Well in ending 2006, I’m hosting the annual Rahab (Christian Whore) Awards. I think Craig Gross said it best when he said, “If Satan’s a Pimp, Don’t be his Hoe.”

This award goes toward the best public display by a prominent Christian to sell out/whore out to the world. By their actions they are saying, I love you God, but my integrity can be bought for a price.

The Nominations:

A. Joel Osteen for “Your Best Life Now” Board Game. Ummm wow. It almost speaks for itself. Reminds me of the Prayer of Jabez CD! 

B. Me - As someone once said (in the comments below) “one mans sell out is another man’s angry rantings.”Touche’!  Very true, so I’m placing myself, now, on this list between Osteen and the blonde. So I’m in good company! Bonus points for coming up with a critical awards nominations list in the first place.

C. Jessica Simpson-  My Daddy was a youth pastor, but he likes flaunting what God gave me for cash! Bonus points for having a daddy pimp you out!

D. Veggie Tales- Big Idea productions gets bought (Phil Vicher, creator is out) and bye bye go the Christian morals for Saturday mornings on NBC.

E. Us- for fueling a christian marketing industry that uses our faith for making boat loads of money! It’s no different from the commercialized world, it just looks nicer. Bonus points: we killed Christmas. Jesus who? Forget that - where are my presents!

Please add any write in’s to the comment bar below.

Is this an angry rant? Well, blogging is my therapy.

I blogged a while back on Hollywood pursuing the Christian dollar. And after hearing about it again this morning on the news, I’m just mad. What have we done as Christians to be viewed as a dollar demographic of people?

Is it even good that we’re viewed as a demographic. It makes us sound more like lambs for the slaughter than roaring lions. We are no longer viewed as dangerous individuals tirelessly pursuing Christ and giving our lives over to saving a lost world. No, we’ve become a buying class of people. Are we dangerous? No.

How does the world percieve us? Well, we’re PG and family wholesome. We buy nice clean things that make us feel nice and clean. We have let ourselves become stereotyped and neutered.

Where are our Christian testicles!?! They were lopped of long ago. I want to be a scary hairy smelly man crying out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. I don’t want be Ned Flanders.

Hollywood sees us as just another group to market and milk for cash. They don’t fear the message we have to offer. The smile, nod their heads and then give us what we want as we call it a victory for Christians!They set the trends (take the cash) and we dutifully follow.

The guys at the XXXchurch.com website use the phrase, “If Satan’s a pimp, don’t be his hoe.” Well are we hoe-ing ourselves out for a better life? To fit in? To be comfortable?

What has been lost? Too much.

How do we get it back? That’s something I’m trying to figure out, seeking it in prayer and practice.

So how about you? How does this make you feel?

A recent survey compiled the worries of working Americans.

They are as follows:

34% Being able to retire comfortably

30% Rising cost of health care

11% Stagnant paycheck

10% Losing job

10% Job being outsourced

Now,  even though America sees itself as a Christian nation, we’re really a Secular Consumeristic one. But I know that in this survey it’s laced with a fair amount of church goers. I’m going to run with a tangent on this one, so bear with me.

We worry about comfort and stability. We work hard to make sure things are easy and smooth sailing. But if we call ourselves Christians, we can have none of the above. I believe that the Gospels are here to completely mess up or lives. If we are truly changed by the redeeming power of Christ, our life can’t remain the same. Our desires can’t remain the same. Our worries can’t remain the same (or even remain at all).

So who’s willing to buck the system in the name of our Lord? Who’s willing to put a nail in the coffin of the American dream? Because if you truly see yourself as a follow of Him, you should.

And I’m not alone. Craig Gross notes:

“Christians must take risks and get out of their comfortable pews and classrooms and do something for God. If we don’t, who will?… God did not create you to be a scared, irrelevant Christian!”

Scared. Irrelevant. You could also add worrying or busy. We are busy because we’re worried that if any of the plates we’re spinning drop… we’re toast. I’ll let you in on a little secret. God wants the plates to drop - if they’re more important to you than He is. You say no? How much time do you spend, worrying or being busy on things that don’t matter? I mean things with no eternal value? And then look at how much time you spend with the Lord.

You see that’s our problem. Focus. The things that don’t matter, eat up our time and our lives. The things that do matter, get brushed aside.

So ask yourself this when you’re caught up in the business of life. One hundred years from now… what will it matter? We forget to look at things through an eternal perspective. And when we forget to do that, we miss the entire point.

Why worry? I don’t know. There’s too much time serving the Kingdom to bother with it.

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?

Your thoughts?

So as a staff we took a trip to the places where Christians in our community fear to tread in an effort to remind ourselves of our place in the Great Commission First off was the Mirkwood Cafe which is an occult coffee house complete with an on staff psychic healer. It’s great to drink a cup of coffee (after all coffee is the back devil) with some lady reading Tarot cards next to us. I’m going to make a concerted effort to start hanging out here. I know of several kids that go here for D&D or Magic Cards, but how do we reach them if we’re not present. It’s a dark place that needs some light. And frankly I don’t mind this type of spiritual warfare. It’s at least obvious, it’s heavy but it seems more like a fair head on fight.

Afterwards we headed for lunch at the Angel of the Winds casino. I have my own issues with casinos. Just watching the pantheon of mindless zombies hitting the slots gets to me. But how different is this than the current state of our church. We’re dealing with an age of contentment and slumber. At least here they make no pretense. Their sins are obvious, not hidden behind activities and Sunday smiles.

 It reminded me of this quote for what church is supposed to be:

We are not a museum of saints. We’re a hospital for sin sick souls.”

Edith Roberts

We like to hear stories about the dirty people that Jesus reached down to give hope and heal, but are we willing to do the same? He wasn’t afraid to go into the gutter. How often do we get our hands dirty for the sake of the cross? Are we willing to go to the places where we’re embarrassed to be seen - all for His glory?

I know I’m guilty of that. In the casino I was aware of my presence and wondered what people would say if someone from my church saw me there. But I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter. So I must continue to do what I’m called to do and go where I’m called to go.

Are there place where you wont’ tread? So where’s your gutter?