You Might Be Misrepresenting God If…
Posted by Amanda on December 17th, 2007 . Filed under: Christianity .Kudos to this guy for putting this list together.
If you think that America is “God’s chosen country” and that everything America’s foreign policy represents is ordained by God, you might be misrepresenting God. If you think that the Republican party is “God’s party, you might be misrepresenting God. If you think that religion and Christianity are compatible, you might be misrepresenting God. If you think that you can only “cooperate” in ministry and missions with people who have been baptized by a pastor in your same denomination, you might be misrepresenting God. If you think that true Christianity is only represented by a particular denomination or systematic theology, you might be misrepresenting God.
That’s only a sample of this pretty awesome list. Check it out!
December 17th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Hmmmm…I like it, overall. I think he makes some good points, though I do disagree with him strongly on others. Like this one:
If you think that religion and Christianity are compatible, you might be misrepresenting God.
It’s yet another manifestation of the worn out “relationship, not religion” nonsense, which is firmly based in Western rationality and, it seems, can only frame an argument as a black/white dichotomy. How about…
If you think that a relationship with God is incompatible with religion, you might be misrepresenting God.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Amanda, thanks for the link. I appreciate it.
Emily, I understand your point, and if you look at the comments following my post, you’ll see some others beat you to the punch taking me to task for that one.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the strongest statement in the batch. What I was really reacting to, though, is the idea that one can go through a lot of the motions (religion is usually related to external “evidence”) and not ever have a relationship with God.
Based on your perceptive comment, what I probably should have said is something along the lines of “If you think that religious activity and a relationship with God are synonyms, you might be misrepresenting God.”
Does that sound better to you? What’s ironic is that I’m usually the guy railing against Western rationality and “black/white dichotomy”! So to be accused of doing the same shows me that I still have some old habits to strip away.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:19 am
Yes, I like that restatement. And I do agree that far, far too often it is true that religion is no more than an empty set of rituals we perform to make ourselves feel better. But I guess, as someone who has found a home in Eastern Orthodoxy, I’m a little sensitive to hearing that religion itself is completely meaningless
December 18th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I could learn a thing or two from my brothers and sisters in the EO church, I think. Sadly, I wasn’t even familiar with the EO church (other than in some old “church history” classes) up until a couple of years ago. Ahh, such a sheltered Protestant life I have lived!
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am
[...] Imago Dei « Canceling Church? | Let the Countdown Begin » [...]