrid everyone else is.
I’m of the opinion that heaven will be a whole lot more crowded than some like to think.
I’ll try not to get lost by going in 17 directions here . . .
But the thing I see so often is this notion that Christians are in the world, but not “of this world” which kind sometimes just turns this place into the realm of Satan or something.
Often what’s coupled with this is the focus on the Supernatural Jesus who performed a busload of miracles. And it’s all about the miraculous quality of the miracles, devoid of any other meaning.
“Loaves and Fishes” is the simplest example. I always took the larger point of the story to be that a little bit goes a long way, i.e. when everybody who can throw a single box of pasta into the soup kitchen donation bin does throw a single box of past in the soup kitchen donation box, then we has a whole lot of pasta with which we can feed a whole bunch of people. But when I say this supernatural Christians I talk to, they look at me like I’m an idiot. Because to them it’s about how Jesus is the son of god and this world is the realm of Satan, and someday Jesus is going to come back and save some people.
what ChrisB said
It *is* the realm of satan to those who think all humans are born evil and need the authority of the Sky Father to justify their existence.
For those who hew to the creation story in Genesis, It’s All Good, including humans.
Big difference in worldview.
That whole “in the world, but not of the world” is a killer, actually. I mean, if you’re not of this world, why would you give a rat’s ass about this world? I understand it can be more nuanced than that, but it too often isn’t.
Genesis tells us that we are made of dirt and water that God shaped and breathed life into. If there’s a more humbling origin story, I don’t know what it is.
True. We’re mud.
“I mean, if you’re not of this world, why would you give a rat’s ass about this world? ”
Exactly and that’s a real problem. This world just becomes a wasteland of sin and immorality. And often randomness is attributed to evil forces: earthquakes, floods, yellow jackets!
My own interpretation of “not of this world” goes with the idea that instead of getting lost in materialism and uncertainty of the world, we should remain righteous, true, and compassionate.
I had a particularly proud moment at the YMCA pool yesterday where my little one got into a little verbal scuffle with a borderlinebullyish kid. A few minutes after the conflict, the teacher was working with the “other” kid and he was complaining and saying “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” And then a voice from the side of the pool exclaimed “You can do it! You just have to try!” It was my daughter.
And I thought to myself, “wow, way to go my little Christian soldier/Buddha-to-be.”
When your daughter runs for office, I’m going to vote for her. What a honey.
she definitely has the right spirit. she’s got my vote, too