TVjunky's Blog

Religion is a topic that's very tough for some to talk about and can also be dangerous. In some countries you don't dare openly discuss your faith unless it is the faith of the ruling party. There is religious persecution all over the world in many forms.

But here in the US we claim to be a nation founded under GOD, but exactly what GOD is that. Looking over the recent headlines. We had a 12year old girl die because her parents believed in prayer instead of doctors, we have 400 + kids removed from what appears to be a extremist church that marries off the girls as young at 8. Neither of these actions are the wish of my GOD. So how do these people get things so wrong.

The answer is that so many people are just natural born followers. They look for somebody to give them a few shots of motivation and excitement, and then they follow them to the end of the earth. These at one time were simply classified as cults, but today that is the structure of many mainstream traditional churches. These arrogant and self empowered pastors are hiding inside our traditional Catholic and Lutheran churches right here in our area. They preach membership growth instead of doctrine, they want members instead of believers, they throw away traditions because they seem too churchy and they abandon the beautiful historic looking churches and build worship centers, praise centers and spritual growth auditoriums. These days it's almost impossible to see a difference between the average motivational, self help, get rich quick seminar and the average Sunday praise service. Sing some current songs, clap your hands, hear how the Lord wants you to prosper and the best way for that to happen is give more to the "pastors' latest pet project.

Today it is acceptable to many that church leaders lie, or taint the truth to get that budget passed. Withholding facts from congregations is done to eliminate unproductive disagreements. It is acceptable to have anybody lead a bible study, reagrdless of his understanding of the bible, just so long as the church can count the number of participants. The message is all about join us and follow us, instead of follow the Lord's word.

So before we shake our heads and pass judgement against the young girl's parents, or the mothers in the FLDS, we should look at our own church. What do we allow to take place that veers off from our true beliefs and allows members to follow the preacher instead of The Teacher.  When did it become accpetable to force families out of churches because they disagree with the personal plan of a preacher. Why is the only conversation about maintaing one's faith is generally related to disasters or national elections. The answer is we've allowed our faith to be dumbed down to praise songs and bumper stickers. The more symbols on your car, the better christian you think you are. The more total times we participate in anything, the less time we have to spend trying to understand all that difficult terminology and translations of the Lord's Word.

Faith For Dummies, $19.85 - buy it now at your local praise center and feel good about yourself tomorrow.