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"

 

 

Just...Breathe...

It was a cloudy, rainy day much like any other spring morning.  He unlocked his car, started it up, and headed off to work.  On the way, he tuned in to his favorite morning talk show host on the radio.  The voice on the radio was a familiar one - one that he had listened to for years.  The dialog (rather, monologue) was as vitriolic as ever, the commentary blustering over the airwaves with the intent of raising the blood pressure of its listeners.  As he drove along, something snapped in his mind and he just couldn't take all of the "liberal media" and the onslaught of the "gay agenda."  He began to sweat, thinking of ways he could help the cause to bring the country back to the God-fearing, Jesus-loving, pew-jumping place to live it supposedly had been.  His blood pressure soared, the frown on his face showed his discontent and disgust.  A car passed him with a bumper sticker that said, "Co-exist," in the form of various religious symbols.  He came completely unhinged, screaming and yelling obscenities that would make even Marylin Manson blush.  He arrived at work and continued about his day, angry and pissed off but he couldn't figure out why...

We have so many messages bombarding us on a daily basis that our minds have collectively reached an overload.  Thousands upon thousands of Americans walk around pissed off - pissed off at something, but they are just not sure as to why.  Social media is filled to overflowing with rants and rhetoric from the "Sky Is Falling Church of the God Squad" that is so off-base and ludicrous that when you read them, you can actually FEEL yourself getting dumber.  

(Just Breathe)

This recent wave of bigotry and hatred masked under the name of "Religious Freedom," is both fascinating and horrifying at the same time.  It's like watching a colonoscopy while tripping on mushrooms.  Look, I am a Christian and not a good one at that.  I do know a few things about theology, but I'm not some Biblical scholar like Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern.  I can find a few references in Scripture about different lifestyles, but the problem is in that of interpretation - not that we all interpret it how we see fit, because that's garbage.  But rather from a sense of grammatical/historical hermeneutics (study of interpretation based on historical reference points and the text of the manuscripts themselves as we know them).  It takes one hell of a lot of hermeneutical gymnastics to get where some of the God Squad is headed.  

(Just Breathe)

Let's just say for a moment that the Perfect Ones are correct in their interpretation.  What does that mean?  They adopt these hard line stances from the Old Testament and allow them to flow into the New Testament without considering the rule of unintended consequences.  The punishments for these lifestyles that supposedly threaten the sanctity of marriage are similar to those who have committed other violations of the Big Ten.  

(Just Breathe)

And they forget that Jesus said, "not one jot nor tittle of the Law will pass away," and it is HE who is the fulfillment of the Law in all its splendor.  HE is the one who went to the Cross and took on the sins of humanity.  Consider these thoughts:

1.  Theocracy:  Anyone in the midst of this so-called "religious rights" movement who tells you that it is not about trying to establish a theocracy is full of it.  Whether it be intentionally or unintentionally, that is the aggregate result.  

2.  Dominion Theology:  Pay close attention to this and don't let it slip by you.  Dominion theology is a theological construct that states that Biblical Christianity will rule all areas of our contemporary society.  Reconstructionism, if you will.  More clearly defined:

Those who hold these views believe that it is the duty of Christians to create a worldwide kingdom patterned after the Mosaic Law. They believe that Christ will not return to earth until such a kingdom has been established. The principal goal, then, of dominion theology and Christian reconstructionism is political and religious domination of the world through the implementation of the moral laws, and subsequent punishments, of the Old Testament (the sacrificial and ceremonial laws having been fulfilled in the New Testament). This is not a government system ruled by the church, but rather a government conformed to the Law of God.

3.  Sharia Shame:  As you consider 1 & 2 above, remember that these politicians are the same ones screaming at the top of their lungs about the supposed incursion of Sharia law in this country.  It's poppycock and it is designed to scare the hell out of you and make you have a knee-jerk reaction and recruit more Christians to run for office - regardless of their qualifications.

 

4.  Quantity, Not Quality:  For the people who are pushing an anti-gay agenda agenda, they vote the

way their pastors or religious leaders tell them to.  They will, of course, deny this but ask them to answer this question - If churches should be allowed to be political, why doesn't the Church pay taxes?  They will become incontinent and accuse you of being Anti-Christ and offer you treatment at the Sally Kern Repent For Jesus Rehabilitation Programming and Kosher Pizzeria.  But the only reference to taxes made to the Church as a whole in the Scriptures is where Jesus told the Pharisees AND his disciples, "render unto Caesar what it Caesar's and render unto God what is God's."  Wow.  Jesus nailed it again.  We have reached a point of complete hysteria on this garbage they call talk radio, the Fox News Channel, and TBN.  The ignorance and completely unsound principles of  Biblical hermeneutics is creating a political society where the logical conclusion will be debtor's prisons, and rehab centers for the "lost."  It's insane.  

 

Fight back, my friends.  It's simple to do.  Just.  Breathe.  Stop for a moment and JUST BREATHE.  And when confronted by these Pharisaical reconstructionists with their overt douchebaggery, encourage them to join you and JUST BREATHE.

 

We are ALL created in the Imago Dei.  Sorry if that pisses off a few of the religious zealots out there.  Y'all just need to remember what His commandment was; "To make disciples," not create Pharisees and develop theocratic governments.

 

This is just my opinion, and I could be wrong...but I absolutely doubt it.

 

 

 

Impending Doom

The sense of impending doom is what makes many movies so delicious - the anticipation of something horrible about to happen sucks us in and we begin to physically manifest our anticipation.  Our palms get sweaty, the adrenaline begins to rush, our heart rate increases, our breathing becomes shorter, and our pupils dilate.  These are not voluntary physical manifestations, but rather are an involuntary response to the potential of bad things about to happen.  Maybe it's our bodies warning us to get the hell out of where we are.

Politicians use that sense of doom and gloom every single day to get us to vote for them or to frighten constituents into believing that if we don't believe in the tripe they're spewing, we're going to be destroyed.  In other words, they hype up their fantasies in order to scare the hell out of us.

Nowhere is their a more apt illustration than some of the ridiculous bills that are being introduced in the Oklahoma legislature.  They are beyond preposterous, and the argument of the elected official is that the "gay agenda" is potentially ruining the country.  Ever more so, a bill to actually fire judges, clerks and the like who approve of and perform in any way something that even looks like gay marriage.  Really?  Really.  At one point in this legislator's career she talked publicly about how homosexuality is, in her opinion, more dangerous than terrorism.  Really.  It's true. 

She has no less than three bills this session that is supposedly going to protect traditional marriage.  If pastors like Kern's husband were doing their jobs ministering to those who need it rather than making up these stupid laws, she would see a change.

This legislator obviously doesn't get it, and it's probably not her fault.  She has surrounded herself with the "Amen Chorus," who agree with everything she says - as nuts as it may sound.  If this legislator truly wants to protect traditional marriage, maybe distracting the proponents therein with specious arguments might help a little.  For example, when the offense of a football team takes the field, their primary concern is to execute their plays accurately and get down the field to score.  They aren't bogged down by worrying about what their opponent may or may not be thinking.  It's stupidity personified to do so.

The Governor of Oklahoma announced that agencies may be facing some budget cuts because of the so-called "budget shortfall."  It is a reasonable request - IF the budget was actually crafted predicated on real income rather than projected income.  But that would be asking too much.  In the interim, stay scared, people.  The end is near.

People use fear every day to get what they want from others and politics is just the tip of the iceberg.  Capitalizing on fear has become a sacrament to some people - in relationships, for example:  A couple is talking about divorce, but the wife doesn't want it.  She points out to him that everything he has ever owned, everything he has ever desired or will maybe acquire in the future, will be hers.  She is playing on the fear of what most men experience in break-ups with most women.  It's all about revenge, perceived recompense, and it's a display of anger and rage.  It's tragic, but what is even worse is that we allow that shit to be pushed in our faces.

It's time for all of us to just stop.  It will be difficult, a struggle every day, but not thinking about the supposed end of the world at every turn will ease some stress.  At least I think so.

It's just my opinion and I could be wrong - but I seriously doubt it.

Gorilla