13 April 2004

If you really, truly love Jesus, you'll read this... or else! Is it just me, or does everyone else get tons of those annoying religious email forwards in their inboxes? They're sent by well meaning friends, and usually contain some sort of inspiring message, a stern challenge or a cute anecdote to restore your faith in miracles (albeit more often than not an urban myth that's been around the block a few too many times). It's not just the hollow-sounding pious sentiments or the saccharine sweetness that bugs me, however. It's the bit you always get tagged onto the end: If you really love Jesus, forward this to everyone in your address book; of course, if you're busy and can't find time to do this little thing for Jesus, just think about what he went through for you. Or something like that. The tagline is such an obvious attempt at a guilt-trip, so blatantly manipulative, that I never feel the sting it's supposed to deliver. It's easy to see through. To the trash can it goes. But I was thinking recently how little difference there is between that kind of manipulation, and the kind of manipulation I regularly used to put up with in church. My whole Christian life was at one time sustained by a regular diet of "challenges" that relied on precisely the same methods of control. I guess I tolerated it because I had never known any other kind of Christianity. Sitting there Sunday evening after Sunday evening to have the pastor lay guilt trip after guilt trip on me was the "normal" Christian life. The manipulation ran the gamut from, "If you're not ashamed of Jesus, you'll stand up right now in front of all these people," and "Jesus died for you, so the very least you can do is get up for the early morning prayer meeting," to "How many times did you witness to someone this week? If you truly love the Lord and care about the lost, witness to one soul every day this week," and "Come on people, give me an amen! Don't you love Jesus?". How utterly crass and transparent it all seems in retrospect, but for years I put up with it willingly. It was the only Christianity I knew. You were supposed to feel guilty if you weren't praying enough, or witnessing enough, or going to church enough. We sometimes joked that we felt like performing seals. A pretty accurate assessment, I think. Actually, sitting here thinking back on those years, I am baffled: What kind of dummy was I to let myself be intimidated by that? Do you put up with that bullshit? Maybe you need to hear someone come along and tell you what you probably suspected deep down all along: That kind of religion belongs with all those email forwards -- in the trash can. Grace and freedom to you, Dave 4:19:31 PM    comment [] You are accepted: Some words of life from Paul Tillich I have writer's block. That's pretty bad when you've only been blogging for less than a week, but there you go. Far be it from me, however, to send anyone away empty-handed, and so I want to share with you a few words that are among my favourite to have read on the subject of grace. They are by the theologian Paul Tillich. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!" If that happens to us, we experience grace After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance. Dave 12:04:53 PM    comment [] Technical help If anyone can tell me how to a) put a live link into an entry (i.e. without showing the whole url), and b) get my "About Dave" link in the left-hand column to work, please let me know. I am using WYSIWYG, by the way. Thanks! Dave 11:01:05 AM    comment []

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