the church of stretch armstrong

I’m going to be very honest here. I really can’t understand most people who are adamantly conservative. And I really can’t understand most peple who are unabashedly liberal. Not only of the political persuasion, but of the Christian one as well. Christians have polarized themselves into subcultures and subgroups and political parties and almost everything else imaginable, and in turn have themselves divided the body of Christ more than any curse-word-screaming rapper, Supreme Court member or President of our country ever could.

We divide ourselves over petty issues. We pull our own sections of the body of Christ until we are like one big Strech Armstrong doll. Should the table with the words “In Remembrance Of Me” be at the altar in front of the preacher’s podium every Sunday? I can here a parishoner now…”If it isn’t, I may just go to the Methodist/Presbyterian/Baptist/Episcopal/insert denomination here church across the street that does keep it there every Sunday. And it doesn’t matter if the children are doing a play in front and need the space this Sunday, they can like it or f*@# it.” That’s the way issues tend to be tackled in a lot of churces today, and it infuriates me. Especially because we are Christians.

Want some more? I know a good number of Christians that think that just because this or that person does/doesn’t support something they believe in as strongly as themselves, that there is something severely wrong with them, maybe even that their faith may be faltering. So just because I might not be pro-life with the same staunch conservatism that you exhibit, you think my faith is faltering? Something has gone drastically wrong with the Church today.

I think life is about challenges and growth. Life, the way Christ intended it, is also about relationships. It’s about learning all that we can about how to be Christ and to share that with others, through mostly tough experiences. It is certainly not about picketing in front of abortion clinics to prove the point that abortion is wrong or authoring a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage to make that point that God says homosexuality is a sin. Those people have it all wrong. The lessons of life come from way more serious and way more difficult things to do than that. Why? Because God didn’t put us on this earth to figure out by age 25, 43 or even 87 all that we needed to know and then go tell others with staunch conviction as if we were He himself. I hope God keeps teaching me the humbleness that accompanies such an outlook on life, because of anyone I probably exhibit it the least.

a [gradual] change of perspective

So I’ve come to a realization. Christians (not all but way too many) aren’t easy people to have constructive and intelligent conversations with on what are referred to as “hot-button” issues. Mention the words “sex,” “homosexual,” “abortion” or “democrat” (along with a handfull of others) to a Christian and we go into what I call “defense mode.”

Imagine, if you will, a clip from the first Batman movie. At one point after Batman escapes from a burning factory, at the touch of his remote he shuts the Batmobile off and huge, impenetrable shields (which are built-in) wrap around its whole body to protect it. That is the picture I see when I think of our Christian “defense mode.” The sad part is that Christians often times do this for the exact same reason Batman did it: protection. We don’t want to hear anything of or from the secular, sinful, non-Christian world around us. But we aren’t being protected, although we think we are. In fact, what we are really doing is stunting our spiritual growth. Growth comes from taking chances and being risky with our faith. We can’t keep lying to ourselves. Although having a few non-Christian friends, I stay in my “holy huddle,” as many do. I’d bet that most Christians would say the same thing.

But, I’ve been thinking, and I can’t seem to move away from the thought that Christians cannot submit to engaging the world in this way anymore – and something drastic must be done. How can we expect to be Christ-like when we aren’t showing the love of Christ to exactly the people who need it (people in the “secular” world that we want no part of)? We can’t. We simply aren’t fulfilling the action of becomming Christ-like if we don’t engage the world. Conversations must happen, not just random shouting about “hell and heaven” with a tract thrown around here or there.

We are so hypocritical. How can Christians picket at abortion clinics with a clear conscience while being some of the most outspoken supporters of the death penalty at the same time? How can Christians rant about the Defense of Marriage Act when statistics clearly show Christians have some of the highest divorce rates in the world? I’m not standing up for or advocating against anything here. I’m simply saying we need to take things in perspective. How many of us as Christians actively try to form friendships with a homosexual, or an aethiest, or a homeless family? These are the people that need love. Many of them are waiting on us, on me. I hope that, day by day, I can take on the challenge of loving the ones that have been waiting on us and on God.

St. Charles Place

Another day, another bit of randomness. And lack of sleep.

I went to my CRV (Church Related Vocations) internship at GAIHN (Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network) this afternoon, where homeless families are kept together and given shelter by churches as they are helped to find temporary housing, and played Monopoly with three of the kids there for 2 hours. Yes, I definitely had some strenuous work to do at my internship today…”Hey, kid, pass me $200, will ya? I just passed Go.” Good times, definitely. And, as you might guess, I was loosing horribly to two eighth grade students when I finally had to give up and play something different with one of their younger, five year-old siblings – who couldn’t yet do enough math to outwit me financially.

In other news, today was the 20th birthday for my good friend (and many a person’s good friend) here at Furman, Kellie King. I had some late-night celebratory cake in her dorm room. Absolutely amazing. The Publix bakery rocks. Hard. To quote Kellie’s roomate, Melissa McNair, on her noteworthy accomplishment: “Alright! Halfway to 40!!,” which Kellie, as expected, responded to with a resounding laugh/sigh/groan/cry to God, in succession, at the situation. From everyone here on staff at IntheRye (essentially no one but me), kudos to Kellie on her magnificent achievement.

For now, this is it.

Music In Rotation: Five For Fighting, “The Battle For Everything” and U2 “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.”