These are words I have chosen to believe. These are truths I have chosen to embrace. Not blindly, or by rote or virtue of family tradition, but by examination, trial and perseverance. I find meaning, comfort, purpose and fulfillment in the scriptures. Faith is a choice to become something greater than what you already are, and to recognize the greatness within yourself.
So,
here’s the problem:
When you mention Christianity, many non-believers immediately
think of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz cooking bacon by firing an AR-15
assault rifle with meat wrapped around its barrel. This is something I cannot imagine: Jesus Christ owning an assault weapon. Yet, the gun-toting,
hate-spewing, unapologetically bigoted, homophobic, intolerant
scowl of political conservatism is the dominant face of
Christianity in America. When black folk think of Christianity,
their mind fills with Hammond organ music, howling overweight
women and bullying overseers distorting cheap P.A. systems with
their screaming sing-song, bloated, hours-long performances.
They think of hot sanctuaries and paper fans with balsa wood
handles and funeral home ads on them. They think of the
constant, unending pressure to give money; money that makes no
apparent difference in the church itself, while the pastor
drives a new luxury car every year.
The first thing that pops into the minds of most non-Christians,
white or black, is No Sex. No Sex is number one with a bullet.
To many in my experience, the main drag against Christianity is
their association of celibacy with spirituality. This is another
myth I have to fight against before they can even begin to hear
anything at all about Christ: one has nothing to do with the
other. Don’t stop seeking a relationship with God just because
you’re getting some. Don’t assume God will reject you because of
whatever habits you are into. God said come just as you are
[Romans 5:8], bad habits, sex life and all. Get connected, build
a relationship with Him and let God be God. Once you learn to
trust God, as you grow in grace, you will want to please Him;
you will make your own choices.
Most everyone I’ve ever talked to simply avoids any real or
lasting commitment to God because of the warped image of
Christianity—of church and people who go there—that pops into
their head. So, in order to even begin any discussion with
someone about God, I first have to get out my machete and cut
through the thick underbrush of nonsense layered over a simple
message: God loves you, He sent His Son to die for you, He wants
to have a relationship with you. Everything else is just Church
Folk Foolishness.
A
teenage girl asked our youth leader last week, “Why is this
important?” “This” referred to the whole notion of church,
religion, God, and our involvement in it all. The youth leader
sputtered into Rehearsed Speech #12, which answered none of her
questions, and she kind of shifted into that teenage thing where
she's too polite to interrupt, but has clearly checked out of
the conversation. Rehearsed speeches can be incredibly damaging,
and damaging someone's faith, at so young an age, is a terrible
thing to do. But, in my opinion, this was a person whose faith
was already nearly non-existent, despite having grown up in
church. She spends several days per week involved in church
activities, and her parents are married, well educated,
prosperous, faithful congregants. But she had no idea why any of
us were there. The church had failed, utterly, in seventeen years, to reveal anything of
the living God to this young woman. The sputtering youth
director was rescued by the youth pastor, who had no speeches,
and readily admitted he doesn't have all the answers, and gave
the young girl something to think about. But the wound inflicted
by Rehearsed Speech #12 may have been a mortal one. Only time
will tell.
I am often confronted by people searching for the truth.
Searching for answers. Looking for me to say or do something— I
dunno, stand on my head— to finally flip the switch in their
mind enough for them to believe. These are people who want to
believe. People with money and cars and friends and careers who
are still missing... something in their lives. The God-shaped
hole, the insatiable desire and unquenchable thirst. But, these
folks are often tripped up by nagging doubt fueled by a
reasonable intelligence and healthy skepticism, especially of
Christianity and the Bible. Despite what may once have been noble and wonderful motives,
Christians have made it nearly impossible for anyone to believe
in Christ.
There is nothing in the air that is going to reveal God to you.
The whole question of faith is stretching out beyond our natural
cynicism and skepticism and reach for something greater than
ourselves. I fervently believe if you seek God you will find
Him, that your faith will find expression. I am, of course,
largely discussing a Christian expression because that is the
truth that I have embraced. A truth I have questioned and
continue to question; the process of questioning my faith only
strengthening it.
But, from a standing start, our new generation of seekers may
find it difficult if not impossible to embrace a traditional
Christian faith because so very much damage has been done to
faith by religion. Religion is, in essence, mankind's search for
God. Faith implies a relationship with God. The expression of
that faith, of that relationship, can be organized into
religion, but religion in and of itself does not necessarily
constitute faith.
That's how we have a girl sitting in the back pew for seventeen
years who has, apparently, no visceral conviction about who God
is and no apparent expression of that belief. What she does
have, however, is religion.
