151 Band

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

We Can Fix It

No one wakes up in the morning hoping to read a story about how four teens from Norman North High School sexually assaulted two boys on a bus returning from a wrestling match.  It's shocking and deplorable and what's worse yet is the wrestling coach who was supposedly on the bus as well did nothing to stop the assault.  It forces us to ask just what in the heck has happened to us as a country or even as a community.  Where have we gone wrong?  

We are raising a generation of children wherein many have no code of honor, who have no sense of respect for human dignity, and are addicted to immediate gratification and we, as adults, we as the Church, have allowed it to happen right under our noses.  Look, there is no doubt that your humble Gorilla is the chief of all sinners and is the embodiment of Romans 3; I'm simply pointing out the fact that we are all responsible.

What really puzzles me is how the Church continues to grow numerically, but seems to be increasingly impotent to create change for the better in our neighborhoods.  It doesn't really make sense, does it?  Church youth groups are filled to overflowing in many megachurches but what is the aggregate result?  In Michael Scott Horton's book, "Putting Amazing Back Into Grace," he quotes philosopher Paul C. Payne who said:

"Today, the world doesn't take the Church seriously because today, the Church isn't serious."

Sadly, he's right.  The Church wants to project an image wherein their pastorate and staff look as though they are Abercrombie models wearing only the latest in fashion and following cultural trends.  It somehow makes them "more relevant" to the world when the world is waiting for the Church to start taking their mandates seriously.  When a church staff's average age is 35 years old and whose life experiences are limited to summer church camp and memorizing feel-good passages of Scripture, it's something that we need to fix and we can fix it.  We just have to have the testicular fortitude to speak the truth to these American Eagle Outfitters fashionistas who know more about Coldplay than they do orthodox theology.  

But I digress...

The Oklahoma legislature has their God Squad who have decided that this should be a proving ground for their brand of dominion theology and have usurped the role of the Church as a whole.  While claiming to be representative of the Church, they have decided that the new church will be Government itself.  These self-same legislators gnash their teeth and rend their clothing because the so-called liberals are using government to push their agenda, but isn't that what they themselves are doing?

The hypocrisy stacks up so fast around here that you need wings to rise above it.  We can fix this problem as well very easily.  We simply stop voting for these Pharisaical boobs and send them to their churches where they belong.  Maybe they can learn the honor and responsibility of the former office they held from that vantage point; but I predict it to be highly unlikely.

Speaking of honor and duty, today is the anniversary of the murder of United States Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.  These are men who stood for something larger, something more important than themselves.  Each and every day while deployed, lives were put on the line to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary so we can grow out churches, so we can spoil our children, so we can raise a generation of self-centered, petulant brats who not only don't know who Chris Kyle was nor do they know what a Navy SEAL does every day of their deployment.  

We can fix that problem too.  We have to be vocal, we have to be informative, we need to poke fun at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously, but take our message very seriously.  There is honor in serving.  There is honor required in being a part of a team.  There is honor and dignity required of the parents of athletes and academics alike and it is the parent's responsibility to send those kids out the door every day with a taste of the bigger picture.  We can fix it all; we just have to want to do something about it.

Of course, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.


"Gorilla"