Words from WW Blog

Recently, a speaker at a church gathering made the statement in his address that a person couldn’t be a Christian and vote Democrat. He was adamant about that position in front of a crowd that was probably very lean in the number of Democrats present.

I cringed when I saw the video clip of it. It was a blanket statement, kinda like saying all public schools are demonic or moms who work outside of the home don’t make their kids a priority. In my growing-up days, people who drank beer were looked upon with suspicion by the teetotalers of our Baptist church. How could they drink Iron City beer on Saturday and come to church on Sunday?

We have a way of taking Christian sides, structuring our understanding of what a Christian looks like, and creating a long list of limitations on what isn’t acceptable. In essence, there’s a tendency to limit “who is in” instead of deferring to God’s grace. Like the private entrance to an exclusive club, it has become more the norm to admit only the sanitized rather than believe in a gospel where the doors are thrust wide open.

When asked to preach at a church that required everyone to use the King James Version of the Bible, seminary professor Dr. Al Bean would bring a bible with him that was in Greek and read the passage in the original Greek language. Consequently, he was never invited back to speak at the KJV congregations. He was viewed as having a rebellious spirit.

There is confusion in the Christian ranks over striving for a “sacred throng” versus creating an impenetrable fortress. We forget that the early followers of Jesus were a hodgepodge of outcasts and uninvited commoners, with a few well-to-do and greatly despised mixed in. The common thread, the unifying glue that brought them all together, was Jesus. His followers were as different as night and day, as different as a New York Democrat and a Texas Republican…as different as a corporate lawyer and a supermarket bagboy, but Jesus was the glue.

There is an increasing tendency these days to pull apart instead of holding together. What so often is held onto with a firm grip are the things and ideas that are way down the list in actual importance, while the most important, the things of eternal significance, get shoved out the door.

This entry was posted on April 20, 2024 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Bible, Christianity, church, Faith, Jesus