Religiously Correct

If this phrase hasn't been used yet, then I'm taking credit for coining it. It's called "Religiously Correct." The usual battles that occur this time of year between the Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays/Season's Greetings crowd have resulted in this phrase.

As a believer and follower of Christ, I am embarrassed that these battles go on. In previous years, religious groups have organized boycotts of business and retail stores that say "Happy Holidays," sell "Holiday Trees," or have "Holiday Sales" instead of using the word Christmas. This year, the battle has heated up against atheist groups in metropolitan areas buying billboard space with a picture of the nativity scene asking the public if they really believe this happened. Local church groups have organized boycotts of the companies that sold this ad space. (It should be noted that the companies selling the ad space say they would be glad to sell ad space to Christian groups to advertise their message too). Furthermore, there are posts going around Facebook asking people if they really believe in saying "Merry Christmas" instead of the politically correct "Happy Holidays," then copy and paste this as your Facebook status.

I really don't know where to begin in addressing this, but I will start with the political correctness issue.

First, saying "Happy Holidays" doesn't necessarily make one politically correct or anti-Jesus. I will say both "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas." These are the holidays. Within just over a month, you have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. These are three nationally recognized holidays. There is nothing wrong with wishing someone well during these days.

Second, we as Christians need to be confronted with a harsh reality. We say "Merry Christmas" and want others to say "Merry Christmas," but when going by actions instead of words, are we really celebrating the birth of Christ? Yes, we (I am including myself here) like to think that we are, but actions speak louder than words and what our actions really say, if we are not careful, is that we are taking the name of Christ and using it to feed our materialism. We are so concerned about what we will get and what to get others that we will shop ourselves stupid and spend money we don't have. We don't need most of the stuff we get for Christmas and we know we don't need it, but we will use the name of Jesus as an excuse for feeding our materialistic desires. No wonder there are atheist groups organizing themselves to question what is recorded in the scriptures about Christ's birth. I believe what the scriptures say. But do my actions about Christmas speak to the world that I believe the scriptures? Or do my actions say that I am all about stuff, that I am attached to stuff, and that I want more stuff. Not that giving and receiving gifts is wrong as long as we keep in perspective that we are about the Hope that arrived in this world in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. So, what I am saying in so many words, is that we are showing a lot of hypocrisy. Instead of fighting the world over using politically correct phrases, let's examine ourselves first.

Third, Jesus isn't politically correct and never has been in any culture. We as Christians just need to deal with that. He's been controversial ever since he arrived in this world (remember, he ticked-off King Herod). Instead of fighting the political correctness in the larger culture, we need to be on guard against religious correctness in our Christian subculture. People in church circles will use religious litmus tests to determine someone's Christianity. These litmus tests aren't based upon things found in scripture, but are things considered taboo in religious subculture. Alcohol is an example of this. The scriptures don't actually prohibit someone from taking a drink, just for getting drunk or allowing alcohol (or anything else for that matter) standing between an individual and God). In our culture, we need to consider the negative connotation of alcohol and whether or not we would be tempting someone who struggles with alcohol addiction if we were to take a drink. For this reason, I don't take a drink. But I won't hold it against someone or consider him or her less Christian if he or she decides to take a drink. Same goes with saying "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas." I sense from some in the Christian subculture that if you don't say "Merry Christmas" then you aren't the spiritual and Godly giant that they think they are. This is the same smugness and air of superiority that Jesus confronted in the religious people of his day. I use the term religion here because when we get to that point, it is no longer about faith, but just about keeping rules.

To sum this all up, if we as followers of Christ would be more concerned about living our faith in our culture instead of waging war against our culture at Christmas time and every other time of the year, maybe the culture would be different. By fighting political correctness, we are just digging ourselves deeper into a hole.

Attitude

Sometimes I prefer the company of unchurched people. Last weekend, my wife and I were vacationing in Dallas and spent some time in the hot tub at the hotel we were staying at. In the hot tub were two other couples. In conversations with them, I realized they didn't attend church and probably had little or no relationship with God. However, they were very nice, great to talk to, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. They just seemed to love life and had a great attitude about things.
Contrast this with most of what I hear out of Christian acquaintances. Much of what I hear is complaining about life; griping about family, griping about work, griping about church, griping about the city, griping about the government, and on and on. It's draining and I don't realize how much that spirit affects me until I get away from it for a few days.
A friend of mine who spent 11 years in prison before his life altering encounter with God once shared with me that he met more honest people in prison than he has ever met in church. I believe every bit of that statement. Oftentimes I wonder when I am around church people and even fellow pastors, if I'm really hearing the truth or just a bunch of.....well......that stuff that makes crops grow.
Why is it this way? How come those of us who claim to follow Christ can't display a better attitude about life? Why do we put on such a facade when we are around each other that we don't really know one another and what's really going on in our lives?
It seems the world has us beat in attitude, joy, honesty, and I'm willing to bet they have us beat in forgiving too.
Instead of us informing the world, the world seems to be informing us. It shouldn't be that way.

What's Going On?

Over the past year, I have had two friends leave the ministry not for moral reasons, but just for the fact that it was taking a toll on them spiritually, physically, and in many other ways. Just in the previous week, I have heard about several others who have walked away from it within the past year too. Even the healthiest of churches seem to be having problems with many people on edge right now. On a weekly basis, I receive news of a different church being attacked by wolves/busybodies or whatever you want to call them.
I know this stuff has always taken place, but I'm hearing more of it now. Are things really heating up? What exactly is going on that's causing all of these things to take place? (And don't tell me that we are just living in the Last Days. We have been since Jesus left this world 2000 years ago and we could be here another 2000 or so years so that isn't a good enough answer).

One of Us

Jesus' disciples once came up to him and proudly informed him that they saw a man driving out demons in Jesus' name, but they told him to stop because "he was not one of us." It must have been quite a blow to their inflated sense of self-righteousness when Jesus didn't give them the pat on the back they felt they deserved. Instead they got rebuked.
I guess I'm of the generation that is post-denominational. I pastor a church affiliated with the local Baptist Association, we're affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and the Southern Baptist Convention. We affiliate with other churches for the sake of missions. I don't agree with everything that these entities do (anyone who says he agrees 100% is lying), but doctrinally I line up with them closer than I would any other faith group. I also realize that the day of large denominational structures are coming to an end. In about 15-20 years, I feel that we'll be seeing less and less of the local Baptist Association, state convention, and national convention.
There are many external factors for this. But a large internal factor is the main cause of this. There is a bad case of "One of Us" Syndrome. I see this more in the Southern Baptist Convention than anywhere else. The criteria for doing anything in the Southern Baptist Convention is unreal. You are judged according to whether you'll sign a statement agreeing to an uninspired document, your church must give so much to Cooperative Program missions, and apparently now, you have to be in the circle of people associated with the GCR task force.
I could write more about this, but just thinking about it makes me sick. The Southern Baptist Convention is bleeding and no one seems to be asking the question as to why. If your goal in life is to have an ineffective ministry, just take a lesson from the current Southern Baptist Convention. Become more inclusive and try to stop those from doing ministry that you should be partnering with.
Do I sound ornery today?

Who Needs Them?

I don't understand where the talk of dissolving the Big 12 Conference started or when it started, but it has been all the talk the past few days and seems to have come out of nowhere. Personally, I don't understand why you would dissolve a powerhouse conference like the Big 12. It makes about as much sense as dissolving the Southwest Conference years ago. I also don't understand why Colorado and Nebraska leaving the conference would make the Big 12 start bleeding other schools. The conference can certainly go on without them.
Here is my proposal. I've been reading that this is all about maneuvering to get the University of Texas. The Pac-10, the Big 10, and the SEC all really want Texas in their conference because of the big money that comes with it. If I were the Athletic Director of the University of Texas (he can switch jobs with me for a day if he would like to), I would say enough. Nobody wants to be that naive little rich kid who only has friends because he has a lot of cool toys. Texas doesn't need any of these other conferences. What stinks is that these other conferences don't really want any of these other Big 12 schools. All they really want is Texas. But these other schools are getting caught up in it. Poor Baylor is going to be left in the dust. Let's form a Texas Conference. We can do it! Let's have Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, SMU, TCU, Rice, and Houston. Yes, it's the old Southwest Conference without Arkansas (the way it always should have been). Let's make an unofficial and unwritten agreement with all Texas high schools that their athletes can only go to Texas Conference schools. The Texas Conference will dominate, annihilate, and destroy all other schools in the nation. Alabama will definitely have to take another cheap shot on the Texas quarterback in order to have any chance of winning another National Championship.
Texas can do quite well on its own. Let's keep all of our money and resources right here south of the Red River. Say no to these other money-hungry, stab-you-in-the-back conferences and tell them we don't need them.

Who or What we Really Serve

We put "In God we Trust" on our money. People will fight over whether or not we should keep that on there. But, in the end, we all serve the dollar. Money motivates us, guides our decisions (rather than being guided by conviction), and becomes the basis of our value and security. Ultimately, we will put more trust in how much is in the bank rather than anything else. Yes, this is wrong. We cannot serve both God and the dollar. But if we were really honest, we would admit that we struggle with believing in the dollar more than in the name of the God who's printed on it. Maybe that's why God allows recessions and perhaps a depression if we don't start to get with it.

Mystery

I don't have an answer, just a question this evening. How can people pray to the same God about the same situation and get such different answers?