viewoutsidethepew

Where do I start?

Just the other day I checked an online map service to get the travel time to a work site. It became a metaphor for the way some religious people act. In the case of my map search, despite every attempt, it placed my home address nearly an hour to the west. Even when I entered the address by postal code the programme changed it back to the wrong one.

So I turned to a different service. It put my start point in the right place, but the route choices were wrong. The fastest route showed as the slowest. The time totalled over an hour. In reality it took about forty-five minutes.

The only place for a Christian to begin a life journey of time or education or growing up rests upon the Bible. Some would start with an opinion, or a feeling, or a doctrine or even a denominational tradition. But when you start at the wrong place, whether by seduction of a lie or indiscriminate obedience to human authority, surely the route and timing must be wrong.

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Law Library DVDs (Photo credit: William & Mary Law Library)

People don’t like to obey the law. Many even express pride at how they broke the law, and got away with it.

For instance, many times I have been in a clergy meeting and there’s been a bragging session about how quickly a trip was made, achieved only by speeding. Apparently Romans 13:1-7 (obey the government when it enforces God’s principles) has no authority about such things because it is, after all, a command.

Likewise some people still don’t wear seat-belts. They still talk on their cellphones while driving.

To make matters worse, religious people don’t like anyone pointing out their sin, civil or spiritual. Gossipers Read more…

Coat of Arms of the Medici Popes

500 years ago today the Fifth Lateran Council convened, lasting five years. After the Tenth Session Pope Leo X published Inter Sollicitudines (“among the concerns” my translator says), on this day in 1515.

This document began the official censorship of books. In order to be printed a book had to carry imprimatur, the official seal of approval. A book without this, if printed, would lead to excommunication, the arrogance of the church saying such a person couldn’t go to heaven. All churches practice this even if they do not have such language. Denominations and congregations make decisions about who is acceptable. Membership can be withheld or revoked. That’s excommunication. Some go even further, condemning those who aren’t even members.

Church Boards and Councils will censor a preacher. Preachers censor Sunday School teachers. Bible Colleges censor instructors. I do not know if it is true or not, but at my college we were all led to believe a professor was relieved for teaching what someone deemed an unacceptable theory of how part of the Bible reached its final form. Since the whole student body accepted this it, at least, demonstrates evangelical Christians consider such activity as plausible.

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The song of the red-winged blackbird stirs warm feelings within me. While my childhood experience includes poverty, I recall hearing that bird call when fishing, or hiking near the river. And I like it. Read more…

A recent survey on prayer says a Christian prays 8 minutes a day, supposedly. A pastor prays only 4 minutes longer.

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