Mark 3:25 — “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Wow. Talk about a house divided. Denominational politics at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem literally block the construction of a much needed fire exit.
Nothing quite sums up the problems of denominational relations like this piece in USA Today . . . today. Being “Christian” is just not one thing nor has it ever been. As someone desiring publication in the CBA, I am constantly aware of the minutia that is Christianity. Fact is, as was mentioned by a recent ACFW judge of my work, I may not be producing (and I may not, myself, be) CBA material.
What to do? I struggle with this a lot, but I am who I am, yes? My husband reminds me that censure will only stilt my writing and my life. “Be who you are,” he says, “and the rest follows or it doesn’t, but writing life is too complicated to create a false self that then creates fictional characters.” Wise words.
I need to hear them often because I want to be liked, contracted, and read, but a house (or a writer, or a church) divided against itself cannot stand. Not optimally anyway.
“I AM” is one of God’s names. The main one technically. You know, that’s what Yahweh means. Well, YHWH can mean lots of stuff, “I AM” being one of them… but without getting technical… Just be.
Sage is onto something. I once wrote in a sermon, “We end up being what we pretend to be. Just be you, don’t pretend and you’ll do fine.”
I just saw the Southpark episode:
Atheist War
Season 10
Go God Go XII
“All-out war lies hinges on the three warring groups agreeing to a single answer to the Great Question, what is the best name.”
It’s all like this.
I don’t understand a couple things:
1. Why do people buy into all this bullcrap.
2. Why can’t our leaders be better than the people they lead. (asking that question become rhetorical in my mind… you can’t ask people to be better. They won’t do it.)
Never mind… more wars, death and destruction please. We get what we deserve.,
Holly, you’re a genius. Do your students mention it? 😉 I love the in-group and out-group sociological and biological studies brought to me by New Scientist. Always presented in nice little dumbed down chunks for me. Seems it’s an essential part of crafting our well being to feel . . . safe, included, empowered, I guess?
Perhaps they will be pulled out by angels.
I repeat constantly the mantra of “Christianities”–the plurality of expressions of followers of Jesus the Christ over millennia across the globe. But I also notice how my students get really defensive when I introduce something about the tradition that they have not heard of. “That isn’t Christianity!” they argue.
We are very keen to point to who is in and who is out.
Unfortunately, if there is no way out, then those who are in when the fire comes will wish they weren’t so “in.”
Practicality is non-denominational.