Sharing the Gospel with the Kid

At some point in my child's life, I would love her to accept Christ into her heart. Well, I think I'm almost there.

Me: Who lives in your heart?

The Kid: Jesus!

Me: Who lives in mommy's heart?

The Kid: Mary.

Me: Who lives in my heart?

The Kid: Jesus' friend.

Me: Who lives in Lexy's (the dog) heart?

The Kid: The donkey.

I think we're pretty close.

Religious Abuse and Other Factors Leading the Irrelevancy of the Church

Before I begin, I feel I need to make some unnecessary disclaimers. I, Alan Ng, am a conservative born again, evangelical Christian with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After you read this and the other blog entries, you can call me whatever name you want, it will just fall off my back.

I became a Christian in the 1980's just before graduating from high school. I was swept up and took part in the popularity of evangelicalism. I loved my Christian t-shirts and listened to only Christian music. I drank milk from Christian Cows (Steve Taylor Reference). I listened to Focus on the Family, Chuck Swindoll and Chuck Smith. I protested abortion (as I still do today) and The Last Temptation of Christ. And like all good evangelicals, I'm a Republican.

These last few years though have been trying times, not for my faith but for my faith in the church. My faith that the church can remain relevant and paint an accurate picture of Christ.
Much of my attention today has moved away from church and church involvement to the ministering to the needs of those abused and discarded by the church. The song They Will Know We Are Christian By Our Love comes to mind. What does the world see, when they see Christians.

What I see today from Christians has little to do with showing Christ's love to a fallen world, but more about maintaining a pure and godly lifestyle and forcing others to live that way too.

When I talk to people who have turned away from Christianity, I hear stories of the Church letting them down and the Church constantly judging them. The reason rarely have to do with Jesus Christ himself.

In future blogs, I hope to get into detail with this topic, but before then I would direct you to my writings about Homosexuality and Christianity. All of the criticism that I've received never once treats a gay person as a person in need of Christ, but as a person whos lifestyle will prevent them from ever become a Christian and now their sole goal is to destroy the family. This is a huge leap to take.

As an evangelical my life's goal is not to protect America's legal definition of a family. My goal is to be salt and light in this world and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

More on this later.

Bridging the Gap Synchroblog - Christianity and Homophobia

This is my contribution to today’s Bridging the Gap Synchroblog. Today, I’m proudly joining dozens of other Christian bloggers to talk about bridging the gap between Christians and the homosexual community. Please take a moment and check out the New Directions ministry.

I’ve been intentional in my blog about not addressing whether homosexuality is a sin or the spiritual state of homosexuals for two reasons. One, the debate can not be resolved easily nor will it be resolved anytime soon. Two, for the purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant. Whether you believe it’s a sin or not, as Christians it’s not up to us to stand in judgment over the world and deny the rights of our fellow human beings. We were never given that authority by God.

I’ve always considered myself to be a good Conservative Christian.  I did not grow up in a Christian family. I accepted the Lord in high school. When I turned 18, I became a Republican and voted for Ronald Reagan. I was an ardent supporter of ministries dealing with the family, such as “Focus on the Family.” I went to seminary where I converted from a fundamentalist to an evangelical (if that’s a change at all). All this to say that from the very beginning of my Christian walk, I was told that homosexuality was a sin.  I would listen to Focus on the Family and hear them tell me how homosexual community is trying to destroy the family. I became a Christian in the 80’s at the start of the AIDS epidemic and was told that this is God’s judgment on homosexuals (which I never really believed). And as time passed, I was warned of the Gay Agenda to not only destroy the family but to directly attack Christian churches and my faith.

For the most part, I believed what I was being told. So what has changed?

As I read some of the blog of those participating today, we all share something in common. We all actually know people who are gay. In my other life, I perform improvisational comedy in San Diego. It was there that I befriended my first of many homosexual friends. Then I found that I have close family members who are gay. Every time I have an opportunity to be with one of my friends, I wonder what I have got offer as a Christian?

This brings me to today’s topic: Christians and Homophobia

I used to joke about this. “I’m not homophobic, I’m just afraid of gay people.” Soon this joke became very real to me.  If there’s one thing that I can say to the Gay Community is that “we don’t hate you, we’re just afraid of you.”

So why are we afraid? I’ve was told on numerous occasions, that the last sin of a society before it falls is homosexuality. Then I’m pointed to Sodom and Rome. The truth is that they didn’t fall because they allowed same-sex couples to get married. They fell because they were a god-less society that used sex for god-less reasons, like rape and hedonistic pleasure. It’s a very different picture than two people of the same sex making a lifetime commitment to each other.

I was also told that the Gay Agenda seeks to destroy the family. That’s also not true. Whether or not, we allow same sex marriages to exist, my wife, daughter and myself will still be a family.

But why do we have to share marriage with the gay community? My answer is “Why Not?”

Schools will teach children that society accepts homosexuality as normal.  Yeah, schools are teaching evolution and allowing kids to get abortions without parental notification. Why, as Christians, have we allowed the public school system to teach our children about values, when this is clearly our job as parents.

They are going to revoke tax exempt status, allow churches to be sued, shut down churches that speak out against homosexuality.  Even if this is true and your church is being attacked because of your messages denouncing homosexuality, I have a question for you. Is this why your church exists? To end the scourge of homosexuality? If it is, I would challenge you to rethink your purpose as a church.

In a recent blog, I mentioned that the church has three real goals on earth. Matthew 22:36-40 – Love God and love your neighbor. Act 1:8 – Share the gospel to the world. Ironically, you’ll find an excellent explanation of these goals in Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.

I’ve always been bothered by the fact that the message is stop and put an end to the sin of Homosexuality, but never in that message do I hear love your neighbor or share the Gospel. How has it that we’ve drawn the line in the sand and made homosexuality the unpardonable sin? How is it that when we find out a person is gay, that we need to “speak the truth in love” and point out their sin and move no further until they repent. How is it that the evangelical Church has no strategy at all for reaching the Homosexual community with any kind of real plan for sharing the world?

We will risk our lives going into Muslim countries in the name of the Lord, but we won’t bother going into West Hollywood or Mission Hills.

I’ve found that interacting with my gay friends is no different interacting with my straight friends. They are all people with individual stories and with an emptiness that life just can’t fill. And I have a message that Christian is the living water to quench their thirst.

I take that back, there is a difference; I have no church that I can take a gay friend to without being judged or told to repent. Or where they are going to be stared at and in many cases not asked to come back unless they’re willing to repent (believe me if they’ll do it to my divorced friends, they do it to my gay ones).

My Challenge to the Evangelical Church. Let’s get back to what we’re called to do and come up with a real ministry to homosexual community. Let me start you off. Head into the homosexual community. Meet individuals. Talk to them. Listen to their stories. Share with them your story about how God changed your life. Let God speak through you. Let God do the rest. And finally, end the war.

The War on Homosexuals Ends Now - The Christian Perspective on Legislating Morality

As a Born-Again, Evangelical Christian, I must admit that I would love to live in a nation that basis it’s morality on Christian values. I strongly believe that following that values and moral set by the Bible is the formula for a nation's true success.

This will one day happen (i.e. Second Coming of Christ). Until then, what kind of a society should Christians create? More so, what does this have to do with homosexuality?

I believe in legislating morality. I believe that there should be laws and punishments based on Christian morality, but the truth is I live in a country that is not comprised of Christians. The United States is comprised of Christians, Muslims, Athiests, Buddists ... you get the point. As a Christian I can not enforce my faith on those who don't agree with me.

Matthew 22:36-40 states:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

All of laws of the Bible can be summed up into two categories: Love God. Love your neighbor.

I have two issues that I'm pretty passionate about today: Abortion and Equality for Gays.

I am very Pro-Life. I do not believe in abortion as a form of contraception and as a father of a daughter born to teens, I believe every life is precious.

I am in support of equality for gay. Primarily, I support Gay Marriage in America.

So if I'm an Evangelical Christian, then how can I be against abortion and for gay marriage.

It's simple. When it comes to legislating morality, you can't legislate the "Love God" commandments. You can not create laws that force Americans to worship the God of the Bible. You can not create laws that force American to accept Christ as their savior, to not work on Sunday and tithe 10% to the church (insert tax comment here).

What you can legislate is the "Love your neighbor" laws. We can write laws that punish those who would hurt their neighbor. This is why murder is illegal, stealing, lying under oath, etc.

Abortion kills another human being out of convenience.

But what about homosexuality? We addressed that in a recent blog. Two consenting adults who love each other and want to get married is "loving your neighbor" (literally in some cases). No one is hurt physically, emotionally, or mentally.

Most Evangelical Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin. This sin would be classified as a "Love God" sin. It's wrong only because it's not the way God designed marriage.

Here's something to think about. If homosexuality is a sin in God's eyes, then you have to accept that divorce is a sin and we would write laws that make divorce illegal. If we're so adamant about outlawing gay marriage then you need to be just as adamant about making divorce illegal.

Divorce has done far worse damage to the Christian family then gay marriage could ever do.

I Hate Praise Music: Revisited

For some reason my blog on "Why I Hate Praise Music" has gotten a lot of attention and I wrote the thing almost two years ago. One of the comments that came back to me was something about a child that sings "Jesus Loves Me" off-key and just bad it's not cute, this is worship. I've had many comments to this effect, basically good or bad as long as God is being praise it's worship.

OK, I understand that worship comes from the heart. I'm not questioning anyone's motive. But then again, take a step back and place yourselves in the shoes of the unbeliever.

The real reason I'm writing is that I'm watching "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here." And the most public Christian that we have in the world today is Spencer and Heidi. Thanks Guys for the help and setting up back a few centuries. Believe me, I get it. I can't judge their hearts, but I can tell you how stupid they look in the name of the Lord.

Maybe I'm lacking a little faith, but someone please explain to me how their obnoxious behavior is exactly bringing the lost to Christ. Maybe when I read the life of Christ, I'm not exactly seeing this kind of heavy handed preaching.

Ok, now you all can be made at me again.

Defending Christianity

I've spent a good part of 2008 being very critical of Evangelicals and the Church. I thought I'd take a moment to defend Christianity, Evangelicals and the Church.

My criticism of my fellow believers has been in their defense of marriage using lies and deceptions and the seduction of power that has taken over many pastors and church leaders.

I came across this article by Skip Press about "Hollywood vs. Jesus" and it reminded me of the contempt that so many have against that which I truly believe in. I'm still grow tired of these attack.

I have been a Born-Again Evangelical Christian for almost 25 years. My relationship with Jesus, as rocky and glorious as it has truly been both personal and life-changing to the point that I hope everyone comes to understand Christ and Christianity as I do.

In the late 80's, a movie came out called "The Last Temptation of Christ" and it claimed to show the humanity of Christ, but by humanity it showed that he struggled with temptation and sin, like lust. I lead a campaign at my church to publically denounce this movie. Almost 20 years later, my opinion about the church and world has changed. I don't want to say I've become more liberal but I'm more forgiving of Hollywood. I still believe I did the right thing with Last Temptation of Christ, even though it makes me look like a sign-carrying censor.

Recently "The DaVinci Code" and now the TV Mini-series "The Last Templar" has really gotten my Pro-Christian activism blood flowing. Both movies set out to reveal that Christ was only a human being, thus effectively taking down Christianity, who core belief is that Jesus Christ was God in human flesh (more than a human).

Honestly, it's never easy to watch anyone mock what you believe in. It's one thing to disagree but it like telling Mother jokes. Sure it's funny to say your mother is great in bed, but she's still your mother.

I work every weekend at a comedy theater in San Diego. I'm probably only one of a few Christians in the group. I put up with Jesus jokes. I've seen Jesus jokes protrayed on stage, and I sit quietly. But at the same time, Jesus is very real to me. He died for me and he is someone that I try to pattern my life after.

It's disheartening to see Jesus protrayed the way he is in the movies or shown as someone he's not, like the husband of Mary (DaVinci Code) or a man rendered useless by overwhelming temptation (Last Temptation) or someone who in vain could not convince the world he was not God (Last Templar).

If anything, I'll let you make fun of the church for the stupid and silly things we do, but please show a little more respect for Jesus Christ.

The War Ends Now - A Call for Christians to Reconsider their View on Homosexuals

I made a big mistake this last election. I made an assumption that made me not campaign for an important issue. Yes, I worked hard supporting John McCain to become president, but I did not campaign to defeat Proposition 8.  I assumed that liberal California would defeat the proposition. I was wrong, now I feel I need to make things right.

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS NEED TO END THE WAR AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS TODAY!

I'm not going to waste this important blog by trying to convince you that Homosexuality is or is not a sin. That's not the issue.

Since I'm addressing my fellow Christians, I'm going to take the position that Homosexuality is a sin (more on this in a future blog). With the assertion that homosexuality is a sin...

END THE WAR! OPEN YOUR ARMS AND GET BACK TO WHAT GOD HAS CALLED US TO DO and that's preach the GOSPEL.

You may disagree with me by using the term "war" but even if you don't see your attitudes toward gays as "war-like" it really is.  During the whole Prop 8 campaign, I saw believers resort to lies and misconceptions to scare people into voting yes.  My children will be taught about gay marriage (btw they already are). Churches will lose their non-profit status by now marrying same-sex couples (no, Churches are allowed to discriminate by definition).

I know very few homosexuals that would describe Evangelicals as kind, loving people.

FIRST, LET'S CHANGE OUR PERSPECTIVE

Remember the Great Commission? Matthew 28:18 - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." I think we sometimes for get that the "all nations" part does not mean foreign missions but it means even our own backyard.

God has called us, Christians, to be salt and light in this world.  Our job is to show the lost what it means to have a personal relationship with God. To shine the light of God to a dark world and to flavor the world around us, like salt to draw people to the fact the Jesus died for everyone.

Let's not forget that the lost world include the homosexual community as well.  Just like any non-believer, homosexuals who do not know Christ needs to be saved like we did when we were lost.

I've written about this before, but why have we drawn the line in the sand with homosexuality? Why has the Christian community singled out the homosexuality as the sin that we just can't tolerate?  I almost see it as making homosexuality the new unpardonable sin. I realize that I'm speaking in extremes, but I've attended many churches and I have yet to come across or read about a single evangelical church that has any kind of outreach to the gay community.

Yes, we can visit AIDS Hospices and care for the dying but on the other hand we can stand at an intersection and hold up a political sign to keep their lifestyle illegal.  Maybe its just me, but I can't imagine Jesus holding political signs or attending Yes on 8 rallies. I can see Jesus walking down the streets of West Hollywood compelling to lost to accept him has their personal savior.

Let's not forget the being gay does not condemn you to Hell. Not having a relationship with Jesus Christ is what condemns you to Hell.  So as a Christian, I don't see a person as homosexual or heterosexual, I see a person who either does or does not know Christ and I build my relationship from there. It's not up to me to make the decision whether they are ready to accept Christ based on who they sleep with.

I'm sure you find it easy to walk an adulterer, drug user, or the promiscuious through the sinners prayer, but it seems we need to "cure" a person of their homosexuality before we begin to talk to them.

I'm finding that this blog is getting pretty long, so I'll follow this up with two more posts regarding "Homosexuality and the End of the World" or Legislating Morality, and "the New Mission Field." 

CALL TO ACTION

Here's what I'd like to see my fellow Born-Again, Evangelical, Conservative Christian brothers and sisters do:

1. END THIS WAR. As Christians, we must no longer single out the gay community as the group we refuse to show Christ's love and character to. Stop the need to legislate their behavior.
2. SEE HOMOSEXUALS AS INDIVIDUALS. Don't look at a person as gay or straight, but as Christians, see them as lost or saved.  Introduce the lost to Christ and let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest.

Why I'm Voting No on Prop 8

I've been avoiding this blog for a while, but I did want to get it up before the election on Tuesday. Yes, I'm not following my own people on this one. I think its important for me to put this down on "paper."

Here are some of the short reasons:

1. I don't generally vote for propositions, especially any budget appropriations. That's the legislature's job, not the people. I'm only voting for the Parental Notification proposition - Prop 4.

2. Barack Obama is going to do worse to this nation than Gays marrying. Nuff said about this one.

3. Your views on Homosexuality changes when you actaully have homosexual friends. As a Christian, I can't bring myself to vote for this.

4. As much as I would like to legislate my Christian values, the government is not inherently Christian. You can not pass legislation that will cause people to live as Christians. What's next, laws that outlaw Islam?

There's only one reason in my mind to vote for Prop 8 and that's to counter act maverick judges who think they can create laws from the bench. It's not the judges job or the people's job to create laws, that's why we elect senators, govenors and assemblymen to do that. This is a republic, people.

Back to voting no. I'm not going to get into theology at this time, but I'm not convinced that the Bible prohibits homosexuality. In the Old Testament, it definitely does. But it also prohibits each shellfish and pork. It also has harsh words to say about women experiencing their monthly cycles and "spilling your seed."

Now that Christ has fulfilled the law, why is the aforementioned list acceptable and not homosexuality? In fact, homosexuality and "spilling" was forbidden, because God needed to grow his nation, "Israel". The fulfillment of that law has been met in Christ.

Let's assume though that Homosexuality is wrong. Why have Christians drawn the line in the sand and created and "us vs. them" mentality when it comes to gays? The only "us vs. them" is Believers and Non-Believers. Our job is not to win the war against Non-Believers, but to compel them to Believe. The actual belief is the Holy Spirit's job.

The church is losing the battle to bringing Homosexuals to Christ because we are presenting a militant picture of Christ that wants to keep them from marrying and having children. I believe that Jesus would walk down the streets of West Hollywood and win souls based on his ability to show love and die for anyone. But that's an image we don't want to see, drag queens following Christ.

What's the difference between two people of the same sex wanting to get married and two teenagers getting married because the girl is pregnant? The difference is the same sex couple actually want to get married. My point here is that there are plenty of heterosexual couples that should not get married because they are just bringing children into this world to live in unhappy and sometimes violent home.

My wife's parents never should have gotten married, let along have children. But the state of California let them get married. My wife was born, thank God. But hardly to a loving and safe household.

The state didn't ask them if they got counseling, or if they had what it took to love each other and love their children. No, the state made them fill out an application and take a blood test. In fact, there's not much the state could to do to prevent them from getting married, except if they were of the same sex.

Yes, gays have domestic partnerships to give them legal rights. It's really not the same. Partly because those legal rights only extend to the borders of California (which is the greatest state in the union...with the exception of the Bay Area...never mind I'm getting off track). Your still telling a person that we will treat you differently because you chose to live a lifestyle out of the norm (Note: please do not get hung up on my use of the word "choice" at this time). What we are really saying is that we'll let homosexuals have the legal right to live as committed partners, but please don't taint the word, "Marriage." Sorry, but we heterosexual have already tainted the word.

Finally, I want to address the idea of "legislating morality." My dream is that we would live in a Christian nation, meaning everyone in this nation knew Christ as their personal savior and lived a Christ-like life. I hate to break it to you, fellow believers, we do not live in that nation. We haven't lived in that nation for a long time. At the same time we can't create a Christian nation through laws. If you really want to create a Christian nation, bring more people to Christ.

I see this issue the same as abortion, which I would outlaw (with the exception of rape, incest and life-threatening) if I could. The best way to stop an abortion is not to outlaw it, but to convince the mother that she has a life in her womb (with fingernails). I would also convince her that there are enough child-less parents out there who would love a chance to raise that child.


I will not stop Homosexuals from getting married, just as I will not stop being the best example of Christ that I can possibly be.

In spite of everything I said, I'm voting for McCain. And my long standing policy of never voting for a Democrat stands.

Obama Jokes Taboo?

I was just watching the season premiere of Saturday Night Live with Michael Phelps.  Overall it was pretty funny. Tiny Fey was spot on with her impersonation of Sarah Palin. Even as a Republican, I had to laugh.

I found it interesting that amongst the barrage of McCain and Palin jokes, there was not one joke that entire night that made fun of Obama.  Even during the race between Hillary Clinton and Obama, there were very few jokes poking fun at Barak Obama.

My first thought was that this could be a race thing.  There are certainly comedy taboos that apply to Obama and other African American public figures, but none of those taboos are funny, nor apply to Obama. They will also make fun of Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.

My second thought is obviously the liberal media and SNL writers really want Obama to win so their attacks are solely on McCain and Palin. But then again, they were pretty ruthless to Hillary Clinton and she certainly has a lot of issues in her life to poke fun.  SNL certainly has had a lot of fun at Hillary’s expense.

My conclusion is that Barak Obama is a boring guy.  Much that came up during the RNC was the fact that Barak has not done anything in his career. And we know very little about his personal life, except that he attends churches where the pastors have questionable character. Aside from that, who is Barak Obama? We don’t know enough about him to make fun of him.  He’s just a middle-aged African-American from the Midwest who has sat in the Senate and voted on legislation.  He’s never headed a committee nor written a piece of legislation.  Really, what do we know if this guy.

My next question is who will be the brave comedian to make the first Barak Obama joke?

Why I Hate Praise Music

I really dislike praise music.  The more I hear it, the more it bothers me.  It's so hard to worship today than I did in my early years as a Christian.  Two events this past week, truly brought this to light.  I'll share both.  Please don't get me wrong, I'm not judging praise music and I'm over 40 so I've been around.  I just hate praise music.

I HATE PRAISE MUSIC

My wife and I were at church last Sunday (Palm Sunday) and we walk in during the opening praise.  We have a praise band, which I have no problem with.  I'm not a big choir person, believe it or not.  We walk in and worship is going on.  We have drums, keyboard, piano, two guitars, bass, backup singers and a lead singer.

What was different about this morning was the lead singer was acting as a lead singer.  He was upfront, doing a few moves, singing like he was on American Idols, you know, giving his own take on the song and had the back up singers going.  This wasn't worship, it was a concert.  I'm not against concerts, just don't make me sing along with it and pretend its worship.  My church has an abundance of great singers and I love to hear them sing, but during worship, I want to be a part of the experience.  I don't want to be forced to be a spectator because I can't sing like the guy up front.

Worship leaders, let me give you a hint.  Please lead worship.  Lead in a way that makes me want to sing and not watch the show.

PRAISE MUSIC IS FOR LAZY COMPOSERS

This bothers me every time I sing.  Music needs to rhyme.  It's a governing truth of Engligh song and poetry, songs have to rhyme.  Let me tell you why.  From the beginning of time, music and poetry had patterns that helped people remember the verses.  "The Psalms don't rhyme!"  Yes, that what I hear.  Even in the original Hebrew they didn't rhyme, but they had patterns called parallelisms. The first line makes a statement and the second line supports that statement or run parallel with that statement.  There is a pattern.

Think about your favorite song, you'll see that it rhymes.  Rhyming does two things for us, it helps us remember the song.  We are not stringing random lines together, but the second line you remember because the last word rhymes with the last word of the first line, or in most cases the second and fourth line rhymes.  Also, rhyming brings closure to a verse.  It an element that brings completion to the verse.  When it doesn't, the verse is just left hanging there uncompleted.

Maybe it's just me but praise songs today feel like a bunch of Christian cliches strung together by a melody.  Composers, please show us that you've truly mediated on a song you wrote by taking the extra step and rhyme.

Whatever Happened to Hymns?

I was watching the movie Junebug.  In the middle of the movie the family was at a church gathering and the pastor of the church coases a spiritually conflicted George to sing "Softly and Tenderly."

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He's waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Granted this is a secular movie, but at the same time, I wondered, what happened to hymns. Let's not forget, hymns are songs.  They rhyme, they have melody, they make indirect statements of my heart.  Why have we given up on them?  Evangelism.  Carefully written words like Amazing Grace, no longer appeals to the non-believers.

Also, why do we need to need to change the melodys of hymns too.  Does Amazing Grace need a jazz arrangement to be relevant? When I Survey the Wonderous Cross really need to be a rock ballad? Can we take a step back and visit the past for a day.  We're missing so many gems that I still believe are relevant today.

My Christian Life

As many of you know, I'm an evangelical Christian in every sense of the world.  Well, maybe most senses but not all.  In my world, there are the extreme's. 

 

On the right, you have the ultra Conservative, take the Bibles literally and live by the strict interpretation.  These are the Bible Thumpers, suit and tie at Church, study the Word of God.

 

On the left, you have the free Spiritual charismatic, who loves God, loves the Bibles and loves to worship.  They love to spend all of their time reading the Bible and studying the Bible and loves being in the spirit when they sing and worship.

 

The difference to me the one likes the intellectual pursuit of God and the other likes the emotional pursuit of God.  I am in the middle.  Although my life is flanked by people on the extremes and the funny thing is.  I don't think either side believes I'm saved.

 

I find it strange that both sides are such polar opposites of each other, but at the same time they feel they have the right to judge me and my Christian maturity.

 

They like to criticize my role in the family, my leadership style has a husband and father, the amount of time that I watch television and my pursuits in witnessing.  Ugh.

 

On the right, they judge me because I don't follow what the Bible says, while on the left, they judge me because they don't feel like I'm following the Lord.

 

My response...I don't really care.  I'm not above criticism, but I am above judgment from others. And that's alright by me.  I gotta go. My TV show is on.

Calvary Chapel

I've not talked about this much, but I have serious problems with Calvary Chapel churches.  Read here: http://www.bobofett.com/psychoticmail.html

 

She sounds crazy but I happen to believe her story for it is consistent with my experience with some Calvary Chapels.

Kristin Uninvited to Women of Faith

I'm not sure how I feel about this message posted on Kristin Chenoweth's website:

"It is with great regret that we let you all know Kristin Chenoweth will not be participating in the November Women of Faith concert in Oklahoma City. She has been asked to withdraw by the organization due to her publicized and heartfelt beliefs that God is accepting of all people on earth. Kristin's personal views and faith to this effect have not changed, despite the Women of Faith's actions."

Apparently, Kristin made a comment on the 700 Club that she was a member of the NYC Gay-Men's Choir.  Thus the acceptance of homosexual disqualified her from Women of Faith.

Here's an interesting post from the Women of Faith bulletin board:

It was very disappointing to hear someone so very impressed with themself....After hearing Kristin speak, a young mother came up to me and said that after listening, she felt like maybe she needed more faith so that God could do great things in her life. She had already been feeling inadequate going into the conference, but to then hear a speaker say "I know you can't take awards with you to heaven, but they sure are nice aren't they?" was very hard for her.

I'll agree she really didn't understand her audience at Women of Faith. But these actions truly sadden me.  I have gay friends, but as a friend, I do not need to constantly be in their face about the sinfulness of homosexuality.  Show me one place in the Bible where he got in the face of sinners.  I can show you passage after passage that shows Jesus getting in the face of hypocrites (the Pharisees).

It all comes to my basic belief about the Christian's response to homosexuality.  When did homosexuality become the unpardonable sin?  I know of very few people who know of ministry to homosexuals or even have strong convictions toward one.  The only response is that of judgment.

I guess this is why all Christians have bad haircuts.