Railing against legislated Christianity is a constant theme of my blog. Few things piss me off more than do-gooder Christian types trying to force me to live by their moral standards. Blue laws, religious exemptions, and endless abortion legislation all combine to drive me crazy. I’m not a Christian – stop trying to make me act like one.
There are a few Christians who see the problem. Politicizing Christianity is perverting its core message. I happened on a short post about retired pastor Kirk Minor. He longs for the day when church was less political and more personal.
“We’re finding more and more that there are a lot of people out there doing a lot of talking and protesting and bellyaching, but fewer people actually walking the walk,” said Minor, author of Journey Across The Tiber: My Many Rooms. “We have extremists protesting funerals of gay soldiers, pundits decrying the use of abbreviations for the word Christmas and activists campaigning for prayer in public schools. These are all very divisive issues, and have little to do with the good works the Bible wants the faithful to perform.”
I ordered his book. Christians going good works is something I can get behind. I would rather Christians live their values and do good works instead of dreaming of ways to model my behavior after a standard they do not keep themselves.
2 comments:
"Legislated Christianity" is the best term I've heard in a long time to describe the word of the far-right. If Christ is real, he doesn't need to be legislated, but lived. Thanks for this piece.
"He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
--Clarence Budington Kelland
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