Things I started thinking about while listening to Public Radio:
1) Why is so much of religion today seemingly shaped by such violence and hatred? From the terrorism of extremist Islamics to the judgmentalism of extremist Christian fundamentalists, why all the hatred when these people supposedly serve a loving God?
2) Why all the media attention on only the extremist fundamentalists? Why not more stories about religious people doing good in the name of their religion? My guess is that there are far more acts of grace shared each day by religious people than acts of terror.
3) Why is it ok in all kinds of public venues from TV to radio to public speeches to inter-office banter to use the name Jesus or Christ or God as an expletive but if someone where to use Allah that way, as in Allah d--- it, that person would be ostracized/condemned for racial intolerance?
4) My close personal friend BJ Thomas asks a couple of rather provocative questions in a song he wrote years ago called, Back Against the Wall. The questions: I wonder why the pure in heart have to have a judgment day? I wonder what the Lord has made that he plans to throw away?
About Me
- Pastor Tim
- I grew up in St. Louis Park, MN. I've been living in Arizona since 1984. I root for the AZ Cardinals, The Vikings and the Adelaide Crows (Australian Rules Football). I married my high school sweetheart, Jan, in 1979. We have a Beagle, Santi, and a Dachshund, Saba, and two real children that we love almost as much--Alycia married to Corey, who have a son, Judah, and Mike, married to Amber, who have a daughter, Clover, and a son, Phoenix. I am Sr. Pastor of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in Peoria, AZ. I am also the author of a new book on boys--Searching for Tom Sawyer: How Parents and Congregations Can Stop the Exodus of Boys from Church (www.TimWrightMinistries.org)
1 comment:
Some random thoughts on your first 2 points.
A retired rabbi once worked for me some time ago - actually he was affiliated w/ the rabbinical seminary in Cincinnati, so I guess a rabbi's rabbi. When I posed that question to him, his answer was "because it's so easy". I think he meant that people who hate find it easy to use people of religion for their mean-spirited ends. He would dispute that *those people* do indeed serve a loving God.
Of course, that doesn't answer why it's so easy. That was addressed by another employee (it was an amazing group) who believes that we are all tribal. We are always looking to identify with one *tribe* and put down all the other tribes.
When you look around, rivalries are everywhere - some are seemingly good-natured, some less so. "My tribe is better than your tribe" is all around... fraternities, school teams, sports teams, Yankees vs southerners, Army vs Navy, Calvinists vs Armininians, east valley vs west valley, Christian denominations, Islamic denominations, religious extremists... You get the picture.
It does seem that we spend an awful lot of energy, first, in cementing our identification with some group/tribe, then, in demonstrating why our group is better than any other, and ultimately, why that other group must lose/die. A result of the fall? I sure don't know.
To point number 2, I think that it goes beyond the cliche "man bites dog" makes news but "dog bites man" doesn't. I think that the media, as an integral part of our society, totally buys into the point made above. And btw... isn't the Wall Street Journal totally right and the New York Times totally wrong? or vice versa?
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