“There’s two things you aren’t supposed to talk about with other people,” I said to my mom and dad as midnight came and went last night, “religion and politics.”
My dad’s response shook me to the core: “we don’t talk about politics anymore – we talk about people who do politics.”
Not rocket science, but my response was the same: “and we don’t talk about Jesus anymore – we talk about religion.”
So in reality, when we should be talking about ideas (politics), we talk about people. If we could focus the message of politics on what we stand for (maybe some actual discussion on long term economic strategies, a feasible plan for operating a defense department that protects my children’s future … you get the point) rather than obsessing over focus groups and polls, maybe we could make progress on removing the apathy and pork spending that seem to consume the political environment of the US today.
But even more importantly, when we should be talking about people (or the person), we talk about our ideas. If we could preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried and resurrected, maybe our efforts to share the hope, peace, love and joy we have found would go a lot further. It seems that most Christians are arguing about something (I heard recently that the church down the street forbids their students from attending our churches youth group because we use that rock music stuff … that’s absurd.) Why is it that Christians are known more for what we are against than for what we stand for?
It was a great well-past-midnight reconnecting with my parents and the spiritual heritage that they placed in me. Thanks mom and dad.
cheers,
bc
As Rob Bell has said…let’s do worship in the “key of rock”. Of course he was exageration. Haha, I just thought it was a funny phrase for him to use.
I’m personally for whatever draws students to God. If it’s rock, then let’s rock the house as loud as we can. Who cares if it’s too loud for me, if they love it, then I love it.
Thanks for the post.
http://www.vagabondrunn.wordpress.com
exagerating*