There’s a joke about a guy stranded all alone on a desert island who finally is rescued. The people who found him noticed there were three grass huts on the island. When they asked about the huts, the rescued man pointed to one and said, “That’s my house.” Then he pointed to the next one and said, “That’s where I go to church.” After a moment of silence, the rescuers asked, “And what about the third hut?” The man replied, “That’s the church I used to go to.”
Over
the years of my work as a pastor there were a few folks who came looking for a
new church. “Do you preach the prophecy
here?” “What does your church do about
homosexuals?” “What do you believe at
this church?” “Does your church teach
that the Bible is the inerrant, literal Word of God?” “Do you believe in the
Virgin Birth?” Some actually began
attending whichever church it was at the time. Most did not, however, based on
my responses.
The
June issue of The Atlantic contains
an article about a “war” within evangelical circles over current political and
cultural issues addressed in churches: How Politics Poisoned the Church. The article focuses on evangelical
congregations, with little mention of mainline Protestant churches, and at
times frames the issue as being reflective of “the Church” as a whole. That makes me cringe a bit, but there are
many instances of the same affliction among churches on a broad scale.
The
article highlights how a great number of church-goers move from churches they
attend for a long time to different ones when issues like gun control,
homosexuality, abortion, race relations, and other hot button issues are dealt
with by the pastors and other congregational leaders.
One
of the pastors profiled in the article spends time in worship on what he calls
“diatribes,” and gives over a few minutes prior to his sermon to rant about
whatever wild hair is creeping up his backside over some of these issues. His congregation grew when he started making
his statements, many of which are based on conspiracy theories, misinformation,
and just downright lies. The writer of
the article points out cases where the diatribes of this pastor, as well as
hard-boiled stances of others, directly conflict with scripture. But, tell the people what they want to hear
and they will come.
All
of this, of course, picked up a lot of steam in the years since the immediately
prior president was elected. One of the
tragedies of this situation is that many people are hunting for a god to
worship that is of their own making and that confirms their outlook and biases.
Mainline
denominations have by and large been in decline for decades, and it has to do
with similar realities. Currently, the
United Methodist church faces becoming un-united over the issue of the
ordination of LGBTQ persons. There are
factions within Presbyterians, Baptists, Disciples and others. There are more and more “independent”
churches that formerly affiliated with a denomination but withdrew over such
disagreements.
Meanwhile,
our society experiences an ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots;
people struggle with food insecurity and low wages in dead-end jobs; hatred of
the “other” is blatant and vicious; guns outnumber the population and gun
violence is for far too many the preferred means of conflict resolution and
venting personal frustrations; political differences of opinion are knock-down
drag-out battles in which power and control are sought at all costs; and
honesty, integrity, and compassion are considered weaknesses. It goes on from there.
Prophets
have long been scorned, and even put to death, for wrestling with and trying to
tell the truth. Worship, prayer,
meditation, scripture reading, and other spiritual disciples actually have the
purpose of trying to understand the heart of God in order that God’s beloved
children might come to know and embrace the abundant life God intends for all
of humanity, yes, even all of Creation.
It’s
all about God’s love and desire for that love to be shared by everyone rather
than appropriating God’s name to serve personal interests and one’s own
glorification.
Someone
related an incident that occurred during the height of the Civil Rights
era. A man and his dutiful wife attended
a worship service at a different congregation after leaving their usual church
over racial justice issues.
Unfortunately for them the sermon that day made application of the
gospel to contentions over race and human freedom. On the way out the door following worship,
the man confronted the preacher saying, “We just left a church for preaching
that same nonsense you spouted!”
