Anyone and Everyone is Welcome

I recently saw that phrase on a Facebook post, inviting people to a party.

How amazing it would be if Christian churches believed this . . . and lived this out.

Take a Chill Pill

I've got a few random thoughts rolling around today . . . so I'm going to put them down - and hopefully they will come together in some sort of cohesive fashion.

Quality over quantity. I've always heard that. And the more I journey through life, the more I believe it. I try to pack so many things into my day. And I measure my days by how much I get done in them. That's too bad.

I'm coming to realize this more and more. My wife and I have been journeying together for almost ten years now, many of those being in pursuit of a Ph.D. We finally attained that for her, recently. And now that we're there, I look back upon different stages of that particular journey; and I wish that I had stopped to smell the roses a bit more (how many cliches is that, already?).

I think this sort of relates to another thought I have been having recently. Religion that is coerced is not true religion. I'm not sure what that is; but it's not religion. I'm convinced of this more and more, with each passing day. But I recently read a blog post from a former pastor of mine, which did a good job of stating that religion that tries to make someone feel superior to someone else is not really religion. That got me to thinking about what religion, really, existentially, really is.

I have been a part of a number of religious experiences in which other people, particularly youth, are pressured into making some sort of decision. It's not necessarily a "do this or die" sort of situation. But the onus is clearly placed upon the individual. And if that individual does not do whatever the leader/speaker/preacher wants them to do, that person is considered to be a failure. The clear example, of course, is a speaker asking audience members if they died tonight, where would they go? (heaven or hell?) Scaring someone into heaven (or one's conception of heaven) has never been a good idea.

But it's not only just these obvious situations. The religious right is all about calling upon religious freedom recently to say that Obamacare (which is a gross misunderstanding of the health care bill) strips away Americans' religious freedom by making Catholic institutions give birth control to its employees. At best, that is a weak case for saying why Catholic institutions should not have to purchase birth control. But anyway, since they brought it up, if we are going to talk about religious freedom - we need to give religious freedom to all people: both for religion and from religion. The same people who are crying religious freedom were the same ones saying that mosques should not be built in certain places. These people want religious freedom for their particular brand of religion. That's not freedom; that's bigotry.

Religion, at its best, is inclusive of all people and is built upon and creates for others: freedom.

Travelling

I love to travel. I always have. I love going places. I love eating different foods. I love being around different people. I love seeing new things. I love going to games in different stadiums.

I also love planning travel. At one time, I thought of being a travel agent. I like to research cities, places to go, things to do, places to stay, places to eat.

Everyone needs to pursue their interests, their passions, the things they enjoy doing. I believe these are God-given. And we are fully human only as we pursue those things that get us going.

Grace For All People

After news broke last week of Josh Hamilton "relapsing" with alcohol, I did not have much grace for him. I have not been a big Josh Hamilton fan for the last year or so. I have grown tired of the way he wears his religion on his sleeve, particularly since it is a brand of the Christian faith that I do not exactly identify with. Then, last season, when he injured himself, he blamed it on the third base coach. That did not seem to be the stand-up, Christian characteristic that I would have hoped for in him.

Then, I heard some details about his relapse with alcohol on local sports radio in the DFW area a few days ago. These details were, well, raunchy, to say the least. It showed me why I thought there was more to this relapse when he sort of apologized in his press conference. That's because there was more to it than alcohol. I let Hamilton have it pretty hard, even if it was only in my own head.

But that doesn't really matter. It took another radio program, on that same sports radio station, this morning to show me that I was the one, in fact, who was being hypocritical. The guy on the radio program, who is admittedly not enamored with the Christian faith (or at least the version of it he sees in popular culture), talked about how impressed he has been by the Christians who surround Hamilton that continue to stick by him throughout all of his ups and downs. The radio personality said that these people should be commended for continuing to encourage Hamilton, even when the details of his relapses are as scandalous as they are.

I was wrong. I might disagree with Hamilton, on a whole host of issues. But it is not my job to judge him. I root for the Texas Rangers; so I should root for Hamilton, both on and off the field. I preached a sermon a while back about judging others. In it, I used the illustration of Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby's character in The Cosby Show) trying to be a professional plumber in an episode of the show by attempting to fix a leak in the bathroom, when he should have let the professionals come in and do the job. It's the same with those who follow Christ. It's tempting, sure, but it's not our job to judge. We have no idea what it's like to be in the other person's shoes. The sad reality is that we often do much worse than Cliff, who jacked his bathroom up pretty good. We can easily demonize others and do both harm to them and to us . . . even if it's someone we don't even personally know, like Josh Hamilton.