Also, they're both totally sweet. I'll bet you didn't know ninjas and Presbyterians had so much in common.
(Hat tip: Scott Zeller)
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The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
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8 comments:
Personally, I think Robert Hamburger (who I wish was a close personal friend of mine) should sue.
All organized religions are like Ninjas. They sneak in at your darkest hour and kill life as you knew it.
That's right, and happily so. My "life" as I knew it was crap before I handed it over to Christ seven years ago. I was bitter and angry and cynical and afraid, and I hated everyone and everything.
Okay fine, I'm arguably still cynical; Christianity doesn't make you Ned Flanders.
The point is that my life has been honest and purposeful since then, even in the ugliest of circumstances. Doesn't mean I'm happy every day, or even nice, but at least I have deep peace and the assurance of eternity.
These things don't come as a result of "organized religion" -- as though we are not ALL religious about something, whether or not that something is God -- but as a result of relationship to God, through Jesus Christ.
Also doesn't mean Christians have to turn off their minds. See http://www.str.org and http://www.ateam.blogware.com for details....
Sorry, that last URL should have been http://ateam.blogware.com (no "www")! Or you could just, you know, use the link to the A-Team Blog located in the sidebar to your right....
Thank you! You make my point exactly regarding organization.
I noticed that the Presbyterian site didn't have any perky music. Hmmmmm.
Cube: LOL! Btw, I've been meaning to link to you because I love your blog...and have done so, at right. Thanks for making me laugh.
Anonymous: I think I need to amend my statement. It's not "organized religion" that made a difference, it's the person of Jesus Christ. (In fact, if I'm not mistaken, Greg Koukl often makes a statement to the effect that "Jesus ruined [his] life." And again I say, happily so.)
I think people who aren't Christians, or who don't attend a Christ-centered church, or people who attend church for social reasons (because that's "what we've always done" or that's what "good people" do on Sundays) but don't really believe in Christ as who He says He is -- often mistake "organized religion" for something it isn't. They mistake it for God. "The Church" is not a building, nor a Presbytery, nor a parish, nor any other human-constructed entity or organization.
If someone were to come to power in this country and successfully disband all the Christian churches and organizations, and burn down all the buildings that belonged to them, and separately imprison everyone who claimed to be a Christian, there would still be "The Church," because that phrase is synonymous with the phrase "The Body of Christ," which is comprised of everyone in the history of the world who ever claimed Jesus Christ as his savior, Catholic or Protestant, regular churchgoer or reclusive mountain man.
That having been said, there is some value in "organized religion" where it does not seek to override the authority of Christ Himself or twist and abuse (or outright deny) biblical principles. Christians gather on Sundays to be in community with each other, to share their love for God in communal worship and to love and support each other in our joys and struggles.
There is too much to say on this topic as it is; I doubt I've even scratched the surface and I may have even confused you further. The main point, regardless of your views (or anyone else's) on organized religion, is that Jesus Christ -- the person, not any church building or official policy created by human beings -- is the reason my life (and the life of countless others) is different and better.
I am intrigued by the frequency of objections to "organized religion"--as though "disorganized religion" would be preferable in determining the truth of a worldview. Another alternative would be some kind of self-organized religion. While I can empathize with people who are fed up with the inefficiency of a human-run organization, like those in Christianity, I think what lies behind the objections to organized religion is more of a desire for a self-organized belief system than a revulsion of the institutions of Christianity. It seems to me that if the objections were to the part of something that is misorganized, the response would be to fix the problems. However, if the chief objections are to the religious aspects of the church (e.g., its unique truth-claims), a religion that is self-organized would be a far more attractive option. Thus, opposition to "organized religion" seems less like opposition to the human institution and more like a subtle form of opposition to the notion that outside truth-claims can be brought to bear upon the indivdual objecting to organized religion. C.S. Lewis noted that when he was an atheist, his main desire was to be left alone. The idea that there is something that has a claim on us, whether it be a hard truth to face or even the God of creation, can be a frightening thing to own up to. The easy way out would be to deny that there's something out there and dismiss it all as "organized religion" (which does have its faults) and create a self-organized belief system which makes none of those bothersome and hard to face truth-claims. A self-organized belief system is "safer" in the short-term, yet in the long run it is ultimately meaningless, for it leads to nothingness. An organized belief system is more consistent with the truth than a self-organized belief system, and both have less to do with whether or not the human-run institutions of (mis)organized religion should be considered effective than with the actual truth-claims that they make. To be sure, we often judge the validity of a truth-claim by its effectiveness, but even if a clock is broken, it still has the right time twice a day. The main issue is whether or not the whole belief system explains things as they really are, not whether its adherents are perfect. Show me a self-organized belief system, and I wll show you an adherent who is playing it safe. The words of Mr. Beaver come to mind here:
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
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