A pastor transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the church where he was to be introduced as the new head pastor that morning. He walked around his soon-to-be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service. Only 3 people said hello to him; most looked the other way. He asked people for change to buy food because he was hungry. No one gave him anything.

He went into the sanctuary to sit down in front of the church and was told by the ushers that he would need to get up and go sit in the back of the church. He said hello to people as they walked in, but was greeted with cold stares and dirty looks from people looking down on him and judging him.

He sat in the back of the church and listened to the church announcements for the week. He listened as new visitors were welcomed into the church that morning, but no one acknowledged that he was new. He watched people around him continue to look his way with stares that said you were not welcome here.

Then the elders of the church went to the podium to make the announcement. They said they were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation. "We would like to introduce you to our new pastor." The congregation stood up and looked around, clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle.

That's when all the clapping stopped, and the church was silent. With all eyes on him, he walked up to the altar and reached for the microphone. He stood there for a moment and then recited, so elegantly, a verse from the Bible.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in, or did we need to clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, 'Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.’”

After he recited this, he introduced himself as their new pastor and told the congregation what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and bow their heads in shame.

"Today I see a gathering of people here, but I do not see a church of Jesus. The world has enough people who look the other way. What the world needs is disciples of Jesus who can follow his teachings and live as he did. When will you decide to become disciples?”

He then dismissed the service until the following Sunday, as his sermon had been given.

A more elegant form of justice is restorative justice. This justice seeks to restore a right relationship between two parties. The end result of restorative justice is harmony between the wrongdoer and the wronged. 

That’s a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, dude. How about an illustration?

Fine! I thought you’d never ask!

Little Johnny steals a candy bar from a store and is discovered by his mother when they get home. How should his mom handle this?

1. Get a belt and tan his hide. Spare the rod, spoil the child, is what the Good Book says.

2. Take him back to the store and make him tell the shopkeeper what he did, and offer to work sweeping the floor to pay for the candy.

The first is an example of retributive justice. It is punishment for his crime of theft. This is what I grew up with. I probably got my hide tanned 200 or more times. Today I can’t tell you what more than two or three of them were for, and of the ones I remember, none of them deserved a beating. I remember how demeaning and unfair they felt, and how they made me resolve to never treat my children with that kind of injustice. Little Johnny knows he was guilty, so he may or may not harbor resentment towards his mom for the punishment. But perhaps there is a better way.

In the second example, Little Johnny’s mom drove him back to the store and made him tell the shopkeeper about the stolen candy. The shopkeeper is understandably upset. At this point he has three choices. 

1. Call the cops and let them scare him straight.

2. Forget it. It’s only a candy bar.

3. Work out a way to serve justice while simultaneously restoring honor.

Fortunately the shopkeeper is also a parent, and decides on Option C. He charges Little Johnny one hour’s work sweeping the floors and taking out the trash. At the end of the hour, he thanks Johnny for the service, and invites him to come once a week to work for an hour and collect another candy bar. In time the two become friends, and Johnny eventually becomes his apprentice. 

Isn’t this a much happier ending to the story? 

Restorative justice is ALWAYS a better way than retributive justice. Every creature brings forth after its own kind. Violence begets violence, and studies have consistently shown that corporal punishment produces adults who are more likely to engage in domestic violence and child abuse. On the other hand, love and compassion also bring forth after their own kind.

I think we could use a little more of that love and compassion today.

The girl wore an ugly necklace. It was gaudy and bulky. It didn’t fit her personality at all!

She wore it because her late mother wore it. It appeared in one or two photos through the years.

She, the Mother, wore it, mostly to family gatherings, because HER Mom wore it. It was handed down form one generation to the next and nobody ever expressed their true thoughts on it.

Her grandma was also passed away but SHE had a living sister.

The girl went to the rest home to visit and she wore the old necklace. After visiting for a while, she asked her about the origin and worth of the necklace. She was surprised to see her great aunt laughing. She was more surprised at her answer! When she caught her breath from laughing she patted her hand and said, "Hattie bought that old necklace for 10 cents at a rummage sale to wear to an "UGLY-OUTFIT-SOCIAL" in the church basement when we were teens! She wore it "'On a dare!!!'" She laughed 'til she cried and said, " I'm sorry, dear. I never had the heart to tell your mother.

The girl felt relief as she un-fastened the clasp.

Sometimes, our traditions make no real sense. Often we find ourselves going through the motions of some non-sensical religious exercise or family tradition and the whole while our heart is trying to tell us the TRUTH!

Listen to your heart.

If you're uncomfortable with something, there's probably a good reason.

If something seems silly to you, it may BE silly.

Just because thousands of people are doing something, that doesn't mean it is right for you!

Examine your beliefs, measure them against truth and be strong enough, if your heart is telling you to "un-fasten the clasp!"

One of the local churches was having a chili sale to support an orphanage. So, being the wonderful, thoughtful Christians that we are, we rushed to support the efforts. Okay, I know that one won’t fly. I’m a sucker for homemade chili, alright?

Then disaster struck. I had to pee. So we pulled into the Cook-Out parking lot. Under a big white car on the corner was a squirrel. My first thought was, be careful, little squirrel! You can get run over out here!

We went inside. Disaster averted. Ahhhhh! Since we were already there, we went ahead and got our breakfast. We’ll get chili later. I know it was 11 o’clock, but hey, it was Saturday and we slept in. As we ate, I kept thinking about the squirrel. It was gone, so I suppose it heeded my mental warning. Telepathic squirrel, that one.

I found myself wondering whether it was up in the engine bay of that car chewing wires and wreaking havoc. Squirrels do that sometimes, you know. And somewhere in between an onion ring and another bite of charbroiled hamburger, I got clobbered by what I can only describe as a message from the Holy Squirrel. 

The squirrel had given me no indication that it was up to mischief. He was just there, doing what squirrels do, scavenging for acorns and stray tater tots. But because I heard a story years ago about a misbehaving squirrel that caused thousands of dollars in auto repairs because it chewed up the wiring harness, I transferred that mischief onto the rowdy rodent under the big white car. 

Completely unrelated squirrels. Completely unrelated stories. And yet, I found myself wondering whether THIS squirrel was creating automotive chaos. Not because it was actively doing anything, but because it had the POTENTIAL to do harm. 

OMG there’s a Black man. Is he going to rob me? OMG there’s a cop. Is he going to knock out my tail lights and give me a ticket for broken tail light lenses? OMG there’s a gay man. Is he going to ask me out and make me confront my own sexuality? 

OMG there is the OTHER. Is he going to do the things that the OTHERS sometimes do?

A wise man once said that worry is a misuse of imagination. Did I mention wise? 

The Apostle Paul said whatever is pure, holy, good, etc., think about these things. Perhaps if I had been thinking about good things, it wouldn’t have taken a revival from a North Carolina squirrel to get my mind right.

With apologies, of course, to the one and only Ray Stevens.

1. America was founded as a Christian nation.

2. America is still a majority Christian nation.

3. We’re using our power as the majority to impose our will on the minority.

Each of these assertions is deeply flawed. Let’s start from the top.

“America was founded as a Christian nation.” Yeah, not so much. America was founded as a land where people were free to worship as they please, or not to worship at all. The majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence were Christians. However, there was no movement to declare this a Christian nation. One has only to look at Iraq and Iran to see what kind of atrocities are committed under a theocracy. “But wait a minute, Art. That’s Islam, not Christianity.” Very true. Anyone read about the Christian Inquisitions? Bloody Mary? The Salem Witch Trials? This is what happens when religion gains political and temporal power. Pray to God this never becomes a Christian nation.

“America is still a majority Christian nation.” A slim majority of people (63%) would CALL themselves Christian. That doesn’t mean they are. How many of your friends and neighbors are giving of themselves? How many are working the soup kitchens? How many are taking tents and sleeping bags to the homeless? Better yet, how many are inviting those same people into their own homes? It’s easy to pitch $20 in the offering plate and think your charitable obligations are fulfilled. Are you helping elevate the poor? Are you helping those without a voice find their power? Or are you joining the masses in helping squelch the feeble voices of those on the outside? The label of Christian should be either earned or bestowed by others, and never taken thoughtlessly as a badge of belonging.

“We’re using our power as the majority to impose our will on the minority.” I don’t even know where to start with this one. How anyone could construe this attitude as Christian is frankly beyond me. Might makes right? Really? Is that what you learned in Sunday School? Is that what Jesus said as he was dying on the cross? If the majority of people in this country had one OUNCE of Christianity in their soul this kind of attitude would fall utterly flat. Where is the self-sacrificing love of Christ? We apparently can’t hear it beneath the drone of “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.” Are these soldiers anything like the army Jesus went to Calvary with? Can anyone point me to the scripture that says Jesus rode into Bethlehem on an Abrams tank? This guy Jesus that we call the Christ seems to have been totally forgotten by his followers.

Please, I implore you! Look not for an earthly kingdom to rule. Look inside, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.

 I would like to start by thanking Art for welcoming me to his platform as a place for the free exchange of radical ideas. Jesus was a radical, a fact too often forgotten, and I am so thankful to work with a fellow radical Christian. In keeping with this awesome blog's theme of challenging commonly held notions, this guest post can be no different!

 Jesus Christ was an adversarial figure. With these opening words, some might assume I am speaking of the warrior king Jesus referenced in the book of Revelation, coming to annihilate the Anti-Christ and his armies. You might also assume I am referencing the view of Jesus as the judge, in which you will be confronted for all of your sins. Neither of these instances are what I want to talk about here. Another objection might be, Satan translates to “the adversary” in Hebrew, and Jesus is the opposite of Satan! Well, that is true. But just like the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, in two opposite things, one side will always contain some element of the other within itself. 

 Now that you’ve got your pearls good and clutched, let’s look at the big man in question. In Jesus‘s ministry, who were his adversaries? For anyone who has studied any of the four gospels, you will have some ideas. The Roman State and the Religious Authority. Now, did Jesus start his ministry by going out and attacking these groups? Did he teach us to go pick fights with the authorities? No he did not. Yet, he was still drawn into conflict with these forces. Why? Let us read the scripture. 

 I would like to focus on two passages. Most Christian’s are familiar with the story of Jesus cleansing the temple of the money changers and merchants. These passages have been interpreted in various ways with the main focus typically being on the act of turning over the tables and Jesus’s messages to the money changers. But what I wish to look at is the later part of the chapter. Mark 11:18 ESV tells us after the events at the temple “And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.” 

 The second passage I would like to quote is a little more lengthy, but I promise I’m getting to my point!

‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭30‬-‭34‬, ‭39 says “I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.”‬ 

 In both of these passages, Jesus is breaking down unjust hierarchies and challenges the religious authorities by showing the hypocrisy of the Priesthood in the first and bringing people into a direct relationship with God’s Love in the latter. Is he antagonizing these priest for antagonism's sake? No. Jesus brings himself into an adversarial relationship with the authorities by standing with the masses of the poor and meek. In Liberation Theology, a theological school pioneered by the Latin American Catholic Church, there is a concept called the “preferential option for the poor.” This refers to a trend throughout the Bible of priority being given to the well-being of the poor and powerless of society over the rulers of society. This is especially prominent in the teaching of Jesus. Just as when Jesus challenged the church, many religious authorities in the Catholic Church tried to suppress this theological tendency. My point in all this being, the core of this adversarial dynamic is not the antagonistic actions or words of Christ, but of the authorities' rejection of God’s Love. They are the ones who choose to be on the side of the powerful over the meek. And in this decision, they are rejecting Christ.

 So what does all of this mean for Christians today? One of the greatest examples of what it means to be Christ-like in modern history was the example set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nearly everyone claims to uphold the legacy of Dr. King and claims they would be in support of him during the Civil Rights Movement. In reality judging by the statistics, you wouldn’t. According to the Harris Poll, at the time of his assassination Dr. King had a disapproval rating of 75%. Dr. King was not afraid to take radical stands, regardless of public opinion. Just as Christ did, Dr. King fought for the poor and downtrodden to the point he became a target of government repression. 

 If our ministry to the poor and downtrodden doesn’t make the establishment nervous like the ministry of Jesus and Dr. King did, are we really living up to the radical example Christ has set? I would argue no, we are not. What social issues or political positions can we see today that are wildly unpopular with mainstream Christianity, but might actually be closer to Christ’s values? When a business tries to bust a union drive, when a landlord raises the rent and ignores his tenets’ pleas for repairs, when a government defunds education and public aid while increasing military spending, it is the duty of all Chistians to take up the love of Christ, the deep love for the poor and and toiling masses, and join the side of the righteous. And when that love for the poor brings you into conflict with the modern money changers and arrogant priests, then we will know we are living as Christ did.

Joshua Blankenship-

02/2024

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Here we see the parable of the Good Samaritan. The expert in the law asked Jesus for a clarification of the term “neighbor.” Jesus made it clear that the person who showed the qualities of humanity was the neighbor. In other words, the proof was in the heart, not the pedigree. We might adapt this parable to answer the OP’s question as well, which was “Who are God’s people?” The pedigree is shared by everyone, since we are all created by God. But the heart is what truly separates God’s people from those who do not yet know him. God’s children are filled with God’s love. It surrounds them, fills them, and emanates from them.

There are “neighbors” in every religion, every country, every race. There are plenty of Atheists who are better neighbors than most of their Christian friends. Some of the people fighting against democracy in the Middle East are highly moral, ethical people, who would definitely help the man left beaten and dying on the side of the road.

I can hear it now. “But they are LOST! They don’t know Christ! They hate our guts! They don’t believe like we do! Why should I treat them like my neighbor?”

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, that term “Samaritan” was not chosen at random. The Jews hated Samaritans because they didn’t believe like they did. They were considered outcasts and second class citizens, and no self-respecting Jew would be caught dead walking beside one. Jesus was making a point here. Some of these guys you’re hating on, well, you could learn a thing or two from them.

There are good people being neighbors to others everywhere. Go and do likewise.

I come from the background of having been raised in what I consider abusive religion, so I freely admit to being overly sensitive to religious threats. Being told I’m going to burn in Hell because I had some sort of unconfessed sin in my life, well, it doesn’t get much more threatening than that. Nevertheless, it is undeniably written in the Bible about sin and the wrath of God. So… What do I make of that? Are they right? If I sin, do I bring on myself the wrath and punishment of God?

Let me share something from my own life. My bonus daughter Barbara, God rest her soul, was a 3-pack-a-day smoker for 40 years. Was it her fault? Yes and no. She could have said no thanks and never picked up the first cigarette. But in our family, everyone smokes. My grandson and I are the only two out of 20+ people who don’t smoke. So, in her experience, it was the norm. And smoke she did. Like a chimney fire. And eventually it caught up with her.

Barbara was driving one day and blacked out at the wheel. She ran the car under a tractor trailer. The car was demolished, and her (might as well have been, after 30 years) husband was roughed up a bit, but they survived with no major injuries. She was taken to the hospital and underwent a battery of tests to determine why she blacked out. I don’t think they ever did find out why, but they did find something on her chest x-ray. A small black spot that looked suspicious. It turned out to be cancer.

Radiation and chemotherapy treatments ravaged her body, but they did stop the cancer. She got to ring the bell announcing she was cancer-free. Happy dance! At that time, nobody knew it had moved to her brain.

Then came the awful day that her brain cancer was discovered. Inoperable. Terminal. A death sentence. We were devastated. We went through shock, numbness, anger, sorrow, resignation, the works. But the one that stayed with me the longest was anger.

I was angry. Not at Barbara, but at the stupid cancer. The cancer was taking away someone I loved. And I wholeheartedly resented it for that. In Biblical terms, my wrath was kindled.

Barbara’s sin led to her death. Her sin against God? No. Her sin against her own body. Everyone knows smoking often leads to cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc. And it ALWAYS leads to a lower quality of life. But she would not, COULD not, stop smoking, even when she got the cancer diagnoses.

I experienced wrath caused by my daughter’s sin. But I didn’t smite her. I didn’t condemn her to her punishment. It is the immutable law of the universe that you reap what you sow. If you sow hatred and bitterness into your dealings with others, you will become twisted and evil. If you sow kindness and love into the world, you reap harmony and peace in your soul. Barbara sowed the seeds of physical destruction, and they took root and manifested in her life. Sin is always its own punishment.

So, from my experience, I believe God feels this too. Yes, when we sin, God experiences wrath. Not against us, but against the results of our sin. When we hate our brother, we poison the entire community. That end result is why God is angry. His wrath was never against us, but against the results of our sin. And any punishments we receive came not from God, but as a direct result of our own sin.

For many folks, their image of God is a bearded, white-haired old man sitting on a throne in the clouds, dispensing grace to those who please him and wrath to those who offend him. Other people think of God as an absentee father, someone who started the family and then abandoned them to their fate. Still others think of God as a cosmic vending machine – feed him money and receive special favors.

Our image or concept of who we think God is defines not only God, but ourselves. However we believe God is, we consciously or subconsciously strive to become the same way. If we see God as a judge who rewards some and punishes others, we will adopt that same behavior. American founding father Thomas Paine famously wrote this line: “Belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man.”

One theory on this topic is that we generally form our first concept of who God is by how our human father treated us. If we have a heavy-handed authoritarian father who thrives on meting out punishment, then we believe in a similar type of God. If we grew up without a father figure, we would likely subscribe to the “clock-maker” concept of God. That is, one who created the universe and bailed on it. And if you grew up having to earn your father’s attention and love, you would likely believe in the “transactional” God. If you do this, God will do that. A pray-to-play scheme, if you will.

So… With all these options, and a hundred more I haven’t mentioned, how do we answer this question? This is important! Our concept of God is the very foundation of who we strive to be. If there is anything we better be sure we get right, this is it! Not because we’ll go to hell if we get it wrong, but because of the hell we will create for ourselves if we get it wrong.

If we look in the Bible, we will find scriptures proclaiming God as every one of the aforementioned deity types. So what gives? Is God schizophrenic? Does he have multiple personalities? I don’t think so. The writers of the Bible wrote what they believed to be true. Whether that was actually true or not is up to the reader to decide.

For myself, my concept of God comes down to one simple verse: God is Love. For me, “God is Love” is the litmus test by which I judge all other scriptures. Would a loving God do this? What about that? No? Then I don’t believe it. I don’t CARE whether it’s in the Bible. If it portrays God as a murderer, a liar, or a tyrant, I simply do not believe it. This is MY yardstick for “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Your mileage may vary.

Who do YOU say that God is?

I was taught all of this and more in the church of my childhood. The pastor would stand before the congregation and scream? yell? bellow? loud enough for his face to turn red, waving his Bible in the air like a banner. “This here is the 100% inerrant, infallible, perfect Word of God, and there is not a single mistake in it! And if there WERE a mistake in it, we might as well pitch the whole thing in the trash, because we couldn’t believe ANY of it!”

Oy vey. Yeah I learned a phrase or two from my Jewish wife. Sue me.

Where to even start with this ball of wax? I suppose, as long as I’m careening headlong into heresy, I might as well jump in with both feet. So here goes:

The Bible is NOT the Word of God.

There. I said it. Don’t clutch your pearls so hard. You’ll damage the cord.

The Bible tells us that God approves of slavery, blood sacrifice, genocide, and killing pregnant women, but if you work on the Sabbath you should be put to death. I’m sorry… WHAT?

Do you really want to worship a God with morals like that? I sure don’t.

So what’s going on? Should we chuck the Bible in the trash and see what’s on HBO? Not exactly. 

In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul talks about “rightly dividing the word of truth.” In other words, separating the truth from the bullcrap. Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s true. 

Wait a minute, Art! You can’t take the parts you like and leave the rest! This isn’t a cafeteria!

Well, let’s see what Jesus had to say about that. From the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4, we find:

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Now… Why were the eyes of the whole synagogue fastened on him? Because of what he did NOT read. He stopped in the middle of the passage. The words in Isaiah are:

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.”

The Jews were waiting on a Messiah to come deliver them by might. When Jesus read all the nice stuff but left out the promise in Isaiah about the vengeance of God, they noticed. That was what they were all waiting for. The promise of having somebody come in to kick butt and take names was the highlight of that scripture. 

But Jesus wasn’t about all that violent stuff. So he rightly divided the word of truth by speaking of the positives, and leaving death and destruction out.

So don’t worry about picking part of the scriptures and leaving the others alone. We have it on good authority that Jesus did the same thing. Remember this? “You have heard it said, but I say unto you…”

There is a LOT of truth in the Bible. And a lot of outright bovine fecal matter as well. The value in reading the Bible is only found if you can rightly divide the word of truth. And realize that the Bible is the word of men ABOUT God, not the Word of God.

Citations for above:

Slavery: Exodus 21:2-11, Leviticus 25:44-46, Ephesians 6:5-9, Titus 2:9-10, and others.

Blood sacrifice: Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9:22, and others.

Genocide: 1 Samuel 15:3, Deuteronomy 20:17, and others.

Killing pregnant women: Hosea 13:16, 2 Kings 15:16.

Death penalty for working on the Sabbath: Exodus 35:2.

Back in 2012 a friend’s son was going to vote for his first time. I asked him who he was voting for, and he said Mitt Romney. I asked him why he chose Romney. “Because I’m a Republican!” he replied. So I asked him why he felt drawn to the Republican Party. What was it about the party’s platform that attracted him? He couldn’t name a single thing. His parents were Republican. Everyone he knew at church was Republican. So by golly he was Republican too.

Now this thread is not to debate the merits or demerits of the Republican Party. It is merely an illustration of how so many people adopt the values of their parents or friends without any personal convictions of their own. We all know people who are diehard Ford or Chevrolet fans, and the other brands are scrap metal on wheels. Ask them why, and most often you’ll find that they were brought up in that environment. Once again, they have adopted the values of their parents. It’s blind loyalty based on someone else’s convictions.

The consequences of this kind of thinking can be great or small. If you end up driving one brand of car all your life, that’s not the end of the world. If you vote for the party instead of the man, you may contribute to electing an ineffective president or a warmonger. That consequence is a bit more serious.

Perhaps most serious of all is adopting the faith of one’s parents without any personal conviction. Yet the vast majority of those who say they are Christians have done exactly that. Their parents were Christian, and their grandparents were Christian, and so on back through the generations. But the extent of their involvement is that they go to church on Sunday. Give God an hour once a week and we’re good, they think.

This is what I have termed “second-hand faith.” It can be a sad thing indeed, depending on the level of legalism in the particular church they attend. For example, if a divorcee finds she cannot receive the Eucharist because she’s been divorced, she may be convinced she’s going to Hell for something she cannot change, AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN BELIEVE THE FAITH! She believes in Mom and Dad, and her loyalty to family has doomed her to a lifetime of mental anguish because she “adopted” the faith instead of “discovering” it for herself.

Perhaps even worse, adopting your parents’ faith second-hand can prevent you from ever discovering the real faith to which you are called. Perhaps Islam or Judaism or Zoroastrianism would really speak to your soul. But if you’re already in an arranged marriage with your parents’ faith, you’re not available when the new suitor comes calling.

I encourage everyone to study multiple faiths and religions. Don’t just settle for what your folks believe. If you’re meant to be Christian, you’ll know. Nothing else will speak to your heart the way Jesus does. And when you DO make your decision, it will be on your terms and it will be your decision. Second-hand faith sucks. Make the faith yours, and you’ll cherish it your whole life.

My intention is to publish at least once a week, maybe more if I feel froggy. You can access this newsletter by either a free or paid subscription. All of my core teachings will be available for free. Paid subscribers will also get personal articles about how I came to believe what I believe. And brother, let me tell you, there have been a lot of twists and bumps in the road. Were it not for the grace of God, I promise you I would not be where I am today.

In the interests of full transparency, I have no religious accolades at all. I am not ordained, nor even in seminary. I have no MDiv or Ph.D. or even Reverend attached to my name. I cannot say “thus saith the Lord,” but I CAN say “thus saith Art, and he may be full of crap.” In the end, even if you read my posts and disagree with 100% of them, I promise they will make you think. And that is, in and of itself, valuable for spiritual growth.

To combat the hordes of spambots that plagued my previous blog, chat will unfortunately be limited to paid subscribers. But you can always send me an email to tell me you enjoyed a post or I’m going to bust Hell wide open, as you see fit.

So climb aboard, Buttercup! We’re about to go sacred cow tipping! YEEHAW!

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