"I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company…"
Ain't that sweet? Don't you feel better already?
And the song goes with all those feel good slogans . . .
"Live and Let Live"
"Promote World Peace"
(Or as a bumper snicker I once had read I LOVE WHIRLED PEAS)
And my favorite … the "United Nations"
As a unabashed, unashamed Christ-follower, how do I fit in with the "Can't We All Just Get Along" crowd? … Or can I?
Trust me, when they wrote the "I Want To Teach The World To Sing" in 1969 it wasn't to promote world peace…it was to sell Coca Cola.
And if you explore the "Live and Let Live" crowd you find them really saying: "I want you to think the way I think….and leave me alone."
And the so-called "Pro-Choice" -- it's REALLY "My Choice, But If You Disagree Shutting Up is YOUR Choice."
When I see the lust for acceptance in our culture, I find the same cravings among my fellow Christian brothers and sisters. With all the clamor to "Just get along," it's no wonder the same social and personal cancers saturate the American organized church. We loudly hail we are the Body of Christ but divorce, out-of-wedlock affairs, suicides, rebellion against authority, abuse of children and the elderly, neglect of children and the elderly, work-a-hallism, and fractured family units are no longer the symptoms outside the "Church." We rail at these problems as attacks of the Devil when they may well be the results of when trying to get along with our culture. We have done such a good job of being inoffensive and blending in, we now look like "the World" and have the same problems they do. Largely our attempts at changing the world are no different than the work of other social organizations like Kiwanis, Grange, Chamber of Commerce, and various fraternal organizations.
To this point I'm hearing hardy "AMENS" from the choir, but I want to get personal with you, the reader. When was the last time you encountered opposition and abuse for your faith? When have you last felt the hateful breath of our culture as it discovered you were a Christ-follower and practiced what He taught?...Have you ever?
I'm not talking about personal quirks and offensive behavior. I'm referring calling people out of sin-filled lives to follow and embrace the teachings of Christ -- STARTING with a personal relationship with Jesus. He declared in Matthew 5, if you follow Him and talk about it unashamedly, you will be censured, chivied (harassed) and crucified. As He stood on the Galilean hillside, He laid out the cost of following Him. As I See It, what He said that day is far from the "beautiful plan for your life" that is often used to sell salvation in the American religious culture.
Jesus used the word "persecute" in His discourse (in the King James Version), but since most of us relate persecution to "someone doesn't like me," I'm going to quote a more modern paraphrase:
And the song goes with all those feel good slogans . . .
"Live and Let Live"
"Promote World Peace"
(Or as a bumper snicker I once had read I LOVE WHIRLED PEAS)
And my favorite … the "United Nations"
As a unabashed, unashamed Christ-follower, how do I fit in with the "Can't We All Just Get Along" crowd? … Or can I?
Trust me, when they wrote the "I Want To Teach The World To Sing" in 1969 it wasn't to promote world peace…it was to sell Coca Cola.
And if you explore the "Live and Let Live" crowd you find them really saying: "I want you to think the way I think….and leave me alone."
And the so-called "Pro-Choice" -- it's REALLY "My Choice, But If You Disagree Shutting Up is YOUR Choice."
When I see the lust for acceptance in our culture, I find the same cravings among my fellow Christian brothers and sisters. With all the clamor to "Just get along," it's no wonder the same social and personal cancers saturate the American organized church. We loudly hail we are the Body of Christ but divorce, out-of-wedlock affairs, suicides, rebellion against authority, abuse of children and the elderly, neglect of children and the elderly, work-a-hallism, and fractured family units are no longer the symptoms outside the "Church." We rail at these problems as attacks of the Devil when they may well be the results of when trying to get along with our culture. We have done such a good job of being inoffensive and blending in, we now look like "the World" and have the same problems they do. Largely our attempts at changing the world are no different than the work of other social organizations like Kiwanis, Grange, Chamber of Commerce, and various fraternal organizations.To this point I'm hearing hardy "AMENS" from the choir, but I want to get personal with you, the reader. When was the last time you encountered opposition and abuse for your faith? When have you last felt the hateful breath of our culture as it discovered you were a Christ-follower and practiced what He taught?...Have you ever?
I'm not talking about personal quirks and offensive behavior. I'm referring calling people out of sin-filled lives to follow and embrace the teachings of Christ -- STARTING with a personal relationship with Jesus. He declared in Matthew 5, if you follow Him and talk about it unashamedly, you will be censured, chivied (harassed) and crucified. As He stood on the Galilean hillside, He laid out the cost of following Him. As I See It, what He said that day is far from the "beautiful plan for your life" that is often used to sell salvation in the American religious culture.
Jesus used the word "persecute" in His discourse (in the King James Version), but since most of us relate persecution to "someone doesn't like me," I'm going to quote a more modern paraphrase:
(10) "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. (11-12) "Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. (Matthew 5, The Message Bible, the emphasis my own.)
Frankly, I don't like that teaching, but Jesus didn't ask me when He was putting His sermon together.
Until the time Roman Emperor Constantine popularized Christianity in 312 AD, three centuries of Christ-followers had to seriously count the cost when it came to speaking of and living as a Christ-i-an. While abortion was a common practice in the Empire, so was the practice of child-exposure. Though it was acceptable to "expose" if they were maimed or abnormal at birth (IE. leave the infant to die from the elements or wild animals), female infants were frequently discarded at the door step. In Rome, the garbage collectors would come along, pick up the discards as part of the garbage, and dump it all outside the city walls on the massive refuse dump.Jews and Followers-of-the-Way (Christians) held it wrong to kill an unwanted child. The Christ-followers would go out at night, rescue the living, bury the dead, and care for the infants in personally financed orphan homes. This was such an embarrassment to the Roman aristocracy who regularly exposed children, the "Law of Exposure" was passed by the Roman Senate. Lasting for almost two years before the Senate over-turned it, the consequences of rescuing an discarded child was death; early Pro-Lifers were regarded "enemies of the Empire" and executed.
Since the 1950's, when the American culture began to turn from quasi-Christian to pagan*, organized religion has sought to be liked by the culture's movers and shakers. We want the world to accept us, love us,...to make life easier for us. *A person or culture who does not acknowledge God.
Our country's history is full of those who, when the culture turned against them, tried to commune away from the World culture. They attempted to build Utopias where they didn't have to deal with the World. A Utopia is normally created by humans attempting to establish/reestablish on Earth a society which reflects the virtues and values they believe have been lost.
Every attempt has failed, and will always fail as it is contrary to Jesus prayer in John 17:
"Because they didn't join the world's ways, just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world."
God never intended us to withdraw or be liked by the culture. (Ironically the word Utopia is from the Greek which means "no place" or "place that does not exist.") And yet Christians keep on trying in our nation, government, communities, and our churches. We want to be liked--to be accepted--to be a "buddy" to my neighbor, no matter their lifestyle. We leave them alone, or give them what they want, so we can live in a kind of Don't-Rock-the-Moral-Boat-or-They-Might-Through-Me-Overboard relationship.
For almost three decades I was a part of Christian broadcasting as it became professional, national, and yes, even profitable. Initially, Christians wanted to use the media as a tool for evangelism, but after great sums of money was raised through beg-a-thons, we discovered we were largely "preaching to the choir."
One year, at the conference of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, the executive director summed up what he called the unwritten law of all television preachers: "You can get your share of the audience only by offering people something they want."
It was secularist Neil Postman in his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death, who observed: "There is no religious leader—from the Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther—who offered people what they want. But television is not well suited to offering people what they need. … As a consequence, what is preached on television is not anything like the Sermon on the Mount. Religious programs are filled with good cheer. They celebrate affluence. Their featured players become celebrities. ... I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether." (Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death, page 121)
Even though religious broadcasting was my profession for so many years, I watch little Christian TV today. Largely I find it is sensational, or alarmist (many prophecy-oriented programs), or downright hokey. I am grieved when I often see God-anointed evangelists and teachers hawking health diets, experimental medical treatments, food supplements, and jewelry; more merchandising than message. At times Touched By An Angel or Amazing Grace (TNT) has more ministry for me.
Being raised the oldest of 6 children, I learned to be a people-pleaser and I'm good at it. Rather than being a rebel, I learned to use the system to get what I want. Call me a passive aggressor if you like, but it has gotten me the "personal peace" I've sought most of my life. I'm adept and practiced at keeping my mouth shut rather than being confrontational. I like being considered a Nice Guy.
But I am practicing the life Christ advocated? The World will give awards for acts of kindness, like feeding the poor, but takes great offence if I call them to a moral high ground as they worship at the idols of greed, choices, fame, and independence. A vocal, active Christ-follower makes the hypocrite and inactive uncomfortable. Persecution is designed to bring me into line…to force me into the mold of the culture.
Jesus said, "Woe [unto you], when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke 6:26
I wonder in which category Jesus places American Christianity?
I wonder in which category He considers me?
For almost three decades I was a part of Christian broadcasting as it became professional, national, and yes, even profitable. Initially, Christians wanted to use the media as a tool for evangelism, but after great sums of money was raised through beg-a-thons, we discovered we were largely "preaching to the choir."
One year, at the conference of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, the executive director summed up what he called the unwritten law of all television preachers: "You can get your share of the audience only by offering people something they want."
It was secularist Neil Postman in his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death, who observed: "There is no religious leader—from the Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther—who offered people what they want. But television is not well suited to offering people what they need. … As a consequence, what is preached on television is not anything like the Sermon on the Mount. Religious programs are filled with good cheer. They celebrate affluence. Their featured players become celebrities. ... I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether." (Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death, page 121)
Even though religious broadcasting was my profession for so many years, I watch little Christian TV today. Largely I find it is sensational, or alarmist (many prophecy-oriented programs), or downright hokey. I am grieved when I often see God-anointed evangelists and teachers hawking health diets, experimental medical treatments, food supplements, and jewelry; more merchandising than message. At times Touched By An Angel or Amazing Grace (TNT) has more ministry for me.Being raised the oldest of 6 children, I learned to be a people-pleaser and I'm good at it. Rather than being a rebel, I learned to use the system to get what I want. Call me a passive aggressor if you like, but it has gotten me the "personal peace" I've sought most of my life. I'm adept and practiced at keeping my mouth shut rather than being confrontational. I like being considered a Nice Guy.
But I am practicing the life Christ advocated? The World will give awards for acts of kindness, like feeding the poor, but takes great offence if I call them to a moral high ground as they worship at the idols of greed, choices, fame, and independence. A vocal, active Christ-follower makes the hypocrite and inactive uncomfortable. Persecution is designed to bring me into line…to force me into the mold of the culture.
Jesus said, "Woe [unto you], when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke 6:26
I wonder in which category Jesus places American Christianity?
I wonder in which category He considers me?
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