Faith Venture

Have you ever tried to explain Christianity to a person of another faith? Especially also of a different color? Or–for us Midwesterners–explaining “Trump Country” to urban people?

I’m always torn between amusement and sadness when I read things from the urban coastal areas (not to mention Washington) trying to figure out people from the rural middle of the country. Neither side has a clue about the other.

The New York Times recently explored the effects of the 2016 election with the visible racial references upon “evangelical” churches who had been trying to bring black people and other “people of color” into their communities yet supported a candidate who was openly disdainful of those people. It was an interesting article, albeit limited. They sent a reporter to Dallas to interview a half-dozen African-American women about their experience in a church turned political organization.

They all “lost that lovin’ feeling” and left.

That is all anecdotal. Not all churches are like a Baptist church in Texas.

But…look around at your worship time. Does everyone look the same? Is everyone from the same economic strata? Is anyone free to voice a differing opinion?

On the other hand, I once tried to explain why there are so many varieties of Christian churches and why they don’t seem to like each other to a person of the Sikh faith. That religion teaches tolerance of all religions. So it is confusing to them that people of one religion fight so much within the faith.

I can explain how it happened, perhaps. Why is another matter. What happened to our focus on Jesus over hundreds of years that we are so split, and argumentative, and focused on matters other than salvation and living a life with God? Why have we become the Pharisees that Jesus battled against?

Like I say–stop, look around, see what’s happening. Are we doing things to drive people away? Or, are we living the love Jesus taught such that we attract people of all nationalities and conditions? The first evangelist we read of who went outside the Jewish community with the gospel first went to the people group Jews hated the most. After converting many, he proceeded to explain the scriptures and convert a black man who was ceremonially unclean since he could not procreate (the Ethiopian eunuch).

What are we doing?

This entry was posted on March 16, 2018 at 7:16 am and is filed under Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.