I heard today that one of our candidates for office wants to dismantle the national parks. That isn’t as bad as another political meeting I attended where an office holder and a member of the audience got into a love fest over the possibility of eliminating not only national parks but public roads and public schools.
Really. Really? Do these people understand what they are proposing? The idea of a utopia free of strong government and public projects appeals to these people. A lot of people in this area must agree because they vote for the same party year after year. I suggest they use their free time to visit a country that is living the model of freedom they espouse. Why don’t they take a junket to Somalia to see how nice a land can be when the population is free of political structure and education.
The fact that in a county filled with people who profess to follow the Lord, people who should live lives filled with charity, people who should work together as the body of Christ, people continue to vote for leaders who represent platforms based on selfishness, hate and fear is troubling. If democracy means our leaders represent us, represent us in government but also represent our values, then I can’t accept that the gospel is working in my area.
When a local leader is questioned about apparent bribes and favors his poll number go up. That does not bode well for us. A generation ago the same party that is in power talked of family values. Then came the stalking, the prostitutes, the hot tub party with a minor, the fraud, the booze, this list goes on. Today we don’t hear about family values we hear about freedom and state’s rights. I believe the only right these people want is more power for themselves.
We are bombarded with messages of hate and fear that are not spread by people who care about the truth. There is such a fear of anything short of complete individual freedom (read leave my money alone) that I expect to hear the scriptures paraphrased to “whenever two are gathered in my name…it’s socialism!”
Across the nation the same party these people are associated with has issues with racism, perverse e-mails, homophobia, and a curious embracing of ignorance as a value. Is that representative of us? (Odd how no one mentions the perception that the majority of the party doesn't value our religion much.) Of course simply voting for the other party won’t change things in the long term. The people who love power and their own wisdom may simply shift their allegiance and we won’t bother to learn about them.
We appear to be an intellectually lazy people. It does not appear that we are lead by leaders with vision and integrity. In a few days the majority of people in this area will go to church where they should learn about Christ. A few days later they will go to the polls where many will vote based on fear, hate and petty greed.
Will we choose the right? Only politically I suspect.
On second thought, Jesus lived in a land with no national parks, no large public school systems or fire stations. He didn’t have hospitals and highways. There were no big public water and sewer systems. He didn’t benefit from educated people finding cures for leprosy and smallpox. If that life was good enough for him I suppose I can’t complain about where our leaders want to take us.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
We Can Change the Church.
Why do so many people quietly dislike the culture of the church? Why do we wish it would change, that someone would step up and, from our perspective, put things right?
Well, we are that person. We need to think long and hard about what is the gospel and what is the baggage left behind by generations of well meaning but less than inspired church members or new ideas dragged into the church by people with self serving political or economic agendas.
We can start with simple things. If we are comfortable that the Lord won’t mind if we wear flip flops to church then we should wear flip flops. If we think that white shirts are fine for missionaries but are an affectation of mid twentieth century fashion for the rest of the population then we can wear blue shirts or stripped shirts. (Can we move beyond the pantyhose generation? Are they for wearing to church or for dressing like a skank?) The list goes on.
Do we desperately want a tattoo or a piercing? It may be a fading fashion but we can get a Madison, a nipple piercing, or a Hello Kitty inked on our bums and no one ever needs to know about it. At least until we are old and our grandchildren laugh as they change our diapers and give us sponge baths.
Are your ward's hymns sung too slow? Let’s ask our choristers why we can’t sing with joy and energy? If that doesn’t work then we can bake cookies for our organists and suggest they just play faster. They probably want to and our encouragement maybe all they need to step things up.
Do our leaders take the boys hiking and waterskiing while the girls stay home? Let’s organize other parents into adventure groups to show our girls we know they can do anything they want to do. We can take the lead and the organization can catch up later. Do our leaders talk down to girls? Well, let’s take them aside and explain that we recognize the gender issues of our culture and that regardless of that burden, we have high expectations for them in this world and we know they can learn the skills to solve the tough challenges they will face just like men do.
I have a friend who is so disappointed that good people are not speaking up in response to the closed minded loudmouths who are leading our popular culture. He has inspired me to make some changes in the way I approach our church culture. I don’t think conflict and contention will help us, but I think it is time for some small steps in leading by example.
Think of the issues that are troubling for our community. Immigration, race, gender issues, greed, substance use, chastity (and of course flip flops and white shirts). Are we dealing with these issues with charity in our hearts or are they an excuse to mock individuals or hate entire groups?
If we want to change how our culture deals with these issues we can start by dropping our concern with appearances.
I know we should avoid the appearance of evil, but concentrating on the appearance of good isn’t much better. Remember, we should be doing unto others as we would have done unto us. No one said we should appear unto other as we would like them to appear unto us. I take that back, business leaders, media personalities and politicians may embrace that idea. But I do not endorse it.
Let’s stop listening to the petty anger in the world, stop worrying about small differences in fashion, stop spending energy on actions that don't build others, and start looking for the good in others. That is how we can change the church. And if not the church, then ourselves.
Thank you friend for speaking up.
Well, we are that person. We need to think long and hard about what is the gospel and what is the baggage left behind by generations of well meaning but less than inspired church members or new ideas dragged into the church by people with self serving political or economic agendas.
We can start with simple things. If we are comfortable that the Lord won’t mind if we wear flip flops to church then we should wear flip flops. If we think that white shirts are fine for missionaries but are an affectation of mid twentieth century fashion for the rest of the population then we can wear blue shirts or stripped shirts. (Can we move beyond the pantyhose generation? Are they for wearing to church or for dressing like a skank?) The list goes on.
Do we desperately want a tattoo or a piercing? It may be a fading fashion but we can get a Madison, a nipple piercing, or a Hello Kitty inked on our bums and no one ever needs to know about it. At least until we are old and our grandchildren laugh as they change our diapers and give us sponge baths.
Are your ward's hymns sung too slow? Let’s ask our choristers why we can’t sing with joy and energy? If that doesn’t work then we can bake cookies for our organists and suggest they just play faster. They probably want to and our encouragement maybe all they need to step things up.
Do our leaders take the boys hiking and waterskiing while the girls stay home? Let’s organize other parents into adventure groups to show our girls we know they can do anything they want to do. We can take the lead and the organization can catch up later. Do our leaders talk down to girls? Well, let’s take them aside and explain that we recognize the gender issues of our culture and that regardless of that burden, we have high expectations for them in this world and we know they can learn the skills to solve the tough challenges they will face just like men do.
I have a friend who is so disappointed that good people are not speaking up in response to the closed minded loudmouths who are leading our popular culture. He has inspired me to make some changes in the way I approach our church culture. I don’t think conflict and contention will help us, but I think it is time for some small steps in leading by example.
Think of the issues that are troubling for our community. Immigration, race, gender issues, greed, substance use, chastity (and of course flip flops and white shirts). Are we dealing with these issues with charity in our hearts or are they an excuse to mock individuals or hate entire groups?
If we want to change how our culture deals with these issues we can start by dropping our concern with appearances.
I know we should avoid the appearance of evil, but concentrating on the appearance of good isn’t much better. Remember, we should be doing unto others as we would have done unto us. No one said we should appear unto other as we would like them to appear unto us. I take that back, business leaders, media personalities and politicians may embrace that idea. But I do not endorse it.
Let’s stop listening to the petty anger in the world, stop worrying about small differences in fashion, stop spending energy on actions that don't build others, and start looking for the good in others. That is how we can change the church. And if not the church, then ourselves.
Thank you friend for speaking up.
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