The Alliance Defense Fund organized a protest this Sunday, in which preachers across the nation stood in their pulpits and told their flocks who to vote for. Not only is this illegal, it is incredibly insulting (to me anyway). One of the preachers in this CNN video said, “there’s no way a Christian could vote for Barack Hussein Obama.” Watch me.
Your thoughts?
Before I get on my soapbox, I want you to know I’m preaching to myself as much as anybody else.
Quit being selfish. Life is not about you. I know it’s difficult to separate your self from your perception of the world, but try. There is more going on than what’s on your mind. Consider how your actions impact those around you. When your entire system of thought revolves around you, your universe contracts. Your compassion shrinks, your influence withers, your generosity dries up, and your ability to relate to others fades. Your life takes a downward, inward spiral.
When you’re ready to grow up, try doing something for someone else. Do something unexpected. Do something with no desire to be repaid or thanked or even acknowledged. When you’re ready to grow up, you’ll see that your world expands when you put others first. Your relationships will be easier and more fulfilling. Your desire to see others blessed will outweigh your concern for self.
Life is not about you. Leave everything around you better than you find it. If you value others concerns more than your own, your path will be upward and outward.
Seriously. All this crap about a Starbucks logo?
All the flap about the California supreme court overturning the ban on gay marriage? What the heck? Why do my fellow believers feel the need to moralize everyone around them? Did Jesus do this?
When confronted with a known adulteress (caught in the act), he basically told everyone to shove off, then told the woman “I do not condemn you.”
When Jesus met a tax collector (think evil corporate shill), he not only told him to follow him, but accepted his invitation to dinner. And:
Mat 9:10 While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.
Mat 9:11 Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such people?”
Mat 9:12 Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.
Mat 9:13 Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”
It’s not keeping the letter of the law that makes God happy, but obeying the Spirit of it. Jesus repeatedly violated the letter of the jewish law by “working” on the sabbath, yet no Christian believes Jesus sinned.
He hung out with prostitutes, outcasts, homeless, messed up people. He got into their world, spent time with them, talked with them, ministered to them. Why? To show them God’s love. Why is it so hard for us to do the same?
When critics tried to get Jesus to be political he deftly sidestepped the whole debate (Mat 22:17). Why can’t we take our abundant resources ($$$) and send help to China and Burma instead of political campaigns to enshrine Christian beliefs in state constitutions?
I love the line in Derek Webb’s song A King and a Kingdom
There are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican…
Jesus clearly denounced the love of wealth. Most of his ministry involved “health care” for the poor. In today’s language, he was a liberal!
Jesus liberally forgives our sins. He liberally gives us the Holy Spirit. His grace abounds so we will have all we need for any good work.
To this group “The Resistance,” I say if any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you; because God gives generously and graciously to all.
</rant>
