Decaying of America “Part II - Spirituality/Religion”

I wrote about our infrastructure and now I would like to discuss Spirituality/Religion. I think Millennial's are less religious today than earlier generations. This is my opinion because studies only go back a couple of years. It may be that it is a temporary phase in their life’s because they are not settled yet, they have not experienced serious illness or deaths and that is usually the time people call on religion to comfort them.

I have read studies where two million young people were surveyed and it revealed twice as many high school seniors and 3 times as many college students described their religion as “none”. In the eight grade and tenth grade 40% surveyed said they had no religious affiliation.  It appears to me that young people have a weak interest in religion or God.  What shocked me is 75% of students in the twelfth grade said they had never attended a religious service and had no interest in doing so. This has a definite effect on our society. I have heard it argued that young people have replaced spirituality for religion if that is the case why did 20% of college students say they were not spiritual.  They also said they are not motivated to meditate or pray. I feel confident in saying young people in America are moving away from religion not towards religion.

Millennial's are less religious than young people have been in six decades.  It amused me that parents stated they are fighting a losing battle to get their kids to church and when ask if they attend church they replied, “No we are too busy or it is the only day of the week we have off”.  In other words, they do not lead by example.

I think a major problem in society today is we focus more on self and less on social rules.  Premarital sex is at an all-time high.  Today’s attitude is if it is good for me the hell with you.  Americans are more focused on individual freedoms than they are social rules.   A more individualistic culture will always be less religious because it means belonging to a group, which means you will adhere to their teaching and practices. Religion also requires respect for authority and Americans today are less likely to respect authority.  America everyday gets to look more and more like Northern Europe where marriage is optional and religious participation is low.  In 2013 41% of babies were born to unmarried mothers.  If you do not think this effects society, think again – homes without a father figure, homes with one parent trying to provide financially in this day and time has little time for children, many have to depend on government aid which is a drain on government and generally education is not stressed as much.  I am not talking about all single parents some do as well as when there are two parents in the home and sometimes the home is better off without the father. But, those that are single carrying the load of two parents need to be seen as heroes. The consequences of discarding a sacred moral code to govern the actions of individuals are far graver than most people realize.

A year before the U.S. Constitution was ratified Edward Gibbon published the final volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He listed five things and one that made the list was Religion.  He believed the lack of religion led to an insatiable craving for pleasure and the breakup of families. He wrote the root cause of Roman societal collapse was their loss of individual morality. You see he believed the laws of morality were as unchanging as the laws of mathematics and physics.  George Washington said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” I think if America falls it will be due to our failure in the area of morality. 

Gibbon and Washington believed the safeguards of society were not the military or productive merchants or prosperous consumers but, high morals and sincere religion. Yet most politicians and educators today reject that belief.  They say that what people do in the privacy of their own homes has no connection to national security or national well-being. For the most part Democrats, Liberals and a lot of Republicans (Rhinos we call them) have rejected the idea that national stability depends on the laws or morality

At one time people knew what character meant. It meant things like honoring your parents, not murdering, not stealing, not lying, not coveting and not committing adultery.  But, in the 60’s a Supreme Court Justice said it was impossible to define character.  That was a radical departure form the past. In short it meant keeping the Ten Commandments, the laws of the Bible were not important..

John Adams wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, “The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion.” During the 18^th Century the United States and Britain held its citizens, families and leaders to a high moral standard.  I realize they had flaws and vices.  Many believed only if they were God fearing would they survive.  Today our educators and politicians want us to believe the founders were not religious men. 

The family structure use to produce good fathers, mothers, teachers, ministers, judges, engineers, orators and statesmen.  Policy makers then understood the connection between family breakdown and societal problems like alcoholism, drug addiction, welfare addiction, juvenile delinquency and violent crimes.  Today a large percentage of our policy makers are adulterous, alcoholics, liars, cheats and thieves. 

At the turn of the 20^th century, educators in the United States and British Commonwealth began to reject the idea laws of morality were not unchangeable.  People began to think what was right in the past may not be right now or in the future.  They believe morality is always changing to suit the times.  What is right for me, may not be right for you, but it is right for me. They embraced Sigmund Feud.

Today only about 3% wait for marriage to have sex, before 1912 it was 80%. Only 20% of Christians wait until marriage to have sex.  The majority of the younger generation do not even see fornication as being wrong. They rationalize a difference between love and sex.  Sex is just pleasure and love is commitment. 

In 1890 there was one divorce for every 18 marriages and today the number is one divorce for every 2 ½ marriages.  You do not think premarital sex and acceptance of pornography has not contributed to the failures of marriage?  Do you not think the lack of morality has not contributed to premarital sex and pornography? 

Children who grow up without a father figure are four times likelier to be poor, nine times likelier to drop out of school, 11 times likelier to commit violent crimes and twenty more times likelier to be arrested.  NOW I KNOW THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS.  There is a direct link between the fracturing of families and major societal problems which have a definite effect on the nation.  According to projections by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, rising entitlement spending and paying the interest on the national debt will consume 99% of all tax revenue in the next decade.  That means only one thing can happen the national debt will sky rocket.

Niall Ferguson a Financial Historian said when the debt exceeds the cost of protecting your borders is when countries usually fail. I guess we do not have to worry about that one because the Liberals and Democrats will not allow us protect our border.

In closing, there are no moral truths because there is no longer a religious basis for morality. The Bible was more than the enlightenment to the original settlers, the Bible was one reason America’s Christians were different from most European Christians.  Regardless of what anyone may say the Bible did have an influence on our Founding Fathers. Today Americans are taught to rely on their feelings to determine right behavior.  It makes me cringe when a child needs correcting and instead of telling the child what is right and wrong the parents say, “Sweetie how do you feel about that.”

If you acknowledge that American society is in decay, it is your obligation to fight to undo the harm that has been done.  If you cannot acknowledge that American morality is in decay then you are the proof that it is. 

Religious Highs Do Not Last

 I have never been impressed with services that end with an offer Altar Call, especially when these Altar Calls allow a person to claim membership in a church or guarantee salvations.  It takes more than a few words offered at the time of an emotional high to receive true salvation.  Spiritual highs and the emotions that come with them always soon fade because of our sin nature - PRIDE.

There can often be many factors that drive these emotional spiritual highs.  Sometimes, it’s simply the highly emotional atmosphere of the service, the moving music that’s played, the camaraderie and fellowship with fellow attendees, the prospect of being free from the negative effects of our sin. 

But you don’t have to be a Christian to love any of these things. At one point in His ministry, Jesus himself rebuked a large crowd of His own followers because they were “fired up” for reasons that had nothing to do with seeing His beauty or His glory — they just enjoyed seeing Jesus miracles.  John 6:25–27 (ESV) 25 "When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food…”

If there is to be any lasting effect from these events and experiences, it must include seeing and savoring Jesus Christ. Anything of true, durable worth from these experiences comes from seeing God clearly as He really is. This can come from sermons, or discussions, or singing in worship, or late night conversations, prayers, and devotions.  When we truly see the light of the glory of Christ clearly, the things of this world seem dim and worthless by comparison.

A house does not fall if its foundation is firm.  Matthew 7:25 (ESV)

25 "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." A tree does not wither when its roots are deep enough to reach water. Psalm 1:1–3 (ESV) 1 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. 3 He is …”  So, when the house of our spiritual life and our war against sin comes crumbling down or withers, we should ask ourselves, “Why?”

If our sight of God and our worship is dependent on the church facility, or the high-energy sermons, or the packed crowd, or the worship band, our spiritual lives will fall apart again when these things are taken away. The house falls because the foundation is destroyed or weak.

Jesus warns of those who receive the word of God with gladness, but then fall away because they have no root.  Mark 4:16–17 (ESV) 16 “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall …”  This is the danger that we face. After hearing the word with gladness, how do we go on to produce the fruit of righteousness?  Mark 4:20 (ESV) 20 “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” How do we cultivate joy in Christ at home, away from the spiritual crutches of an emotional service? The first step is to prepare for war.

Striving to rejoice in the glory of God is an act of rebellion against Satan’s dominion over this world, 1 John 5:9 (ESV) 9 “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He has come concerning His Son”. And rebellion against our very own fallen flesh. Romans 3:11 (ESV)11 “...no one understands; no one seeks for God.”  We are saved through God’s grace not by anything we do.  Paul likens us to soldiers in a war, where we are at risk of entangling ourselves in civilian pursuits. 2 Timothy 2:4 (ESV) 4 “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”  Therefore, we must put off the false security of an emotionally charged decision, made at the last service  and realize that there is a war being waged over our souls.  If you believe the fight is over when you accept Christ as your Savior you are terribly wrong the fight has just begun.

As John Owen writes, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Allowing ourselves to be lulled into idleness and complacency, because of our confidence in a “rededication,” is like stripping ourselves of our armor mid-battle. 

The war in the mind is fought by seeing and rejoicing in the truth. It is fought by putting our mind to the task of knowing the Lord more fully. Our desire is to know Him and the power of His resurrection so that we may take up our own cross and follow Him.  Philippians 3:10 (ESV)10 “...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, …”

God has given ways to provide this grace for us: we sing together (Ephesians 5:19), we come together regularly to worship Jesus and to hear His word preached (2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 10:25), we enjoy the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), we pray (Acts 2:42). 

There are more steps we may take to see more of Jesus. It may mean turning off the television if it clogs our spiritual vision. It may mean taking time to read theology. It may begin with taking time to listen to sermons that further our understanding of the Word or taking time to read books that increase our sight of God and taking time to worship and pray and to meditate on the person of Christ.  We must do whatever it takes if we want to see Jesus more clearly.  A few words uttered after an emotional service is not enough.

The clearer our vision of a holy God is, the more it drives us to our knees by the sight of our own sin. The clearer our vision of our sin becomes, the deeper is our sight of God’s mercy and grace through Christ. The deeper we understand His mercy and grace, the more we are amazed by the beauty of this God, the Creator of the universe. For “what is man that you are mindful of Him, and the son of man that you care for Him?” (Psalm 8:4).

As we are amazed by the beauty of God, the more willing we become to take up our cross and lose everything to be with Him (Mark 8:34; Philippians 3:8) — "...troubles and suffering cannot pull us away from the priceless treasure we’ve found", (Matthew 13:44–46; Mark 4:17). Therefore, let us “Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” and press onward to see and to know him in the full array of his majestic beauty. (Psalm 96:9; Hosea 6:3). 

IN CLOSING REMEMBER -If you ever have felt so good about your faith that you think nothing could go wrong?  That was your first mistake!   When we get too comfortable. We are most vulnerable to compromise.  There’s nothing wrong with “mountaintop experiences.” Jesus and His friends had them. But if we’re not careful, we may begin depending on that good feeling to get us through the day rather than our relationship with God.  if we become to dependent on that fuzzy feeling, what do you think will happen when that feeling goes away? 

What do you believe and why?

What are some of your most deeply held beliefs or convictions? Why do you believe them? For most of us, our parents played a key role in shaping our beliefs.  Many of our beliefs have been shaped by personal experiences, teachers, peers, society, ministers and traditions.  They are not our original beliefs, but someone else’s.

What we believe matters.   What we believe can lead us down a path that leads to good or bad, success or failure, safety or danger, happiness or sadness, humility or pride and even love or hate.   One set of convictions or beliefs shapes those  that belong to the Ku Klux Klan or The Black Panthers or ISIS and another set of beliefs shapes those that belong to charitable organizations, support groups, community service that benefits all, etc.  What we believe really does matter.

From the earliest times Christians made attempts to summarize their essential beliefs the Apostle’s Creed is an example of that.  I know of no church organization that does not have a statement of beliefs and I know of no fraternal organization that does not have a statement of beliefs.  Beliefs matter!  They define our values, morals and relationships.  They shape our goals, ambitions, hopes, and dreams.  It is important we know what we believe in and be able to defends those beliefs.

Unfortunately we can be so rigid in our beliefs and convictions that we cannot listen to those with different beliefs or convictions.  This is especially true in the religious world.  Regardless of what we believe about God, humanity or our world, we will lack certainty and that lack of certainty should lead us to humility in our convictions and in our interactions with those who disagree with us.  How can anyone prove beyond a shadow of doubt  what they believe is absolute truth and that there is no other way?

I learned long ago that what I believed was sometimes flawed and not only hurt me it hurt others.  This is not going to set well with many, but there was a time that I believed if you did not accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you COULD NOT go to heaven.   Pastor Joel Olsten is criticized by many in the religious community because he will not state point blank that your destiny is hell if you do not accept Jesus Christ.  I am not God and God has inspired men in scripture to write, “My ways or not your ways”, I am not to judge, but leave that to Him, that He can do anything He pleases and does not need our permission. 

I once believe that abortion was an unforgivable sin.  I once believed people that divorced and remarried without jumping through the church's legal loops to get an annulment could not partake of the sacraments.  I once believed if you were not baptized you could not go to heaven and that babies who died before being baptized were in LIMBO.  I once believed in purgatory.  I once believed priest had a special power to represent God when it came to forgiving yours sins.  I once believed we needed to sacrifice Christ over and over again at every mass as if the one sacrifice on the cross was not enough.  I now do not believe any of those things.  Not only did I sincerely believe those things I taught them to others.  I believed them because that is what my parents believed and my church believed.  I did not know any different and did not think I had the right to question them.

What we believe has a significant impact on our lives.  Our beliefs influence who we marry , the career we choose, the way we see right and wrong, how we see our parent and our children, what we do with our time and money, and how we face adversity.  Those beliefs lead us to say no to many things we may have said yes to and yes to things we might otherwise have said no to.

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”  I believe Christians must believe there is a God, a Supreme Being, that created the universe.  How God created it may be open for debate, but it is essential that a Christian believe that God did create all things.  I believe Christians must perceive God not simply as a force of nature, but as an entity, a Being, that is both intelligent and powerful.

Men like Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Galileo, who, despite the church’s blunder in criticizing their conclusions, continued to maintain their faith in God.  I do think science and faith are compatible.  I also believe these men were far more intelligent than me.  There are some scientist that do not believe in God, but there is just as many that do.

 Jesus Christ is our defining story.  Jesus demonstrates who God is, what God is like, and what God’s will is for our lives. His life and ministry, His death and resurrection shape how we see ourselves and how we see the world.  Jesus Christ provides us with a different perspective on life.  Christians believe we were born with purpose, our lives have meaning and when our mortal body is finished, we’ve only just begun to live. 

Richard Dawkins (who I believe to be evil) once wrote, “We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.” But faith in Jesus says that we were made for more than this.  In fact, the pain and brokenness in our world are largely the result of our living as “robot vehicles” blindly focused on serving the self.  Jesus calls us to be authentically human, to love, give, serve, and rise above our selfish genes.  As we do so we not only make the world a more just and compassionate place; we find joy in the process.  I pity Richard Dawkins and I am willing to show him mercy because of his broken body that may influence his beliefs.  Regardless of what Richard Dawkins says about Jesus Christ or what anyone else may say I know Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for over 2000 years and I doubt that Richard Dawkins will be.   

When God sought to communicate His love for us, he sent Jesus. It was in His Son that God’s message came to us and became our defining story. Through Jesus, God was saying: You matter to me and I love you.  In Jesus, God showed that He cares about those who are lost and those who are made to feel unimportant.  He showed us compassion for the sick.  He showed us how to love, to forgive, to give, to serve.  In Jesus’ death on the cross God showed us the depth of His love and the price of grace. And in Jesus’ resurrection, God defeated our evil, hate, sin, and death! 

My church has put so much emphasis on Mother Mary that our people know little about the Holy Spirit.  Many Christians in our church haven’t been taught about the Spirit, nor encouraged to seek the Spirit’s work in their lives. As a result, their spiritual lives are a bit anemic and they are trying to live the Christian life on their own power and wisdom.  That is impossible!

What are the voices you listen to, and what are the powers that shape your life?  I find there are voices in my own life that would lead me to give in to hate, indifference, desire, pride, infidelity, selfishness, or greed. But when we listen to the voice of the Spirit and open ourselves to the Spirit’s active work in our lives, we find that we are led to a very different place and to become very different people.

The Spirit convicts us and quickens our conscience when we’re doing wrong. The Spirit, through persistent nudges, urges us to act selflessly in our care for others. The Spirit makes us long to be more than we are at the present and to become more like the people God intended us to be.  in Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  The Holy Spirit gives us these gifts and no where in the Bible does it say Mother Mary does. 

How different is this fruit than the fruit of our own hearts, and the culture around us.

The “Holy” and catholic (universal/unity) church.”  When many people view the church today, it looks neither holy nor catholic. It seems filled with hypocrites and judgmental people; in fact, this is one reason why many have turned away from “organized religion” and why so many young adults today say that they are “spiritual but not religious.”  Interestingly, these same young people have great admiration for Jesus, but far less admiration for His people, the church. They see neither holiness nor catholicity (unity) when they look at the most vocal Christians and the most outspoken churches today. 

The word holy in the biblical context means belonging to God, or “sacred to” God or “set apart for” God. You’ve likely heard it said that the church is not a country club for perfect people, but instead a hospital for broken and sinful people who are slowly being made well. We need to make sure the non-churched understand that we know that and stop pretending we are bunch of perfect people.  The church does not belong to us it belongs to God.  The next time you try and tell someone they are sitting in your seat at church remember that. The church is holy when we love Christ and seeks to be faithful to Him.  The church is holy when we are not attacking one another for interpreting a scripture differently. 

Christ tried to forestall the divisions among His followers by telling His disciples not to judge one another, and to love one another and forgive one another. Nevertheless, the church divided and continues to divide to this day.   Our belief in the holy, catholic church (universal/unity) is an ecumenical belief that all who call upon the name of Christ and seek to follow Him as Savior and Lord are, despite their denominational or nondenominational names, part of one universal church.  The Roman Catholic Church is a part of that one universal church, and so is the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, nondenominational churches, and all the rest.  What right do you have to say Catholics are not CHRISTIANS?  Does it make you feel more important than Catholics, more loved by God?  PRIDE!

I still believe in the importance of the church, but unfortunately at the moment I find that I cannot attend and that certainly has affected my life in a negative way.  I pray one day before I die I will be able to find a church that I can return to and feel at home.  I have not stopped looking.  People need to be able to express differences of opinion within the church and be respected and loved.  I knew that once in a church in Galveston, Texas and I will never forget it. 

Excuse me, but FAITH and CHURCH are not the same thing!

It is obvious some people don’t realize that faith and church are not the same thing.  I say this from the comments I have received.  It might surprise you, but some of the greatest accomplishments in the church have come from people who had the courage to question the church. 

Each of Christ’s apostles did not doubt the church they doubted that Christ would be resurrected. It was incomprehensible to them… even after having witnessed a man walk on water and raise the dead. All of the original apostles had doubts. And, some of you want to stone me because I doubt the actions of some of the hierarchy in the church and yet you are willing to follow men that even had some doubts about Christ.  GET REAL!

Each of them, one by one, sat there witnessing the mighty miracles that came from this Nazarene. They had questions and problems with much of what Christ had taught, but their minds were open not like some of you. 

The problem exists when a person thinks that they are beyond FAITH. That they are too logical for miracles. That their intellect exceeds the need for faith. I have never said any of those things. People who are honest enough to admit their doubts and then face them head on without becoming antagonistic, making hardline rash decisions, or ruling out the need for faith are some of the greatest contributors to this kingdom. 

If you want to follow men blindly that is fine with me - go ahead!  I am not that naive. You may trust the words of men. I trust the Holy Spirit.  I can reason right from wrong by comparing what man says and what scriptures says. I am not going to rely on tradition and rituals to support the words of man when they are contrary to the words of the Bible. 

The church failed me I did not fail the church.

We speak often of the young people straying from God and I do not and never have believed young people are straying from God.  They are straying from organized religion – the church. They are fleeing a religion that has become more about prosperity than love, more about condemning than forgiveness, more about ministers living extravagant lifestyles than helping the poor, more about ministers being the focus of the ministry in order to become celebrities rather than making God the focus of their message.  The young people are not straying they are running to get away from the hypocrisy in the Christian Church which has becoming nothing more than a business to make a few rich beyond their dreams.

Bishop Jake of Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas was not satisfied with the fame and fortune he had accumulated and had to have more.  He is the new “Doctor Phil” on television.  Joyce Meyer’s realizing she is getting older and may want to step aside as the head minister of Joyce Meyer’s Ministries and enjoy all her toys made sure her book royalties no longer go to the ministry, but come directly to her.  Joel Osteen has turned a “self-help” ministry into personal assets worth far more than forty million dollars in a few years.  The Copelands fly around in a twenty million dollar jet while foolish people send them prayer request which the Copeland’s never see or pray over, but make sure the millions sent in with the prayer request are accounted for.   Jesse Duplantis is a onetime used car salesman that should be on a Comedy Hour Show and not in a ministry.  I admit he is entertaining.  Then we have Murdock, Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Paula White, Ed Young, Jr., Ed Young, Sr.,  John Hagee, Charles Blake, Franklin Graham, Rick Warren and the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals that do not have to make fools of themselves on television to live like royalty.

I think a lot of senior citizens, like me, are also fed up with Christian Organized Religion.  I as a retired priest can no longer force myself to go to Mass.  You see I know too much about the hierarchy of my church.  The cover-up of child abuse in my church was the straw that broke the camel’s back, once it became public the hierarchy continued to deny it and blame the messengers. I reported a case to my bishop over forty years ago and was told as many priest were told, “I will take care of it, but say nothing about this to anyone we have to protect the Church.”  It took a long time for me to realize that God did not need us to cover up a crime in order to protect the Church. In reality in most cases the Bishops and Cardinals were protecting their own secrets.  The laity of the church allowed this to happen and many in the church pews today want to sweep it under the rug.   Those that speak out are said to want to destroy the church.  It never crosses their naïve minds that some of us want to help the church be what God called it to be.    

I am closer to God today than I have ever been in my life – no thanks to the church hierarchy.  I will confess I do not understand why God allows the hierarchy of the church and religious organizations to continue to make a mockery of Him.  I try to rationalize that perhaps the few and seldom truths they spew in pulpits and on television help some.  I believe that one day God will seek revenge as He did with Jimmy Swagger of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

I do not fault the poor naïve people that these religious leaders take advantage of because all people are looking for love. God makes that plain in this verse in Proverbs. What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar (Proverbs 19:22).  True love comes from God.  There is a part of us that can only be satisfied by a relationship with God. The love of a man or woman simply cannot take that spot. Just because our experience with church – organized religion has proved unfulfilling, abandoning God for something physical will only leave us emptier inside.  These charlatans prey on the need people have for unconditional love.  

You, God, are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

Psalm 63:1-3

Hypocrisy is a real problem in the church today. Hypocrisy exists in church because there is hypocrisy not only in the religious leaders, but also among the laity. That’s a truth that most of us know and some will not admit. Let’s face our own hypocrisy so we can root it out.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?… You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:41,43)

Today, men and women must struggle to find his or her own identity in an oppressive culture of church.  God isn’t the problem. Neither is the kind of church we learn about from the Bible. Loveless religion changes when we live lives that make God attractive, build relationships that feel like family, and do good in our own communities. Now that’s real church.  That is what the younger generation is looking for and not getting in the church today.  Instead of real love they are getting empty words and even I nearing eighty am sick of it.

As long as those running organized religion continue to blame the Internet, liberal thinking, lack of religious upbringing, gays/lesbians, same sex marriage, etc. and continue to blame non-believers, politics, worldly distractions, etc., instead of looking within people young and old will continue to leave the church/organized religion.  The solution is simple stop putting the emphasis on religion and the organizations and start putting it on a personal  relationship with God.

In our current cultural moment, unprecedented millions are sick to death of what religion has become today. There are more people who do not want to be associated with any organized religion in the United States than there are Catholics and nearly as many Protestants.  

I am a Bible believing Christian. I believe in God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that the Bible is reliable and is the basis for truth. I believe that God wants to have a relationship with everyone on earth and to see them come to salvation. I have a hard time believing in religion. I am seldom religious any more ... God created us for relationship. He wants to walk with us, talk with us, help us to learn and grow. We are spiritual beings, created to know God. One of the problems I see with the church/organized religion is that it takes its focus off of the relationship and puts it onto the “lifestyle” of Christians.

There is a Christian lifestyle defined by man — common dos and don’ts, ways of talking and behaving, an expected political view — and unfortunately, a common critical eye towards those who believe differently and act differently. I find the biggest fault with Christianity/organized religion is  the focus on sin, both personal sin and the sin of others rather than grace and forgiveness. Jesus Christ did not come and die on the cross to get us to stop sinning. He knew that was impossible. He came to set us free from sin. He came, not to put our focus on sin, but to take our focus off of it ... God wants our focus to be on Him, not on the rules.  I have found through the years the more you try not to sin the more you sin – trust God!

I don’t lay down the law against my best friend. We have a relationship; we love each other, and learn and grow together. Rules don’t make that relationship work, love does. God wants the same thing to be true with the relationship He has with us.

Now after saying what I have I think the church community is important (critical) to a believers life.  It is sad that trying to find a church today that allows you to discuss, agree and disagree with one another, to question freely what you do not understand or believe and not be judged is hard to find.  It is difficult to learn in a vacuum or alone.  To truly learn one must be able to express their ideas freely and be able to share and receive knowledge from one another.  It is far better in my opinion to be spiritual and religious, but finding a place to do that is like I said nearly impossible. I think Jesus called us to transcend petty religion.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

Jesus backed up this invitation with his life. He overturned Temple tables, healed on the Sabbath (and taught others to do the same), called religious leaders “broods of vipers” and “whitewashed tombs,” cursed fig trees symbolizing fruit-less religionists. This kind of confrontation was not uncommon: So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”  He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions” (Mark 7:5-9)!

Jesus’ overall appraisal of the religionists of His day is “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” Jesus seemed to be about creating a new kind of community, one where the values of repressive religion and empire would be absent.  We have forgotten the lessons of Jesus pertaining to His followers and have reverted back to the ways of the Pharisees. (Matthew 20:25-27).  Paul advocated for a Spirit-led rather than rules-led community.

2017 is as good a time as any to bring life back to the church and organized religion and we will not do that with stage shows and entertainment.

Christians wouldn't act that way - really!

Really: How do they act:

You have a “I love Jesus sticker on your bumper” and you pass me going twice the speed limit in a school zone.

I look in my rear view mirror and I cannot tell if you are pushing me or following me, but you do have a cross hanging from your rear view mirror.

You have a “What would Jesus do?” sticker on your rear window and I am sitting behind you watching you blow your horn and shoot the finger at someone taking too long at the stop sign.

You leave church an when you get to the parking lot you see someone has parked too close to your car and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is “Goddamn fool”.  I witness that two Sundays ago.

Its almost laughable when I see people at church (my neighbor) treating others as if they were mortal enemies. Gossiping behind others backs, silently and verbally wishing for their failure, and coveting their possessions.

There’s nothing wrong with a friendly debate among people of the same or different denominations…but when you end up telling me I am not a Christian because I am Catholic and insist on holding it against me…then you have forgotten what Christianity is all about.

When you post Bible verses on my email and go to church each week and I know you are married and using a singles site on the Internet. It makes me question if I even want to be a Christian.

How do you think you’ll ever be able to convince someone that they should investigate Christianity if their only interaction with Christianity is you and you demonstrate qualities even the unbeliever does not want to have.  Have you ever considered that you’re actually hurting Christ more than helping Him with how you treat others? Do you really think that showing up on Sunday and listening to the band or singing in the choir is going to bring others to Christ?

Christ said that you should “let your light so shine” so that others will want to come unto Him. Is your shining light a a red warning light to avoid Christians? Perhaps you are like a fire hydrant extinguishing any light that might be burning faintly within others.

If you call yourself a Christian…then just start loving others and overlooking their faults. Stop trying to make everyone else pay for their sins. God’s got that under control. Become an ambassadors of mercy instead of trying to replace God by being judge and jury. If you make that change you’ll never have to beg someone to listen to your message about Christ again.

There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t see some conservative going on and on about how the Republican party is the party of “good Christian values” and everyone else (specifically liberals) is waging some kind of war on religion. Going to church doesn’t make someone a Christian. Christianity is based on a belief in Jesus Christ and one’s attempt to live their life based on the values for which He taught.

I have really noticed from the comments following the Orlando shooting on social sites and media sites how many conservative Christians base their devotion to their faith on how strong their opposition is to homosexuality.

These are some other things that I have really noticed over the last eight years -Prosperity minsters make all Christians sound like our religion is based on GREED. It seems some Christians believe Jesus Christi would have an AR-15 strapped to His back - that is not a Christian issue that is a political issue. Christians should be  teaching acceptance and tolerance of others, but many are not.  That we’re all humans and it seems some have forgotten that - we all sin.  That we should treat each other with respect and kindness - calling others derogatory names does not seem to fulfill that Christian obligation. Some of the comments certainly do not reflect love and kindness.  Many Christians seem to have forgotten that whole “love our neighbor” thing. Do we should think we should try and FORCE our beliefs on others and judge them stupid heathens if they do not agree with us - God does not - that is why God gave us ‘free will". God gave us the right to choose to believe or not believe. God said “fear not” why are so many Christians on social media sites expressing fear of those that do not agree with their beliefs – I have faith God will prevail. 

Our actions outside of church are what matters the most to others wanting what we claim to have.

A religious label no longer fits me - Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical or Independent

I confess I do not agree with all Catholicism and Evangelism teachings. There are some of each that I like. There are some of each I believe. There are some of each I follow in my personal walk with God. There are some of each that I believe have it all wrong. Neither of them any longer totally satisfy me. I have come to believe most Catholic priest read and study the Bible with their mind and a lot of Evangelical ministers read and study the Bible using only their hearts.

Being a product of the seminary I loved those deep discussions on theology and philosophy. But, I finally realized I knew God with my mind, but I did not have a real personal heart relationship with Him.

The Bible may have become just another academic course I had to complete to be ordained. I take responsibility for it, but I also blame the priest that trained me. It was a shock when I entered the reality of ministry and found some parishioners really had a better personal relationship with God than I did - with all my book smarts. It was also a shock when I started to watch Christian television and on occasions stumbled on an Evangelical minister that had something worthwhile to say and was not begging money.

I now realize how important it is to read the Bible with both the heart and mind. I now know how important it is to stop and pause and allow God to speak to us as we read and study.  We can memorize all the scripture we want, but if it does not touch our heart we really have accomplished nothing. I guess as many Christians do we can use it to impress others.

I recently read a book on brain/thought/mind and quite time. This may sound foolish to some of you that are smarter than me, but I always thought of my brain as the organ that produced action and thought. After reading the book and spending a lot of time thinking about what the author wrote I came to believe the brain only reacts to what our mind (thought) tells it to. I wonder if the Bible really means ‘mind’ when it speaks of heart so many times.

If you are like I was you may be spending time in daily Bible study aimed more at interpreting the text than at meditation and experiencing God. You may also find your prayers are more ritualistic or formal than personal. Is your prayers dominated by petitions for needs and confession of sins. Mine was. If you are Catholic yours are probably taken from a little prayer book. It saddens me when I see Sunday after Sunday people with their little paper prayer books praying from them instead of having a simple conversation with  God.  The words used by great men of the church is not what God wants to hear. God wants to hear from us.

I began to notice many years back that parishioners were leaving the Mass after some of the priest delivered their homily without getting any practical knowledge to take with them to apply in their daily lives – a waste of time. The priests were delivering the same stuff that was delivered to them in the seminary without feeling, personal experiences or practical application given. I have found that in a lot of the Evangelical churches the congregation leaves full of emotional feeling (Adrenalin)and little mental comprehension. There needs to be a balance. What is the point in going to church if you are fed book knowledge or given an Adrenalin high that does not carry you through the week and cannot be applied to real life situations.

I am opposed to those speed reading Bible assignments that some ministers believe produce such great fruit. Read only with your mind and not your heart and you will not accomplish anything. Reading the Bible should be about establishing a personal relationship with God. I have had relatives that are more interested in CHECKING off the daily reading list given by the pastor or purchased in bookstores than really understanding how it applies to their life. That yearly Bible reading goal should not interfere with the big-picture of having 365 daily opportunities to feed your soul in God’s word.

If I am pressed for time and do not have the time to read scripture and then meditate on what I read I put it off until later in the day, but if possible always accomplish it before I go to sleep that night. Reading the Bible should not feel like an obligation it should be something you enjoy and want to do. After reading scriptures you need to take time to ponder on them (meditate) and seek how they can apply to your daily life. I have a relative that was in the hospital for about a week and unable to read her Bible. When she got home the first day she caught up on all the daily reading she had missed and called me to confirm that she had. I did not have the heart to tell her I was not impressed. I would have preferred she just picked up with the daily reading on the day she got home.

Research shows nearly six in ten (59%) of young people who grow up in Christian churches end up walking away from either their faith or from the institutional church at some point in their first decade of adult life. Sadly when asked what has helped their faith grow, “church” does not make even the top 10 factors. Instead, the most common drivers of spiritual growth, as identified by Millennials themselves, are prayer, family and friends, the Bible and their relationship with Jesus.

This tells me the organizational church is failing the young people. We need to stop blaming society and start looking within our own walls. Perhaps the organized church has allowed itself to fall out of step with modern times – I believe it has.  I think many young people feel the organized church is not relevant’ or see attending worship services ‘a boring duty’. If that is true then it is the Churches fault. I do not think most churches today offer the depth young people need to deal with their everyday life decisions. Modern life is complex!

Many Evangelical Churches have created a Young People’s Country Club or Night Club and that is not the solution in my opinion. They are looking for the same thing we adult Christians are looking for - a personal relationship with God, a place where they can be accepted for who they are and to be given an opportunity to take a meaningful and productive role in the church.

I think people have the right to expect from their church:

Acceptance

People want to feel not only welcomed and loved but also wanted. I think the Catholic Church does an awful job of making visitors feel welcome. A lot of Protestant Churches go to great pain to make first time visitors welcome and forget about them after that. Is your Church a place that welcomes people on the first visit and beyond the first visit?

Accountability

People want to be held accountable. They want someone to follow up with them and make sure they are understanding what has been taught and how it can be used in their daily life. Is your Church a place that motivates and provides  partnership to the goal of serving Christ?

Discipleship

People desire to know more about their faith whether it’s newfound or not. People want to understand what they are doing, why they are doing it and how to improve what they are doing. Is your Church a place of learning that equips the believer with the tools necessary to survive in the Christian walk? 

Opportunity

A growing Christian wants an opportunity to get involved in the ministry of the church they attend. People want to be a part of something. People want to serve, and we must not forget God wants them to serve as well. As a Church we must be excelling at preparing our members for service. Giving them an opportunity to serve Jesus. So many times we can fail because we wait too long to get new members involved in serving. They want to serve, and we must let them. Is your Church full of opportunities to serve?

Is your Church a place of acceptance, accountability, discipleship and opportunity or is it a place where the leadership has expectations for everyone else, but not themselves.

The Bible states - God will not put more on you than you can stand - NOT TRUE!

The Bible states, “God will not put more on you than you can stand” – NOT TRUE!

If you believe me wrong read 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 and Matthew 11:28-30 again it does not say what you may have thought it said or some sentimental Christian or religious leader told you it said.

People are surprised to find that at no time in the movie Casablanca does Rick ever say, “Play it again, Sam.”  It is also surprising to know that in over 79 Star Trek episodes and 6 movies, no one ever actually says, “Beam me up, Scotty.” But people all assume that those clichés and many others are from the films and movies they attribute them, too.

It works the same with the Bible.  There are all kinds of things that people assume the Bible says but it actually doesn’t.  At the top of that list is “The Lord helps those who help themselves” with something like 80% of Christians believing that quote is from the Bible. It’s actually from the Ancient Greeks by way of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac.

But in a close second is the statement: “God never gives you more than you can bear.”  It is frequently “quoted” to people in times of distress with great certainty.  Everything will be alright—the suffering one is told—God wouldn’t have given you this trial if you couldn’t get through it. It is quite comforting to those suffering until they find out it is not true and then they begin to doubt God because of you ‘YOUR’ biblical untruth.

There is a quote like it; but there is nothing that says “God will never give you more than you can bear.”  The quote that is frequently used to back up the idea, from 1 Corinthians, doesn’t really say what people think it does. It actually says, “No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people … God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities ...”

Paul is reminding his readers that God will not allow people to be tempted beyond their abilities.  That is, there is no temptation that you should feel you are powerless against, because God would not allow you to be tempted by something you couldn’t resist. If you’re being tempted, in Paul’s thinking, it’s something you are strong enough to resist. That is a far different thing from claiming that nothing bad will happen to you or that you will not have to bear a burden that you cannot bear alone, without God.

Paul even states they suffered burdens they could not bear in their own strength, “We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive.” (2 Corinthians 1:8). We are also told in Psalm 38:8, “I’m worn out, completely crushed; I groan because of my miserable heart” and in Psalm 38:4, “My wrongdoings are stacked higher than my head; they are a weight that’s way too heavy for me.” Elijah was told by an angel:  “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” (1 Kings 19:7). Let us not forget Jesus, too, who died in agony on the cross, cried out “My God, My God, why have you left me?”

Not only is it not found in scripture our life experiences do not bear it out. There are all kinds of things that happen that we cannot bear. Sometimes our lives come crashing down around us.

Trite platitudes that are designed to make people feel better are harmful to Christianity. Can you imagine someone saying to an inmate at Auschwitz don’t worry - God never gives you more than you can bear or saying it to a woman whose children are killed by a long buried landmine while they were playing or a refugee who survived the massacre of her entire village or someone who has just been given a diagnosis of a terminal illness?

I am thankful that we Catholic’s have the crucifix and not just a cross for it reminds  us that our faith is driven by the hope and the promise of the Resurrection, but that we still live very much in a world defined by the Crucifixion – pain and suffering.

When you tell suffering people that God never gives them more than they can bear and they are being crushed at the time by problems you are causing them to question what is wrong with them?  What are they doing wrong?  Why isn’t God helping them? You are not bringing them to God you are pushing them away from God. If you do not have more comforting words than that to give them then keep your mouth shut and listen.

If you truly believe no problem comes your way that you cannot bear then you are making it about you and not God. Why do you need God if you alone can bear all your problems? Christ said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” Christ did not tell us to go it alone. Our faith is demonstrated by our recognition that we cannot bear the burdens ourselves and trust in the grace of God who bears them with us.

The church should be a place where you can come and say, “I have a burden that I cannot bear” and instead of being judged for having a weak faith, you are surrounded by a network of love and support that will bear that burden with you.  Just as Christ takes upon himself the burdens we cast upon him, unfortunately to many church going Christians and religious leaders have forgotten that.

The Gospel reminds us that our problems do not disappear because we have become followers of Christ, but we are promised that in those sufferings we are not alone. God does not make us suffer alone He is always with us. God will stand beside us in our times of trouble.

“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads and I will give you rest.”

Do not beat yourself up when you fail and give in to temptations that you told God in prayer that you would not do again.  God is happy for all the days that the temptation came up and you did not give in and does not hold against you the days that you did. God will is patient!  Just pick yourself up and try again.  God is a God of more than one chance.

We should not let the Church die

If Christianity is to remain a part of modern day society we must come to understand change.  Organisms that do not respond to their environment become extinct. The Church is no different from any other organization it adapts or loses members and become irrelevant.

How many of you remember the Woodmen of the World or Woodmen of America? If you have visited old cemeteries, you’ve probably noticed the tree stone monuments, especially in the West, Midwest and South. Two organizations are given credit for their proliferation, Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World. They were one of the largest fraternal organizations in the world, but not anymore. They still exist and offer excellent insurance policies, but membership in the organization has dwindled. Many fraternal organizations died off because they did not adapt to their environment.

When people and organizations stop changing they regress. When businesses stop changing they close. When non-profit organizations stop changing they disappear. Societies needs change therefore the things society use must change and adapt.

I submit to you that many churches are dying because they have become boring, unchanging and irrelevant. They have become totally disconnected to the lives of modern men and women.

If today’s Church was a political party if would be an unelectable party. The people in the pews desperately try to discuss what they need to function as a Christian in the 21^st century and the Church leaders point fingers. Perhaps the reason so many Church leaders become overly active in politics today is because they can relate to how it works. Those at the top of politics and the Church have lost sight of what the people really need. They would rather stay the course than admit they could have been wrong. The Church is not dying because the people are less holy. The Church is dying because the leaders have become more focused on the organization and their power than the people.

It is clear the power struggle going on in the worldwide Church today has served to do damage to the Church.  It has left some people in the Church feeling like criminals for example the gays, divorced, etc. It has left people feeling unloved, guilty and excluded. This is not what Christ intended for the Church to do or be. The leaders of the Church must be faithful to God’s truth not their truth and be less interested in their personal power.

For the Church to stand still and stop evolving is eventually to be left behind and face extinction. Many Christians like me have begun to critique the beliefs, teachings and practices of the leadership as God intended us to do.  Jesus Christ questioned the leadership of the Jewish religion and encouraged others to do so. Many in the Church become discussed with the dictatorial power of the leadership and leave the Church.

The Gandhi’s, Mother Teresa’s, Martin Luther Kinds and Thomas Merton’s of the world understood change must occur in to order to survive. They realized they were not perfect and did not have all the answers and were willing to listen to others. Church leaders have taken ordained authority too seriously.

I believe we have a unique opportunity to show how an institution that is widely acknowledged to be out of touch and is being ignored by many of its members can face its fears and explore new ways of being and serving.  Even if change is painful it is vital if the Church is to not only survive, but to grow.

The Church must change or die!

Before you say God will never allow the Church as we know it today to die think about the 400 years between Malachi to Matthew when God remained silent to give mankind time to think before He began something new with the coming of Jesus Christ. God will accomplish what He wants with or without our help.  God’s ways or not our ways and I do not think God is happy with how our religious leaders have been introducing their own personal agendas and ignoring what God wants.

What happen with the Temple leaders in the Old Testament has been happening with our Church leaders and change must come. 

For thirty years I have not believed God of the Old Testaments was a God who desired to plunder the land and slaughter people. He was then and now a God of love, inclusion, grace, compassion and mercy.

Old Testament religious leaders used their own immaturity and tribal insecurities to define God. They interpreted and translated God’s words and added their own personal agenda and often what God wanted was not what the religious leaders of the time presented to the people. The same is happening today.

I have come to believe God knew that communicating through the ranks of priests and scribes and judges was not working. It led to his words being distorted. The only way God could communicate His character truthfully and without distortion was to bypass the intermediaries and speak directly to the people through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ came and defined God as He really was and is.  Jesus Christ came without a personal agenda.  His only agenda was to accomplish what the Father sent Him to do. But, our religious leaders down through the years took up their swords to do battle with the scientists, thinkers, creative minds, innovators and to a certain extent continue to do so today. They have put on the old masks of the Old Testament Temple leaders and presented us with a violent and intolerant God that wants nothing to do with people THEY disapprove of unless they conform to THEIR values. It is time we get pass those immature views and contemplate what has been revealed to us by God. If we did that we would see that God has been evolving and adapting since the beginning of time. Many of our Church leaders today prefer the wicked God that strikes down the unrighteous and raises up the righteous and refuse to free their minds and keep the old out. God is doing a new thing and they are unable to perceive it.

The Church today is once again portrayed as a place of bigotry, narrow mindedness, leaders in love with power, leaders more interested in buildings and entertainment programs than meeting the real needs of the people, leaders over occupied with sex, eager to support unjust wars and leaders that do not want change.

A revolution will not bring about the change needed.  Only a dedication to change by evolution will accomplish the ongoing change that must happen in the Church. We were told the only way to save a village in Vietnam was to destroy it and now we say the only way to protect ourselves from violence is to wage a war of shock and awe on terror and we expect God to support us in these wars. The majority of us Christians cannot accept that secular Israel is not always right because of what our religious leaders have taught us.  Only evolution changes the spirit of man.

Our Church leaders continue to kill off new ideas and inspirations before they can even take root.  They have learned nothing from Christ parable of the sower. New growth exposed too quickly to the sun and burns up.  I have seen this over and over in the church today. Leaders put too many ritual demands, traditional demands and religious demands on the people; especially new people and they feel the heat and wither away.  

Pope Francis is trying to bring about an evolution in the Church and many religious leaders and lay people (like my housekeeper) are misguided in opposing him.  It takes no courage to sit at the comfortable tables of the priests/cardinals/bishops and no courage to do surveys and censuses then ignore them. But, Pope Francis is standing up bravely speaking of the change that he believes and I believe God wants in the Church. He has chastised the religious leaders for focusing too much on sex, divorce and family planning while neglecting what the people need to survive in the 21st century.

There are people sitting in the back pews who have the courage to imagine that newness (change) within the Church is not only possible it is inevitable. It is growing in the bellies of those that the religious leaders have deemed immoral and have made to feel unwelcome in the Church community. An evolution is coming and religious leaders will not stop it.

Evolution (change) in the Church will take time, but the people are growing impatient because religious leaders have done nothing in the past to address the problems. The people want change and want it now.  They are tired of waiting, but wait they must for real change to take hold. There is no one program that can solve the Churches problems overnight. The people must realize that if we are to see real, long lasting change then we must be willing to give it the time it needs to grow and we must see to it that our religious leaders never stop evolving again.

Religious leaders once again have come to believe we serve them.  God called them to a vocation that requires them to serve us.  We must return power to the people. The Church is no longer connected to culture and society, it is not where God wants it to be, and therefore it is not where God is. Our religious leaders have become custodians of empty historical buildings (museums).  We are left clinging to the past until we are willing to embrace the newness God wants to give us.

I have grown tired of sermons and songs that want us to believe that everything is okay in the Church when it is not.  We the people have allowed our culture and the Church to drift apart. Denial and cover up have permeated our Church. Denial comes when we fear the future. We should be finding truth every Sunday; instead we go for doses of fiction, enough to cloud our perception for the week ahead that everything is okay. The Jeremiahs of today are those that are powerless, who have no vested interest in keeping the present system propped up. I do not believe God is in what we are doing anymore. The denial and cover ups must stop once and for all.

God will not be forced in to some temple, place, church, box, agenda, theological position He does not want to be in. God can leave where He does not want to be. The journey of faith is not stagnant, but an evolution of the Spirit.

What is stopping the changes needed in the Church – who is saying no – who is saying impossible- only those whose interest lies in keeping things as they are now – those with power and interest invested in staying the same. Dare to dream where God may want to be today – among the poor, disenfranchised, the ordinary, the real, the people deemed immoral by the Church leaders and the places where Church leaders never thought were possible. – Yes, even among the Gay, divorce and those using artificial birth control.  

Religion can be harmful!

Religion can be harmful!

Religion can be dangerous because it is usually run by men. Religion usually ends up in the hands of a few men that determine the interpretation of God’s words for us; they make all the rules and traditions that we are to follow. Religion is often fueled by fear and it is anchored in our conscious. Our conscious can be right or wrong. Our conscious has generally been shaped by some type of religion, a religion that we have been taught by men. We tend to listen more to men of the church than the Holy Spirit. Religious followers tend to turn to men of the church rather than God when in doubt.

There are usually a group of dedicated followers that are dependent on a group of men to understand where they stand with God. These men determine who will go to hell and heaven by how they interpret God’s words.

Jesus did not come to improve or extend the legalistic temple model of religion.  Jesus came to start something new. I have only recently realized this during a serious bout of bad health that kept me in bed for approximately six weeks. I once believe Jesus did not come to establish a new religion (Christianity), but to improve the Jewish religion. I no longer believe that.

I now believe Jesus came to establish something entirely new. Something without thousands of rules and traditions made by man, but one simple commandment LOVE! One simple law LOVE! One simple rule LOVE! This one law is what all our decisions should be based on.  When we are not sure what we are to do we should ask ourselves what love requires of us?

Jesus did not come to establish a place (a House of the Lord).  Jesus came to establish a new movement of people. Jesus came to establish a movement that was for all people for all times. It was a movement that was to be focused on people (one another) not the temple or a church building.

Jesus did not want the old mixed with the new, but unfortunately man has mixed the old temple ways with the new Jesus movement and they have ruined what Jesus came to establish. The only thing that counts is faith expressed through love, love expressed for other people. Too many are trying to express love through a denomination (a church building) a denomination or building created by man not Christ.

Our bodies are TEMPLES, our bodies are sacred, and no building or denomination is more sacred than we are. Our bodies are holy and contain the Spirit of God.

The early Christians had only one thing and that was an extraordinary love for one another. They had no Bible not even the Old Testament.  They followed one law LOVE ONE ANOTHER! They put the person next to them ahead of themselves.

Constantine, an emperor, built the first churches.  He passed a law churches did not have to pay taxes so all the rich people started turning their property into churches to avoid taxes.  They would take in orphans and overnight Christianity became inseparable from the empire.  Christianity became more empire than Christianity. Men then began to determine how God’s word would be interpreted by all.

The Nicene Creed was the results of a political issue. Some believed Christ received his Divinity as a reward for what He accomplished on earth and other believed He was born with his Divinity. Constantine did not want the debate to continue. Constantine who was not a theologian put out an edict all material relating to Jesus not being born Devine should be destroyed and if not destroyed the person holding it will be put to death. Thereafter believing the wrong thing was a crime. Christians arrested Christians for believing the wrong thing. Man became the gate keeper to heaven and hell and in many instances it remains that way in 2016.

We Christians talk about the Crusaders killing pagans, but few know we also killed Jewish men, women and children for crucifying Christ and taking all their possessions. Hitler was not the first to take revenge on the Jews. This all followed the Council of Trent. It was all done in the name of God.

1517 Martin Luther wanted to reform the Church not destroy it. Scripture not the Church became the authority and the Protestant movement began. We began to move back to the command to love, but we have never really returned to the original movement Christ came to establish among people. In my opinion denomination is still more important to many than love and we see this in the denominations anti-gay movement just as the church was pro-slavery and segregation. The Church denominations still use the Bible as weapon instead of an instrument of love. Protestants and Catholics continue to beat people over the head with their interpretations of the Bible today.

What we see as sin has been shaped by man. Some feel guiltier about missing Mass or church services than mistreating others. Some fear over the eternal life of their child who dies and was not baptized because of the interpretation of men and not God. Putting water on the head of anyone does not determine if they go to heaven or not.  Does other people’s failure make you feel superior instead of making you sad if it does you do not love as Christ commanded us to?

If everyone got up thinking God is fine with me and now I must make myself fine with others the world would be what Jesus Christ wanted it to be filled with LOVE? If you truly love others you are in line with the Gospel. If you love like Christ commanded you will love God. Love will be the basis for your interpretation of God’s word.

When we begin to live by God’s command and not man the people of the world will know we are Christians by our love.

STUDY-PRAY-READ-LISTEN TO ALL SIDES-TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WHAT IS BEST FOR OTHERS- THEN THINK FOR YOURSELF.