is your church boiling mad too!

Well here we go.

It seems that yet another group of Christians feel that their rights have been violated! Evidently some of the non-Christian retailers around them simply want to acknowledge the fact that their customers are celebrating many different holidays around this time of year, from Christmas, to Hanukah, to Kwanza, to Eid, and even New Years! So, in an attempt to wish all of their customer a happy holiday, they’ve decided to use the phrase “Happy Holidays” in their promotion instead of “Merry Christmas”. SHOCKING! Why would I wish a Jewish person a Merry Christmas? And, if I were a retailer, why would I not acknowledge my Jewish patrons’ holiday? And the only way to do that is to either hang a million signs with every holiday listed, or simply say “Happy Holidays” which covers everybody. But the Christians are in an uproar and yet another right-wing political organization has come out of the woodwork to pass around a petition and get Christians to boycott these retailers.

I love you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, but every time you say something like “this is OUR country! If they don’t like it, they can go find their OWN country!” you sound like a redneck. Saying that we “discovered” this country is a lot like telling a police officer that I “discovered” your car stereo. And while it’s true that the majority of our white, slave owning fore-fathers were “Christians” (though not very good ones, evidently), it’s also true that our fore-fathers were smart enough to know that America would never truly be free and democratic if people of ALL religions weren’t free to worship there. In fact, that’s why SOME of the early European settlers came to America (learn your history).

I’ve always thought that one of the most remarkable things about Jesus’ ministry was the fact that he spent his days, not defending the “church” against the Roman government, but defending lost and defenseless people against the “church”. Jesus spent his days defending the poor and the lost against a religious institution that was interested more in intimidating and holding power of people than serving God out of a pure heart. And he did it because he wanted all of them to know that grace prevailed over power, and fear, and intimidation. He wanted them to know that God had come to save them.

This was a hard lesson for the Jews to swallow. They wanted a King who would liberate them from slavery and give them back their land. But that’s not what Jesus came to do. He came to serve and to teach us how to serve. So, when his disciples suggested that he not pay his taxes, Jesus handed them a coin, said “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and reminded them yet again that he had not come to be militant. And, when Peter decided to “defend Jesus” by cutting off the ear of the Roman guard, Jesus healed the Roman guard and reminded Peter that that’s not what he had come for. That’s what Jesus did, he healed and offered hope to the lost, and spent the rest of his time sorting out all of the religious elitists.

The world is turning to all manner of religion right now. And most of them do it looking for a way of life that promotes peace, and love, and good will towards all mankind. Isn’t it a shame that they can’t see that in Christianity anymore? Because that’s what Christ (the guy we named our religion after) was all about. But lost people don’t know that anymore because we don’t show it. Instead, too many Christians spend their time huddled in their buildings, planning the next political rally where they will picket and promise to boycott non-Christian businesses and institutions for not worshipping with us. What they see in us, far too often, is a militant political machine that’s out to force Christianity down their throats and stand up for our rights! As Americans, we have the right to worship any way we want to, but we don’t have the right to force everybody else to worship with us. God gave that right to all mankind long before Thomas Jefferson came along and made it a law, so why is it that Christians want to take it back?

Militant Christianity is the ugly side of religion.

Instead of spreading anger, and resentment, and hate, and venom, we should be spreading the love of Christ. We should be serving these people. That’s what Jesus did and that’s what he called us to do. And he did it, and commanded us to do it, because that’s what wins people’s hearts, not brow beating them with it.

The church has spent the last twenty years whining, and griping, and picketing, and boycotting lost people for acting like lost people. How ‘bout we spend the next twenty years serving the lost and helping the needy and see which one wins more people for Christ?