Categotry Archives: Rantings

[smiles with a snarky grin, clears throat, steps onto soapbox]

I observed something quite interesting on my recent trip to Paris–or more specifically, when I got back. (Like many, I believe the real culture shock doesn’t always happen on your trip, but on your return home.)

Here’s what I saw. I spent two weeks in a basically socialist nation, one in which people rely on the government to provide many, many basic services (and to which they pay very high taxes for those services). These are services that many in this country would refer to as “entitlement programs.” And yet, ironically, I saw more instances of people acting “entitled” in the first two days coming back to America than I experienced in my entire time in France.

I remember talking at length in the past about how the modern (American) church functions more as a business than as an organism, and the ways that I’ve observed that church-as-business really gets in the way of our Biblical mandates. Recently, though, I’ve heard about some disturbing trends within the church that have revived this issue in my mind, got me thinking about it some more. It’s more than just a trend for churches to function like businesses–it points to what I’ll call “consumerism Christianity,” something I find not only to be unbiblical, but also dangerous.

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen fit to set up any kind of rant on this here blog. But something happened this week that took me into the past and stirred up a lot of righteous indignation in me. So you get to wade through it here. (Sorry–or as the case may be, you’re welcome.)

In catching up on reading/scanning some of the blogs I follow, I came across one from last week by nakedpastor talking about the dialogue between Christians and atheists, and how quick one group is to mock the other sometimes. Within that conversation he made one statement that resonated within me far beyond the topic of discussion:

“When someone thinks they are superior to another, they also feel no need to understand the other.”

True dat.

Does anyone else out there feel sometimes like they just bring out the worst in people?

Despite what some of my longtime readers might think, I’ve never been one to court controversy. I don’t go into a situation with the intent of stirring the pot. Usually, my default mechanism when joining a work place, or a community, or a conversation, or whatever, is to go along to get along. Keep my nose clean. Go with the flow. Make friends. That kind of thing.