That’s right. I’m a Dirty Baptist or DB. I’m not ashamed of it. Frankly, I’m proud of it.
So what is a DB?
You might be a DB if… (you answer NO to these)
1. You must wear a suit on Sunday (and you like it).
2. Sitting in your pews makes you smell like old person (and that’s a good thing).
3. You put Charismatics in the same category as Mormons (because they’re both a cult)
4. The sound of pipe organs makes you feel at home (let us turn now to hymn 3732.34b).
5. You have used the term “Turn or Burn” in the course of evangelism (it’s truth people need!).
6. You’ve used a bible as a weapon to bludgeon a non believer (sword of the spirit baby).
7. You pronounce Jesus with four syllables (J-huh-eEEEE-Sssussss!).
8. You hold to traditions, but have no idea why you do them (it’s what we’ve always done!)
So as a DB what do I personally stand for? Well, I believe in the biblical model of a church (Acts) and not a set of traditions set in motion 70 years ago or ones by chubby Buddha Ricky Bobby Warren. I believe that God is living and you have to move and change to keep up with Him. I believe that we’ve sold the danger of the Great Commission for the comfort of the American Dream. I believe that we need to engage, pursue, and love the dirty people (i.e. the ones we don’t want sitting next to us on a Sunday morning because you know they sin - like we don’t). I believe that the biblical model of a believer and follower of Christ is a dangerous thing that the world fears (but rarely sees).
So what officially makes me a Dirty Baptist? Well, it’s the looks of disapproval I garnet from the other Baptists as I move outside the box (or sanctuary).
So don’t get me wrong, I love Baptists. It’s just I enjoy being a dirty one.
So what about you? Are you a DB? Or a Dirty ________ (insert denomination)?
I firmly believe that if we were to have said nothing about this exhibit, it would have made the news and gone away. By giving it spotlight it gives it credence and perpetuates the life of this story. It simply makes Christian Conservatives and Catholics look like idiots.
It appears that if you’re Republican and a Christian you’re being represented by one of the three Stooges.
The Republicans’ first primary contest is next week, and it’s not in New Hampshire. It is in Orlando, at the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters. GOP presidential candidates will be there to try to generate buzz that will translate into evangelical airtime — and support in the “base” in 2008.
Because there is no obvious and overpowering standard-bearer for the cause of the religious right, age-old fault lines and feuds are re-emerging among the titans who control the Sacred Satellite Dishes. Each of them thinks that he can anoint the One.
The Three Kingmakers have familiar names and big, traditional audiences on radio, television and now, the Internet: the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Dr. Pat Robertson and Dr. James Dobson. [MSNBC]
So how any opinions about having Falwell, Robertson or Dobson being a mouth piece for you to the political world?
For me, that idea is scary. Falwell (blowhard windbag), Robertson (wait, the Lord is giving me a word…. kook!) and Dobson (stick to the psychology buddy) don’t speak for me. When you mix politics and religion it’s a bad cocktail. Both sides are trying to take a piece of each other. Is it a godly pursuit? No. In the end to be a follower of Christ and mixed in with politics, you end up very Machiavellian (”the end justifies the mean’). And the last time I checked we’re supposed to be in Christ’s image not one of a scheming Italian.
So I abdicate being religious or being right (either conservative or correct). So do I go left? No, any Hilary prospect scares me. Nader? Ha ha NO.
This whole thing came rolling out of an blog (by Chris Summerfeld) I read today:
Stephen Crittenden from the ABC’s the Religion Report said this on a show a couple of weeks a go.
In the last couple of weeks, The New York Times ran a very interesting article, in which it claimed that evangelical leaders in the united States were warning each other that their teenagers are abandoning the Protestant faith in droves. And I’ll give you some figures that compared with 35% of their baby boomer parents, and 65% of their grandparents, only four percent of this current American teenage generation will be Bible believers.
This paints a pretty bleak picture and one that I assume is somewhat similar in Australia. So what’s the problem? I think it’s more than just how we do church…
What was really amazing is the fact I just had a conversation about this with a student who want’s to quit going to church. I work for a christian para-church org with youth. The student had lost his faith in the church (and wrapped up his faith in Christ with it).
You can look at this 2 ways (I choose the latter). 1)Things are going to get worse with the youth leaving their faith (or never having one) or 2)They just don’t connect with organized religion. That doesn’t mean that Christ is irrelevant to them, but so often they can’t see the difference between Christ and the church and chuck the whole thing.
We need to get back to our roots and quit doing church and start to simply walk out our faith on a daily basis. The students need to see faith in action, not simply tradition and routine. We are called to be image bearers of Christ.
When they look at church, they see nothing that fills that Christ shaped hole in their lives. They have a need, and the church isn’t filling it. Is that their fault? Should we say ‘woe to the youth’!?! We need to look in the mirror and look at ourselves.
What’s encouraging is that the youth of today have need for Christ and want it… they just don’t want church (as it stands today). There is new life in Christ and that’s what we all need to see.
Over the weekend, in a talk Jerry Falwell insinuated that Hillary Clinton was the devil (Lucifer). Now, I’m not putting any validity into Faldie - he’s a joke into himself. But he does bring up an interesting question: is Hillary evil? Christian conservatives have long demonized her (and some times for good reason). She’s liberal and morally left… and she’s a Clinton!
But comparing her to the devil, in my opinion, actually underscores the capacity of Satan and falsely establishes our opinion of what evil actually is. As Christians we engage daily in spiritual warfare against an the enemy of the cross and our Lord. There is a formidable enemy. Hillary is not that enemy. As Christian we know that victory is already won, Christ has come, died on the cross and conquered death. So we know that evil doesn’t win. That’s something to put our hope in, but that doesn’t get us off the hook or pull us out of the battle that we find ourselves in.
To see Hillary (an anyone else on this earth) as the ultimate enemy is foolish and wrong. All it means to do is take our eyes off the calling, our Lord, and the one who opposes it. It forces us to focus on the wrong thing. That’s one thing that makes me sick with conservative Christians. The focus on the wrong thing. I’m not saying that abortion and the plethora of other causes that liberals push are good. What I am saying is that you can choose to fight the symptoms or the source. Fighting the symptoms leads to an endless race of putting out fires. It’s kind of like playing whack-a-mole. You squish one and then another pops up.
Now, to fight the source that’s another story. Once we focus on this, then our perspectives change. Then we find our true selves and calling and see that we are set into a battle that’s been raging on for centuries. Then we truly realize that this story isn’t all about us. Sure we’re apart of it, but it’s about our Lord. Once we have this perspective our outlook on life changes.
If we were to spend our time focused on our Lord and what he has for our lives and less on poloticizing our faith our country would be transformed. But, we would rather follow enlist a program or picket a clinic than spend time with Jesus. We would rather do things in on our own power, in our own strength, as opposed leaning on the strength and power of our Father and walking in faith. Do we even know what that is anymore?
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