Christianity vs. Christian Spirituality: Part Five
DICLAIMER: Please understand that these are broad brush strokes and intended to incite conversation, thought and action. This is not intended to include, and or define everyone calling themselves a Christian.
Now let’s turn to the matter of Christian freedoms. This is an interesting subject and one that has more room for interpretation than pretty much any other matter in the Christian world. The difference between Christians and those who practice Christian spirituality really boils down to one view of what is acceptable for a believer to take part in and what is not.
Basically it’s as simple as this; we believe that the church is not the believer’s moral compass. In other words the church does not, nor should it, define morality. In many ways the church has established a set of moral standards that have become the test of mature Christian behavior. Good Christians don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t hang out in bars, listen to secular music, have friends of different beliefs and or lifestyles, and so on. As I mentioned earlier in this series, this has happened because the church lives in fear of loosing people. Because of this fear the church has made an attempt to vilify anything that isn’t “holy” in order to keep people away from the potential damage that could come at the hands of the wicked world. When people are separated from the world they will naturally look for community and where better to find it than in the church.
I believe that this trend is an unintentional one, but the damage its doing is profound. Where judgment exists there will be problems. As the culture of regulation has progressed it’s taken a natural turn toward “classification of sin.” What I mean by that is the church has propagated a culture that will tolerate certain sins, but others are in a special class of their own. An example would be homosexuality.
In countless churches across the country there are men and women living together outside the confines of marriage. For some reason these folks are taken into the fold and loved on, and yet the homosexual couple is shunned and made to feel un-welcome. The mentality of regulations is so ingrained in the minds of Christians, that they can’t see the blatant hypocrisy in their midst. Although this is denied by almost everyone I talk to, the evidence is staggering. The bottom line is, the culture of regulations has inadvertently created a classification system for sin and it is turning the church inward, in sort of a spiritual nepotism.
“If you’re not a pervert (said with a hillbilly accent), we’ll tell ya bout’s Jesus.” Christianity has become the suburban, conservative republican’s religion of choice. Jesus and the other bible characters are portrayed as white men and women to the children, and the programs are geared towards certain demographics. On the flip side, churches are opening their doors and affirming every type of behavior as acceptable in the sight of God. The extremes are ruling the Christian culture and the message of Christ is lost.
The church looks at people like myself and those who live their lives with Christian principles, outside the institution of the church, as rebels. We have beer in our refrigerators, cigars in our humidors, and gay friends. We’ve been known to be seen in bars, at secular rock concerts, and from time to time smoking on the fire escape. We talk about Jesus over wine and cheese, and elder meetings usually include cigars. Our love for each other is deep and our commit to Christ is unwavering, but we refuse to accept rules that are not explicitly or implicitly instructed in scripture. Jesus is our moral compass and morality is defined by scripture.
In addition, you will find that we have a tendency to maintain a friendship base that is just as large outside the gathering of the church, as it is within. We believe, as Christ said, that we are not called to those who already believer, but to those who desperately need Christ. When the church gathers the couches are filled with an eclectic mix of sinners. Liars, thieves, gays, gossips, boastful, arrogant, promiscuous, and worse gather together to explore the truth of scripture. Some believe, some don’t, but everyone is seeking. The journey towards true saving faith is a long one for some, and rather quick for others, but no matter where an individual falls on the faith journey they will be loved and accepted for who they are, and not judged based on what they do. Sin is still sin, and truth is not watered down, but the message isn’t rules, its Jesus.
(Of course the pendulum swings in both directions. There are churches within the institution that work differently, they will actually pull seekers into their midst through doing away with the issue of sin and regulation. There has been a great influx in the institution in this direction. In these cases liberalism is running ramped and the church is being destroyed from within. However, this is an entirely different subject that we’ll get into some other time.)
Have you ever seen “Forest Gump?” A certain point, after he had been running for months, he simply stopped. Well…..I’m gonna pull a Forest Gump….
DICLAIMER: Please understand that these are broad brush strokes and intended to incite conversation, thought and action. This is not intended to include, and or define everyone calling themselves a Christian.
Now let’s turn to the matter of Christian freedoms. This is an interesting subject and one that has more room for interpretation than pretty much any other matter in the Christian world. The difference between Christians and those who practice Christian spirituality really boils down to one view of what is acceptable for a believer to take part in and what is not.Basically it’s as simple as this; we believe that the church is not the believer’s moral compass. In other words the church does not, nor should it, define morality. In many ways the church has established a set of moral standards that have become the test of mature Christian behavior. Good Christians don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t hang out in bars, listen to secular music, have friends of different beliefs and or lifestyles, and so on. As I mentioned earlier in this series, this has happened because the church lives in fear of loosing people. Because of this fear the church has made an attempt to vilify anything that isn’t “holy” in order to keep people away from the potential damage that could come at the hands of the wicked world. When people are separated from the world they will naturally look for community and where better to find it than in the church.
I believe that this trend is an unintentional one, but the damage its doing is profound. Where judgment exists there will be problems. As the culture of regulation has progressed it’s taken a natural turn toward “classification of sin.” What I mean by that is the church has propagated a culture that will tolerate certain sins, but others are in a special class of their own. An example would be homosexuality.
In countless churches across the country there are men and women living together outside the confines of marriage. For some reason these folks are taken into the fold and loved on, and yet the homosexual couple is shunned and made to feel un-welcome. The mentality of regulations is so ingrained in the minds of Christians, that they can’t see the blatant hypocrisy in their midst. Although this is denied by almost everyone I talk to, the evidence is staggering. The bottom line is, the culture of regulations has inadvertently created a classification system for sin and it is turning the church inward, in sort of a spiritual nepotism.
“If you’re not a pervert (said with a hillbilly accent), we’ll tell ya bout’s Jesus.” Christianity has become the suburban, conservative republican’s religion of choice. Jesus and the other bible characters are portrayed as white men and women to the children, and the programs are geared towards certain demographics. On the flip side, churches are opening their doors and affirming every type of behavior as acceptable in the sight of God. The extremes are ruling the Christian culture and the message of Christ is lost.
The church looks at people like myself and those who live their lives with Christian principles, outside the institution of the church, as rebels. We have beer in our refrigerators, cigars in our humidors, and gay friends. We’ve been known to be seen in bars, at secular rock concerts, and from time to time smoking on the fire escape. We talk about Jesus over wine and cheese, and elder meetings usually include cigars. Our love for each other is deep and our commit to Christ is unwavering, but we refuse to accept rules that are not explicitly or implicitly instructed in scripture. Jesus is our moral compass and morality is defined by scripture.
In addition, you will find that we have a tendency to maintain a friendship base that is just as large outside the gathering of the church, as it is within. We believe, as Christ said, that we are not called to those who already believer, but to those who desperately need Christ. When the church gathers the couches are filled with an eclectic mix of sinners. Liars, thieves, gays, gossips, boastful, arrogant, promiscuous, and worse gather together to explore the truth of scripture. Some believe, some don’t, but everyone is seeking. The journey towards true saving faith is a long one for some, and rather quick for others, but no matter where an individual falls on the faith journey they will be loved and accepted for who they are, and not judged based on what they do. Sin is still sin, and truth is not watered down, but the message isn’t rules, its Jesus.
(Of course the pendulum swings in both directions. There are churches within the institution that work differently, they will actually pull seekers into their midst through doing away with the issue of sin and regulation. There has been a great influx in the institution in this direction. In these cases liberalism is running ramped and the church is being destroyed from within. However, this is an entirely different subject that we’ll get into some other time.)
Have you ever seen “Forest Gump?” A certain point, after he had been running for months, he simply stopped. Well…..I’m gonna pull a Forest Gump….
1 comment:
Good thoughts...Forest:)
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