When asked why he wrote "The Name of the Rose," Umberto Eco replied, "I felt like poisoning a monk." Seems as good reason as any to write a novel. And he didn't realize monks were such a good source of office supplies.
But that's not really what I want to rant about today. I was offered an opportunity to be a Bible Study leader in what appeared to be a low-effort Bible Study. You know, fill in the blanks on the basic essentials of the faith. Making sure we all have the doctrine thing down. Because that is exactly what is most important. And if I could think of a Christian, dead or alive, whom I admired soley for his or her immpeccable doctrine, I would let you all know.
But the offer bothered me. It was so minimal, like I am so shallow that asking me for the paltry two and half hours a week was such an extravagant request. I said no, not because they asked too much, but they asked too little. It wouldn't cost. I'm no David, but he wouldn't give a sacrifice that wouldn't cost and he was a man after God's own heart. Not sure about his doctrinal purity, but oh well.
The whole place has seen an incredible growth in the size of the paid staff, professional Christians who are there to do the hard stuff. The rest of us are there to follow the directions and do what we're told. Good sheep. I however, am a bad sheep. I'm the one who's bound to go wondering off in odd directions. Mostly because the ground isn't so trampled. Like the No Child Left Behind act in the school system dumbs down the entire learing process, the No Christian Left Behind attitude reduces service to a least common denominator. No one gets to aspire to know God better than the professional staff. There are few people that have a walk with God that I admire and would like to emulate. This saddens me. Church should be a place where you aspire to go and do great things, where the distant shores seem less misty. You should leave with the fragrance of life still clinging to your clothing. Instead, we leave with homework, "have a five minute quiet time every day." Some aspirations. But the attitude seems to be "How can you say no when so little is required?"
That's the problem. Too little is asked.
About the same time as the BS email, I received an email from the Voice of the Martyrs, a group that publicizes the persecution of Christians around the world. There are the people who when much was asked, more was given.
It hit me: American Christians aren't "persecuted" because of their spiritual beliefs. They are attacked for thier counter culture. Not for believing in Jesus, but for saything they do and living a life that says otherwise. A life that says Jesus's blood is good enough for me, but not for you, unless you... A life that says God doesn't really know what to do with people who go against His ways, but we do...
A life that proclaims a hope unfounded, yet has a stockpile in the grain silo, just in case.
It's the responses of the persecuted that give it away. The non-Americans in the email emit the spirit of "Father, forgive them, they're clueless." Versus, "Take back the country" approach favored here. That's what points me to Jesus, forgiveness and love, not a voter registration drive to get the latest Focus on the Family bigot elected to office.
But as Jane Wagner says, "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool."
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