Why is there so much fear and so much need for control among Christians? I think it's because we plain just don't understand God's love. So we talk about "true" vs. "false" conversions, we attack any branch of the church that has a different teaching, we question other people's salvation. What I especially notice are those folks who seem to think that if you haven't reduced someone to a quivering mass of repentant weeping - if you haven't scared the person to death with talk of hell - then you haven't really shared the Gospel. Excuse me?
Sure, Jesus gave hellfire and damnation speeches. To the religious leaders. Not to the prostitutes.
I think we've got 2 problems here. People don't get God's love, and people, including pastors, don't read the entire Bible. In my theology class last summer, my professor asked how many of us students (all either involved in ministry or planning to be involved in ministry) had read the entire Bible. Less than half the class raised their hands.
When we skip reading the entire Bible, we get these weird skewed images of God, like the image of God as a genocidal terrorist. Or the image of God as a man. We miss out on the persistent, constant message of God's love, a message which runs like an undercurrent, and sometimes like a tsunami, through every story, every book, every verse of the Bible.
Maybe if we spent more time with God and with God's word, we would learn about God's love. Then we would share that. Right now, I think a lot of people are just sharing their own personal fears about God and calling it Truth.
2 comments:
AMEN! The religious right seems to be taking over Christianity much as the Islamic terrorists are taking over Islam. They are not honoring Christ by doing so with their narrow-minded and hateful views.
Here, here! Our need for control has definitely led us to reductionism and the conquest/control method of evangelism, I completely agree. We have missed the entire point because we're too busy fighting due to our insecurites. Nice article.
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