Tag Archives: church

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Resurrection-minded

Our culture teaches us that everything out there is hostile. We have to compare, dominate, control, and insure. In brief, we have to be in charge. That need to be in charge moves us deeper and deeper into a world of anxiety. As with our attachment to the system of producing and consuming, this anxiety gets worse as we get older. - Richard Rohr (Everything Belongs)

I stopped posting to this blog back at the beginning of 2012. The reason for this hiatus was that I was deep into a long job search and my wife and I feared that certain church search committees would find my freely expressed views too controversial and toss my resume into the recycle bin. I still believe it was a good kind of caution. When you get right down to it, who would you want heading up ministries in your church (if indeed you belong to a church)? A wide-eyed contemplative with a seemingly never-ending list of questions about the very faith he professes, or a minister whose cyber footprint is more professional and whose articles adhere to a straightforward, amenable style? Let’s be honest – nine times out of ten, you’re opening door number two, and that one remaining time, you’re hoping nobody’s home behind door number one.

"Yeah, I found this guy's blog - what a nutjob! Next."

Now that I’m over a month into my new job and free to blog carte blanche again, I’m reflecting on this decision. And then, this morning, my wife gave me the standard once-over before I headed out the door and, as is sometimes necessary, commented on the outfit I had chosen to wear. It wasn’t her favorite. At the core of her displeasure was the polo shirt I was wearing, which was a recent Goodwill acquisition and one she had intended for more casual occasions. As I drove to the church, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the plan to hold off blogging during the job search stemmed from the same general issue as my lamentable cluelessness with clothing.

Comparison. Whether we mean to or not, we have all been swept up in a worldwide system of comparison. The quotation above adds more words to this system, such as domination and control. It might seem a bit drastic for me to state such a thing, but the more thought I give to the idea, the more I recognize that this is indeed the firmly fixed reality in which we operate. Especially Americans. So much of what we know about ourselves – what we would call our “identity” – comes from what/who we compare ourselves to. Physical appearance is a given, but this grand form of comparison goes much deeper than the merely cosmetic. Often even our religious convictions are born out of a desire to be right, to be in control, or at least to feel in control. Our identity rises and falls based on our sense of judgment.

This changes everything.

No wonder it is so hard to truly, authentically, unconditionally love other people. In such a cruel, status-obsessed system, I can hardly believe the notion of love still exists at all. It’s a dreadful realization, and figuring a way to escape it seems pointless. It seems to me that we will never find a way out of such a system on our own. There’s no hope for escape, really. Only rescue.

“They found the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body” (Luke 24:2).

The world, with its system of shrewd judgment, power-grabbing, comparing, grasping, dominating and securing will always call belief in the Resurrection foolish. It’s pathetic wishful thinking. A half-baked myth. An opiate for the masses. A waste of a mind. A pipe dream. Then again, if the Resurrection is true (and I believe whole-heartedly that it is, crazy as it sounds), it makes sense that such a system would spurn it. Because the Resurrection means that all the comparing and controlling and dominating has been squelched by a God who is about the business of redemption and reconciliation and mercy. And love. Real love. Before such radical grace, even the starkest comparison or ruthless reach for control crumbles to dust.

“Thy will be done on earth at it is in heaven.” Dare we choose such a radically new way of life?

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Top Five Posts of 2011

In lieu of taking the time to actually write a new post (something I’ve determined to refrain from in the interest of staying focused on my current job search), I thought I would at least offer a slight update in the form of a retrospective on the gone-but-never-to-be-forgotten 2011. So, here are the five most viewed posts from last year.

#5 – Four Things You Don’t Want to Hear When Looking for a Ministry Job

Click HERE to read this entry. I wrote this piece back in April, prior to the horrible month of May that found me laid up in a German hospital for two and a half weeks only to come home and be rejected from two different church positions that same day. I’m thankful it was written before that day, though, because otherwise this piece would have reeked of cynicism. Instead, I really tried to shed some light on what it feels like for a minister without a church to face rejection, and the unintentional faux pas a pastor or search committee should avoid when turning away a candidate. I’m particularly fond of my cheeky picture captions – I guess I was reading a lot of Cracked.com back then.

#4 – God Willing, You’ll Read This Post

Click HERE to read this entry. This one was another piece born out of frustration (a common method of conception for writers). October was another rough month for the job search – a lot of confusion and assumptions that did not pan out and left me feeling ridiculous and wondering if I was cursed. A lot of those days seemed like a wrestling match with God, asking for His provision to secure me a job, but then feeling like it wasn’t right to just sit back and let God solve all my problems for me, especially considering He blesses us with minds of our own and problem-solving abilities. This piece was one of those lofty attempts to examine that wonderful, but often nebulous, thing we refer to as God’s will.

#3 – Thoughts from My Hospital Bed

Click HERE to read this entry. I’m really not sure why this one found so many readers, unless a lot of those were my students and colleagues in Germany who were simply wondering whether or not I had died. Long story short, I broke my foot in November 2010, underwent two long, non-surgical treatments that did not heal it, and then an awkward surgery that repaired the bone but resulted in a severe infection that, as I mentioned above, further resulted in a second, emergency surgery and landed me in the hospital for two and a half weeks with a wound vacuum affixed to the gaping hole leftover in my foot. I was never able to return to my teaching job and missed out on the chance to bid most of my students farewell before they graduated or left for the summer. It took until the beginning of September for my foot to completely heal. I wrote this piece on one of those May afternoons lying in my hospital bed.

#2 – Should Christians Celebrate Bin Laden’s Death?

Click HERE to read this entry. This short piece was written in reaction to how so many Americans seemed to lose their minds in the throes of elated vindication at the news that Navy SEALS had stormed Osama Bin Laden’s compound and killed him. While there was obviously a profound sense of relief that such a wicked individual would no longer be able to inflict his wickedness on the world, I found the number of Christians who seemed to be reveling in the terrorist leader’s death appalling. “Love your enemies,” Jesus said, “and pray for those who persecute you.” At no point in his famous Sermon on the Mount did the Savior add, “But when a commando makes him eat lead, you have my permission to dance in the streets.” This was a somewhat controversial piece, but I stand by my position on how Christians are supposed to respond to the death of our enemies.

And the most-viewed post of 2011 was…

#1 – What’s the Deal with Atheism?

Click HERE to read this entry. Was there any doubt this would be the winner? This post incited multiple comment-section conversations, both on this blog, several commenters’ blogs, and even my Facebook page. It was to be expected, of course – more than any issue, it seems the theism/anti-theism debate compels us to offer our opinions. A few people found this piece incendiary (against atheists), but that was never my intention at all. I am always eager to talk with people who claim to be atheists – I want to hear their stories; I want to know why the very thing that has transformed my entire life has been spurned by them. More than anything, I want them to no that just because they don’t believe what I believe doesn’t mean I don’t respect them or their viewpoint. I am devoted to the Great Conversation, and this post was simply an attempt to examine a few of the motivations for non-belief from a Christian’s perspective. It certainly wasn’t meant to be an end-all treatise on my views of atheism or how Christians and atheists can still – and should still – interact.

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Thanks, beloved readers, for making 2011 such an enjoyable blogging year. I hope to return to regular posting again soon … just as soon as I find gainful employment.

Peace in the new year.

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What I’ve Learned from the War: 3 Lessons in Faith

Last Saturday, the 12th, brought me to the one-year mark in my current job search. For those of you familiar with my subtle, yet often long-winded, laments about this experience, don’t click away just yet. This post is not another whine or cynical complaint. It’s more of a retrospective. The few readers who have journeyed with me by way of this blog for a considerable amount of time will know that one of my favorite miniature quotations – the one I most take to heart, perhaps – is written by Frederick Buechner. It’s four little words: “Listen to your life.”

Specifically, I’ve done my best to keep an open mind in the midst of this war. What war, you ask? It’s the war that rages within, the job search war that is fought on multiple fronts: the emotional front, the psychological front, the physical front, the social front, and, sometimes the most bloody of all, the spiritual front. And the clash takes a toll that lingers long, more like a Hundred Year’s War than a Six-Day War.

"Hotel, Echo, Lima, Papa! Do you acknowledge?!"

Yet through all the waiting and wondering and dreaming and doubting – despite the escalation of hostilities between faith and frustrated despair – I’ve tried my best to adhere to Buechner’s aphorism. What follows are a few of the many things I have learned about remaining faithful to God during hard times…

#1 – Faith Often Conflicts with Common Sense

For a person who has been a practicing Christian for a while (as opposed to someone who merely claims the title without authentically pursuing God), it is no secret that faith seems to directly contradict reason and levelheadedness. I happen to believe that “contradiction” isn’t the right word – in my opinion, it’s not that faith contradicts reason; it simply doesn’t allow reason to be the stopping point or the final judgment. Either way, however, such a mindset often conflicts with good, old-fashioned common sense. In other words, it’s hard for a person operating on blind faith to always come across as sensible, or to make decisions that other people would consider practical.

"Seriously, man. This isn't rational."

I’ll give you an example from this past year. In mid-August, I was finally offered a position at a church. It had been a long summer following an even longer winter and spring (that whole broken foot fiasco didn’t help matters), and more than anything my wife and I wanted a job for me so we could settle down somewhere and begin feeling like our own family again. And, on paper, the job looked great. I appeared to be the perfect candidate, and I liked all of the people I had met during the visit. All that was left was to hear the salary and either accept or deny the offer. Only I couldn’t do it. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I tried to picture myself in the position, doing the job and living life in that community, something was off. Despite every ounce of common sense crying out within me like that scene toward the end of Revenge of the Sith where Darth Vader screams, “Noooooo!” (only way more dramatic, because that was ridiculous), I called up the pastor and told him I wasn’t the guy for the job. There was a lump in my throat when I spoke, and I had to hold back tears of frustration and guilt.

Actually, the Emporer just told him that none of his new gear is covered by workman's comp.

Someone on the outside looking in might say I was swayed not by some lack of peace, but from the anxiety of starting a new position and creating a home for my family in a new state. They might comment that another position in which I was still a candidate was more appealing and I was holding out for that one. That person might even be partially correct. But the point is that when all was said and done, I believed I had to operate by faith and not reason. Reason alone would have found me taking the job. Faith went beyond it, to the detriment of all common sense and good judgment, and kept me searching.

I still regret turning down the offer. After all, I’m only human. But, if I’m going to truly deny myself for the sake of knowing God in all things, the decisions I make must be made through the motivation of faith, not the ratiocination of mere human circumstance.

#2 – I’m Not Job, and God Doesn’t Audibly Speak to Me

The first part is good, obviously (and don’t think I haven’t wondered at the homonym between the biblical character and the fact that I’m engaged in a “job” search). The second part is hard not to wish for. I’ve actually had absurd thoughts that guys like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Paul – yes, even Jesus – had it easy. Can you believe that? Easy! As if familial separation, dangerous kings, angelic appearances, disembodied voices, selfish nations, storms, shipwrecks – and to top it off for Jesus, the cross – could ever be considered a walk in the park. And why? Because God actually spoke to them – told them what was up.

"Hey, it's me again. Yeah, I'm gonna need you to climb another mountain."

Then I think of Job’s story, not to mention Jonah’s and Hosea’s and all the rest of those guys I just mentioned, and I realize that the most terrifying thing I can imagine is God speaking to me audibly, in a way I can’t deny or escape. It’s not only because the incontrovertible command of God would expose every inch of my selfishness – it’s because the very paradigm by which I have lived my entire life as a Christian would be instantly burned away. When God speaks audibly, faith evaporates. Sometimes we wish God would just rend the clouds and speak directly to us and justtelluswhatweshoulddopleaseohpleaseohplease. We can even become resentful that God doesn’t cut through the veil and reveal himself, or at least make known that enigmatic thing we call “his will.”

The irrefutable presence of God – the complete invasion of his will into my life – takes away every aspect of my free will, which is the penultimate gift he gives each human being. Think of every voluntary choice you ever made in your life… which is impossible, of course, because the best attempts at a quantifiable answer is upwards of 5000 per day! But let’s say only .5 percent of those actually affect your life in significant ways – that’s 25 a day, which is 175 a week, which is around 750-775 a month, which leads to roughly 9200 significant, life-altering decisions a year. We also know, though, that one seemingly trivial decision can breed thousands, increasing the number of choices we have to make exponentially. I could go on, but blood is already dribbling out of my ears.

Amateur.

For whatever reason, God chose to plant us in a world that is cultivated, for better or for worse, by our decisions. This is the existence we know, and even though it can be hard – even though we are faced with moments where the effect our choices can have can shudder us to our core – we beat on.

#3 – My Hope Must Be in God, Not in a Job

It seems an obvious statement to make, but it has fingers that dig extremely deep.

When I taught high school English, my classes read The Great Gatsby, and we always discussed both the theme of materialism as well as the question of how basic, perhaps even primal, were the characters’ connections with security and stability, and how they were motivated by these connections to do what they did. I cannot help but remember these discussions when I consider how much I and my wife want me to find a job so we can move out of my parents house and establish ourselves in a community – so we can determine what our grocery store will be, how we will arrange our kitchen, decorate the baby’s room, organize our daughter’s toys, etc. These are the things that make a person feel like he is his own person. Call it self-centeredness, call it control, call it concern for stability – we are all guilty of this at one time or another. (Some of us are guilty of it almost every waking moment of every day.)

Regarding my second point, common sense, there seems to be nothing wrong with this. Why should I not be concerned with the welfare and security of my family? What is wrong with hoping for a specific job? With wishing for a home of one’s own? Must every desire for something this side of heaven fall under the category of materialism?

"Really, Jimmy, Two cookies! You're such a hedonist!"

No. And here’s why. If desiring such things makes you feel guilty, this is not the Spirit prompting you to fall back in line. I don’t believe God works that way. Of course, there is a danger in putting one’s hope and trust in a sense of stability or security. If happiness can only be found in gaining or attaining stuff, then you have fallen headlong into materialism. You’ve made possessions and physical comfort your god. I’ve had to guard against this at times during this search – no thirtysomething guy with a wife and kids would rather live as boarders in his parents’ house than have his own place in his own town in his own pace of life. But while I remain extremely thankful for all my parents have done for us during this time, I also have to watch out that my desire for a place does not supersede my desire to know God, to place my hope in him, and to trust his provision above all things. “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty,” claims the writer of Philippians. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

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Our faith is being molded every day, whether we recognize it or not. It is being challenged and refreshed and strengthened. When we listen to our lives, as Frederick Buechner encourages, we find there are almost as many lessons as there are choices. Sometimes, it can feel like a war. The strain can be difficult to endure, to keep your head down and your strength up as you face battle after battle.

But, no matter how long they may last, wars eventually end. And for the person who endures, there is peace after.

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7 Misconceptions about Christianity – Part Two

With the three major ones covered in my previous post, it’s time to move on to four more widely held misconceptions about what Christianity, and, by extension, living life as a Christian in America, is all about.

#4 – “Christian” is an Adjective

I’m not so sure my argument is going to hold up against the vast array of examples commonly spoken and written today, but here goes. What is most important to remember here is that while the word “Christian” may indeed come with a connotative sidecar in which it can be a modifier, the word originated as a noun. Today, if you were to look up “Christian” in a dictionary, you’re likely to see it listed as an adjective, too, but dictionaries today are also letting in verbs like “tweet” and “text,” and gerunds like “facebooking,” so it’s important to take what Webster says with a grain of salt.

You're just riding Arnold's coattails, kid.

Okay, so, what exactly is the misconception?

It is not so much that the word “Christian” is being misused so much as the original spirit of the word has been forgotten. The New Testament contains the story of the word’s inception; interestingly enough, it wasn’t invented by Jesus or by Peter or any of the other disciples, and it didn’t come out of Jerusalem or Rome. According to the eleventh chapter of Acts, as well as other historical sources, the term was applied to the “believers” living in Antioch, a city in North Africa. Most scholars indicate that the term was meant to be derogatory; essentially, it means “little Christs.” Indeed, a close reading of Acts 11 reveals that something very interesting was going on in that community: believing Jews had begun telling Greeks (often referred to in the New Testament as Gentiles) about Jesus Christ, and they had in turn become devoted followers. This local movement gained such strength that word reached the apostles in Jerusalem, and they sent to Antioch two of their most revered teachers, Barnabas and the recently converted Saul of Tarsus. These two ended up living with the Hellenist believers and teaching them for an entire year. Acts 11 claims “a great many people” were taught, so much so that the rest of the people of Antioch took notice and began calling this odd Jewish/Hellenist hybrid sect “Christians” because they found it absurd that the worship of this Christ figure had transformed the believers entire lives.

So, again, what is the misconception?

Simply the fact that these days the word “Christian” refers to a person who goes to church, or who lives a somewhat noticeable moral life, or is honest or polite or hails from Mississippi.

This makes my eyes bleed.

Do you see what I’m getting at? These days, we use the word more as a descriptor of behavior and/or religious affiliation than we do as the moniker for someone who is living a dynamically counter-cultural life – someone who has released his or her grip on the status quo and chosen to submit themselves completely to God and the salvation made available by the sacrifice of Christ. Sadly, there aren’t a lot of true Christians turning heads today. No wonder such a drastic yet wonderfully descriptive label has lost all of its intrigue and effect.

#5 – You Don’t Have to Believe in Miracles to Be a Christian

Sorry, but you do. There’s really no getting around this one, despite what some people who you may have run across believe. There’s something going around in postmodern America today that, at first glance, seems healthy, but has turned out to be nothing but self-actualizing fluff for most people. That is the abiding interest in developing a personal spirituality based on a hodgepodge of various religious ideologies down through the centuries.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy living in a pluralist society. I embrace the diversity of America and the freedom of people to adhere to the religion they choose. Religion should never be forced on anyone, young or old. It is the acceptance of  the existence of an ordered and purposeful reality beyond ourselves. To be meaningful at all, it must be freely chosen. However, the drawback to living in a pluralist society is that many people have come to believe that these religions can be gathered together as if in a buffet, and that you can stroll along filling your plate with whatever looks good while leaving behind the less-tantalizing aspects of these faiths. If you’re jonesing for a little mysticism to garnish your rationalism and scientific method, no problem. You take all the contemplative prayer or creative meditation you need to keep you feeling connected to a Higher Power.

"Ooh, it says here the Vedic Thought is free-range and grass-fed!"

The first thing many people are willing to leave out of Christianity is the miracle component. These are the same people who are quick to call Jesus a “great moral teacher” (sometimes, they might even label him a “prophet”) but will make that squinchy, well-I-wouldn’t-go-that-far face when you press them on whether or not he was the actual son of God, or if he actually rose from the dead. You see, a man who was fully divine while being fully human isn’t physically or empirically possible. Neither is resurrection from the dead. When it comes to these things, as well as all the miraculous works in both the New Testament and the Old, Christianity starts to weigh down the buffet plate. Accept all this, and suddenly your personal spirituality appears exclusive – it becomes its own meal – and requires a greater committment than people are willing to give to it.

If “Christian” means what it has come to mean today, I suppose you can go ahead and continue believing this misconception. However, if it means what it actually originally meant, then miracles can’t be left off the plate. They’re like vegetables – sometimes they’re hard to swallow, but they turn out to be what gives you the most strength.

"No offense, rabbi, but is the bread whole grain? Levi is on Adkins."

#6 – Christianity Helps You Achieve Success and Prosperity

It is extremely frustrating for a humble Christian dedicated to daily self-denial and sacrificial love that the most well-known and listened-to spokespersons for Christianity are those pearly toothed slick suits preaching to five-digit congregations every week while being broadcast all over the world. But even that wouldn’t be so bad if their message was true, if they were providing accurate, evenhanded exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The problem is that most of them don’t even come close to what the real truth of Christianity is. But why not? Do all these preachers really think that this whole “health and wealth” interpretation of Christianity is actually correct? Is Joel Osteen serious?

Here he is preaching or teaching his audience how to deliver a double knuckle sandwich.

I can’t really answer this. What I do know is that the gospel of Jesus Christ, as far as I understand it, outlines a lifestyle that is not nearly as attractive and desirable as what the majority of these televangelists are offering. Jesus himself saw most of his followers abandon him because of how tough his teaching became; at the very end, only a couple of women watched him gasp his final breaths. So, either these televangelists are better sales persons of the gospel than the actual Savior is, or somewhere the message has gotten off track.

This is not to say that all mega-churches are nothing but factories manufacturing lies. When you come to truly accept the gospel of Christ, you find it to be something infinitely more compelling than anything you’ve ever encountered, and you are all for joining with other believers to worship and pray and study together. The one thing you don’t do, however, is put this gospel to work for you as if it were some sort of investment incentive or financial benefits plan. Jesus is recorded as saying several different times something to the tune of, “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (see John 14-16). The difference between the Christians who commit themselves to justice, live mercifully, and walk humbly with God and the “Christian” televangelists who tell you that God is all about getting you that promotion or raise or new house or nicer car is … well … I think it’s obvious, don’t you?

#7 – America was Founded as a Christian Nation

There’s that adjectival use of “Christian” again. Uh oh.

If you’ve ever visited Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, you may have learned about a famous copy of the Bible known as the Jefferson Bible, the text of which is freely available online. The story goes that Thomas Jefferson, one of the most revered of America’s founding fathers, appreciated all the moral teachings of Jesus, but, like the type of people mentioned earlier in this post, was not ready to accept the miraculous side to him. He was a fan of the human Jesus, but Jesus the deity was too much of a stretch and, according to Jefferson, nothing but a way for priests to get rich. So, Jefferson took a razor blade and cut out all the passages in the gospels that contained miraculous events, and then pasted the rest together to provide a chronological account of Jesus, that great, sane moral teacher (who we’ll try to forget referred to himself as divine).

He also owned a copy of The Lord of the Rings with all those annoying elves and orcs cut out.

While some of the people who were a part of our country’s inception indeed professed an unwavering adherence to the doctrines of Christianity, the majority of our founding fathers – including some of the most well-known like Ben Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, and Jefferson – were deists. If they believed in a Higher Power at all, it was in God as merely the Creator, with the business of redemption left to the devices of humanity. It’s hard to blame them, really. They were products of the Age of Enlightenment, a time when the Western world saw scientific study grow by leaps and bounds, when France overthrew its government and bowed to the Goddess of Reason, and that great patriot Thomas “These are the times that try men’s souls” Paine could also pen lines like “My own mind is my own church.” Hence, science and reason became the keys to salvation, rather than submission, confession and repentance.

There’s a difference between founding a nation of Judeo-Christian principles, and founding it on the Judeo-Christian religion. Thus, while the formation of a democracy was a bold and dynamic move, and these men were careful about instituting law and order from a biblically moral perspective, there is nothing about the foundation of America that is exclusively Christian. Godly, maybe. Virtuous, sure. Honorable, absolutely. But “Christian?” Go back to number four and consider again what it really means to be a Christian, and then decide if the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution delves anywhere close to the depth of the Epistle to the Romans or the Gospel of John. Sure, the documents may mention God (invoking his name as “Creator” or as “Divine Providence”), but Christianity is about much more than a simple belief in a Creator. In truth, while our founding fathers should be admired for their extraordinary leadership in forming a new nation, assuming the United States of America is a Christian nation is groundless, and, ultimately, pointless.

To a lot of Christians, this may seem like a shocking statement. After all, there is a large contingent of churchgoers who are convinced that the separation of church and state is a thing to lament rather than to celebrate. In truth, we have a Baptist minister to thank for that, not to mention a handful of other ministers and pastors who ensured our founding fathers made the right calls when it came to religious liberty.

It always strikes me as odd that some of the people who whine about how crucial it is for America to return to its Christian heritage are quite often the same people who can’t even get along with the Lutherans or the Methodists just down the road.

This is all your fault, Reverend Leland!

A Final Word

So, how should we conceive Christianity? If these seven thoughts are wrong, what’s the right way? Is there even a right way?

I could begin to answer these questions. After all, I have laid down my life in submission to answering them. However, in the interest of bringing an end to what is already a very long post, I’ll just make a simple plea for now.

If there is one thing that I have learned about Christianity – and I mean true Christianity – it’s that it is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of people who have walked away from the Church or have given up on the whole Christian “thing” because of one or more of the misconceptions I have mentioned, as well as a great number of other misunderstandings I have failed to mention. The tendency in our modern society is to expect results as quickly as possible – to understand how something works enough to be able to control it and to put it to work for ourselves. We do this with iPhones, televisions, the Internet, our cars, even our paychecks. We have a bad habit of doing this with our beliefs, too. If we don’t see the results we expect, we reject what we believe in favor of an upgrade, or a different model. Some of us become so frustrated that we throw the whole system in the garbage, assuming that because we don’t understand everything about it, it must be defective.

All this to say, don’t let the bad habits of our modern society keep you from this beautiful mystery, this saga of runaways limping their way back home.

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7 Misconceptions about Christianity – Part One

According to some of the most recent polling data, somewhere between 70-80% of Americans identify themselves as “Christian.” According to the recent census, that’s roughly 220,000,000 people. Many of these polls break down the figures in smaller percentages under categories like “professing,” “active,” and “attend church occasionally,” as well as by various denominations and sub-groups. However, despite the obligatory clarifications, I find it hard to believe that if I bump into ten people on the street (I should probably stop playing Angry Birds while walking), at least seven of those people would, if asked, identify themselves as Christians.

"Watch where you're going, %&$*! Oh, and peace be with you."

This begs the question, do all 219,999,999 of my brothers and sisters in Christ really understand what Christianity is all about? After all, having worked in churches for over ten years, I’ve met some people who don’t always seem to have the best grasp on what claiming to be a Christian really means. Meanwhile, there are a lot of folks not belonging to that 220 million figure that have their own ideas about what Christians believe.

Martin Luther nailed ninety-five clarifications to the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany. Right now, I’ve come up with what I feel are seven pervading misconceptions, the first three of which are contained in this post. Thus, what follows here is by no means an exhaustive list. But, hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, right? I think ol’ Martin would be proud.

#1 – Christianity Isn’t A Religion

This is the first, and most significant, misconception carried around today. Most of the time, the ones that have it wrong are the people who actually profess to be Christians. The problem is that the word “religion” carries a certain stigma these days. In the modernized West, a “religious” person is often considered old-fashioned, or backwards, or regressive. The word “religious” conjures up vague images of mysticism or superstition, or, at the very least, a close-minded or obstinate person. The connotative reality of religion is that it is obsolete. This is all the more reason why Christians (as well as many other people who subscribe to a particular system of faith) hesitate to label their specific belief as a religion. They’ll call themselves “spiritual” or people “of faith,” but it takes a lot of prying for many of them to agree that they subscribe to a specific “religion.” And, if they do, they are quick to clarify that it isn’t a religion like all those other ones that aren’t true and are therefore plain old religions for religions’ sake.

And it shows!

The problem with this is simple. Even if we can agree that Jesus never intended to start a religion (in actuality, he claimed to be the fulfillment of one), the simple fact of the matter is that Christianity is a religion. It is the belief in and worship of a supernatural power, specifically that of a personal creator – God. It has tenets and doctrines. It is driven by particular theological viewpoints and contains specific rites and observances. Some Christians can try to sugarcoat all this as much as possible, but there’s no getting around the obvious. Consider this: While living in San Francisco, I decide to buy an SUV. To avoid the stigma and the requisite criticism, I swear up and down that it isn’t really an SUV, but merely a convenient transportation device I use to get to and from Oakland. “But it’s an SUV,” you tell me. “No, no,” I say, “It’s really more of a Smart Car, or, if anything, it’s a Sedan.” “But,” you say, “it has ‘Expedition’ written on the side, it seats nine people, and you average only eleven miles per gallon.” “That doesn’t prove anything,” I say, and then I proceed to invite you to visit the dealership with me because, hey, everybody should have one of these. You might suspect I was losing my mind. How much more if I refused to acknowledge the simple, historical reality of the very thing upon which I posture my entire life?

It’s high time Christians stop trying to paint over the religion-y parts of their faith just so they can avoid a stigma that is founded on its own misconceptions, such as…

#2 – Christianity was Established by Powerful, Chauvinistic Men Only to Further Their Prejudices

You have probably heard this criticism, whether you consider yourself a Christian, a spiritual person, or an atheist. On the surface, there seems to be some evidence for this assertion. For one thing, every one of Jesus’ twelve disciples were men. Not only that, but the Bible instructs women to submit to their husbands, that they should hold no authority over men, and (if you read closely) that they not even speak during worship!

SINNER!

To top it all off, Christianity was born during a time and in a culture that embraced patriarchy both in the family and in government. Men ran the show at home, and they ran the show at work. The stigma of Christianity being backwards or regressive must be true, and, as such, any self-respecting person, male or female, should shake off its oppressive chains and start living in the twenty-first century.

Once again, this criticism is without compelling merit. While it is true that Christianity was born within a patriarchal – and, some might label, chauvinistic – society, time and again history reveals how little it conformed to the standards of the day. While the twelve disciples were men, they were by no means seasoned leaders, and they were by no means alone. In fact, according to the gospels, the first person entrusted to tell people that Jesus had risen from the dead (the first missionary, as it were) was a woman – Mary Magdalene – who, at one time, had been demon-possessed, but had since become a devoted follower of Jesus, emphasis on the “devoted follower” part.

Later, Dan Brown would remind us she was also Jesus' refugee wife with a penchant for scavenger hunts who liked to hide DNA evidence in France.

As to the instructions for women to submit and to hold no authority over men, never was historical context more important. The most significant passage suggesting this is found in the letter to the Ephesians, a society that contained a very influential cult of goddess-worship – Artemis Ephesia - the temple of which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the celebration of which included rampant promiscuity and debauchery, and the worship of which could sometimes go as far as objectifying women as divine beings and lead to the castration of some male worshippers.

"Whoa! Is this cult still around? Count me in!"

Because the early Christian communities often had an issue of listening to false teachers or merging their beliefs with the local hot deity of the day, the writer of Ephesians sets a standard of leadership that would prevent the infiltration of goddess-worship ideas within the congregation. Perhaps the instruction sounds extreme, but the last thing you need are your women refusing to listen to their pastors and your men taking literally Jesus’ figurative statement that “some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God.”

Unfortunately, St. Origen didn't always grasp the concept of figurative language.

Does this mean the teaching that women should submit is not meant to be heeded in the church today? That’s not the point. Not only is that teaching used as an extended metaphor of Jesus Christ’s relationship with the Church, but context reveals that this has nothing to do with one gender holding the power. Rather, a good marriage is built on mutual respect and submission to one another in love. Of course, there are denominations today who still refuse to ordain women, and some that even follow Ephesians to the letter. This is their prerogative, but the structure of a local church’s authority was never the focal point of Christianity’s message.

So, what is that message?

#3 – Christianity is Chiefly Concerned with Getting People into Heaven

If there is one abiding belief that Christianity, more than any other religion, is most responsible for influencing the greater public with, it is the existence of a place called heaven. Cartoonish, groundless portrayals of heaven as some temporal realm in clouds aside, there are plenty of people who do not profess to be Christians but who still believe in the prospect of heaven. Many of these people are willing to state that there is a God, and he/she is in heaven, and after we die we get to go and live there, too. As far as the conditions for “getting in” to heaven, this normally boils down to a measure of moral fortitude and the cumulative number of good deeds outweighing bad.

"In your case, Robin, I fear there may be quite a lot of paperwork involved."

The thing is, Jesus was never all that concerned with the details of heaven, where it is or what it looks like. He spent his time talking about righteous living in the here and now, and telling story after story about what it looks like when the kingdom of God (often considered synonymous with “heaven”) is established in our world. At one point in the gospels, his disciples ask him to teach them how to pray the way God would want them to, and he imparts to them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Consider the first few lines: “Our Father in heaven, you are holy and we honor you. We want your kingdom to come and for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven…” When asked how to pray to God, Jesus opens with a call for God to bring heaven to earth. At another time, when some of the religious heavyweights were asking him when exactly they could expect this kingdom of God to come, he replied, “It doesn’t come in a way that you can observe and predict it, nor can anyone say, ‘Oh, there it is,’ or ‘Hey, here it is,’ because the kingdom of God is found within you.”

It may seem a bit Zen-like, but the main point to understand is that while salvation in Christ – sometimes referred to as justification by faith – is at the heart of the Christian message, it was never meant to be a stamp on your hand so you can pass by heaven’s bouncer without getting harassed or thrown into a dumpster around back.

Interestingly, "gehenna," the word often used to refer to hell, was Jerusalem's garbage dump.

Instead, it was meant as a complete life change. Call it a reversal, call it a paradigm shift, call it a clean slate – Christianity is concerned with the way we live our lives right now. Sure, there is a lot of talk in churches about “eternity” and “heaven,” but just like the churches that pay too much attention to the gender of their leaders, some Christians spend too much time thinking about “heaven by and by.” It goes beyond a comforting hope to a kind of obsessive escapism. Still, though, assuming such a notion is what being a Christian is all about is a tragic misconception that can cause you to miss out on the grander and much more wondrous reality of this religion we call Christianity.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but I think this is enough for now. We’ll continue with the next four next week…