Christianity
Published by Jake Allen October 11th, 2004 in Uncategorized
They fogot about that Ichthus fish eating the leggy Darwin fish. That means the driver is a super-Christian.
Christianity is a shift of culture, to be sure, but sometimes that culture is not Christianity. I think the 1970 movie, Patton, put it best when the lead character said, “I read my Bible everyday, goddamnit!”
Is there a litmus test of how good a Christian is or is not? In my current living conditions, my lifestyle of “non-Christian” movies, television, books, radio, and culture is often suspect. Yet, I have shared my faith more in the last year than in the ten years previous. Is this not a work of God? Are my prayers not heard because I watched Alien vs. Predator at the $2 theater last night? Would God be more responsive to my prayers had I listened to the Christian flavor of the moment on lower-frequency FM? Do I need to read my bonded-leather NIV verse-by-verse and hum for five minutes every morning to be righteous? Is God more glorified with a Veggie-Tales T-shirt than with my work shirt?
Madness!
I read my Bible everyday, goddamnit!
Actually, they already covered that topic elseware…. hee hee http://www.holyobserver.com/detail.php?isu=v01i11&art=darwin
Nice, Jake. Although my brain is hurting trying to figure out how the same person wrote this post and the one below it.
Hmmmm. Why is that Shade?
It makes other people mad when I wear my work shirt to church. Yes, I work on Sundays.
I get mad when you wear your work shirt and I realize that you didn’t bring me any Cinnabon Minis.
I mean, whatever happened to Acts 4:32?
Are the people who get mad when you work on Sundays the same ones who go out to eat after church every Sunday?
I eat out every Sunday and my darling Erik works on Sundays.
Christ IS the Sabbath, we find continual rest in Him.
Hypocrisy of others aside, the question is about Jake.
Are there people in the church who have exchanged the truth of God for a thematic lie? Yes. Even especially so.
Are there people on the fringes of authentic orthodox Christianity who sinfully react negetively to this other group and use it as an excuse to follow their own passions, violating the moral law of God and self-righteously reveling in the all-to-natural uber-autonomy that rebels against the community nature of the Kingdom of God? Yes.
The question is, where in the continuum between these two extremes doth lie Jake?
To the plastic Christians, Jake is backslidden indeed, violating the Pharasaic constructions that bind their own sub-culture.
To the more liberationist-minded nominal Christians (some of whom frequent this site), Jake is still too constrained by the authoritarian nature of an antiquated patriarchal system of propositional doctrine.
Somewhere in the middle is not a bad place to be, considering the nature of the loudest voices from both sides in this debate.
And yet, some serious reflection may be helpful. Yes, Jesus is the Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. But Jesus is also the head of the church, to which we owe some alligence as part of his bride. If the church meets regularly on Sunday, our obedience to Christ prompts us to set aside the day as special and worthy of special action (or inaction). If Jake is merely mad at the Charlie Church strawman, then this really does not matter. If his conscience is being tickled, then he does well to pause and use the opportunity to pause and reflect - maybe even to grow.
For my own part, I think Jake tends toward the autonomy-lovers, but not in an exceedingly dangerous way. I am glad he works and actually interacts with lost people - and takes the opportunity to share his faith and demonstrate some level of authentic Christianity to people who otherwise would likely never see it. As for Alien vs. Predator - that was sinful, but only because the movie was so horrible you feel yucky and somehow less intelligent after having viewed it, not because he did anything inherently wrong.
I hope when we see Friday Night Lights, it will be better.
Just for clarification: What color is your NIV Bible, cause I think that matters? Were you humming a hymn or a praise song, that definately matters? Do you have the “Fish” on your car next to the “Co-ed Naked Twister” bumper sticker? Did you attend the movie on Sunday, or was it working on Sunday that was the issue? Was the shirt clean or did it smell of Cinnabony stuff? All of these factor into the question of Christian liberty unless of course you give Blandus AND me something tastey from that Cinful place where you work, on the Lord’s day!
Too many Christians read PINK bibles.