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Christianity is not a political party, and Republican is not a religious faith.

August 27, 2009 in Life, Religion with 1 Comment

When I was a student at bible college, we had an assignment where we had to memorize Matthew chapter 5. It was an assignment that every student who went through the school eventually had to do. It wasn’t particularly hard. The chapter isn’t very long. But the reason we had to memorize it is because it comes from a very famous section of scripture called The Sermon on the Mount. It’s a sermon that Jesus gave during his ministry.

What makes it so important is that it was a time when Jesus made a declaration of what the faith looks like, and it kind of turned everything that people had traditionally heard on its head. He used this phrasing,

“You have heard it said… but I tell you… ” Continue Reading…

Okay, your pastor has great sex with his wife. So what?

April 28, 2009 in Religion with 6 Comments

As a Christian, I’m acutely aware of the fact that people think we don’t have any fun. It’s a reputation we’ve inherited from our Puritan ancestors, and extends all the way through our 1950’s style churches. What, with their vehement opposition to things like dancing, boys and girls swimming together, and rated ‘R’ movies, they’ve cemented an image of good little Christian boys and girls who would never dream of anything but Sunday School and after-school prayer sessions.

In recent years, the modern Christian community has taken great pains toward trying to repaint this image. We’ve gotten tattoos. We’ve played rock music in our worship services. And we’ve even talked about how great sex is (between a husband and a wife, of course). All this, and more, has been done with the hopes of communicating that Christians aren’t “fuddy dud-ies,” and that being a Christian doesn’t mean giving up all the cool, fun things you used to do. And while it is true that being a Christian doesn’t mean replacing all activities with bible study, I had a thought today that we’ve been wasting our time trying to communicate this message. Continue Reading…

I Will Recieve Nothing In Return

March 24, 2009 in Guatemala, Religion with 0 Comments

Yesterday, I committed to more time in Guatemala. How much more time? Well, until I am done, whenever that is… The reason I have to phrase it like this is I am only mostly sure of one thing: I will not be in Guatemala forever. Once that was said, it was a lot easier to make an open ended commitment.

I’m in Guatemala because the health of the church needs to be tended to. It was something that I absolutely understood on my second trip ever to Guatemala. All it took was one Sunday of walking around the streets of San Raymundo. To see all the churches on every corner with their services going on. To know the dark secrets of how the appearance of righteousness is desired over the messiness of mending people’s broken lives. When the church would rather ignore problems, at best, and get rid of people, at worst, it’s evident that the faith I hold so dear is very sick. Continue Reading…

Are You A Hired Servant?

March 12, 2009 in Re-posts, Religion with 0 Comments

Re-posted from one of my favorite blogs, Productive Ministry dot com:

In his sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us,” blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.” So many that I have worked with in the church fake meekness. They do this by putting on the mask of the servant, and busying themselves with mundane tasks of ministry. And for them it is great at first. People notice that they are always the first ones on the scene; ready to mop, or cook, or teach. And they say to them, “Thank you, it is so great that you have such a servants heart!” or “You! What would we do without you? Thank God that you are here!” And these servants love the attention, and it inspires them to work harder, to serve more, and they are happy.

What happens if you work hard and nobody says thank you. What happens when you do your best and you are hated? What about when people start abusing you and barking orders at you, and complaining about everything that you do? What happens when those you have loved the most leave the church because they say no one cared for them? How will you feel, when you have loved them with everything that you have and they complain to your senior minster, or to your elders. Will you continue you to love them and to serve them? Continue Reading…

I Give Money To Drunks

February 21, 2009 in Guatemala, Religion with 0 Comments

In Guatemala, there aren’t a lot of white people. In fact, in the community that I live in, I’m the only white boy in town. This makes me a target for a lot of things. One of those things is the english language.

Anyone who knows any english at all wants to say it to me, regardless of the situation. I hear “Hello” and “Bye bye” from random people every day. Random bits of english will be yelled at me as cars pass by. Some store clerks won’t even let me talk to them in spanish. It’s an extremely peculiar experience. Though, usually it’s only a word or phrase at most, because people aren’t confident enough to try and have a conversation (which I get, since I am always struggling to have one with them in spanish).

The exceptions to this are my friends the drunks. They see me, and they come a-stumblin’. And while alcohol might make someone more loquacious, it doesn’t make them any more articulate. To this day, there has only been one conversation I’ve remotely understood what the person was saying, and he was trying to buy a girl that was here with a group (I didn’t sell). This exchange is only made more frequent by the fact that I live across the street from a cantina (I call them my neighbors, when I see them laying passed out on the sidewalk). Continue Reading…

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