Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Happy Snappy Christians!



Jeff Lucas gives us a new perspective on the Christian Ixthus sign!

When you’ve had contact with the Christian community for as long as I have then you've probably seen just about all the tacky off-colour stuff it can throw at you:  Failed prophecies and failed healings are probably near the top of my hokum list, but then so is the accompanying aggressive spin-doctoring needed to reinterpret failure as either outright success or downright spiritual blockage somewhere (that is, someone’s going to get the blame!). Next, perhaps, are the literalist Godbots who comb the Bible looking for instructions to add to their lists of commands directing life and community and who loudly accuse others of not following the Bible. But then I’m forgetting the abrasive super-spiritual gnostics who see themselves as a spiritual elite and are determined to foist their recipe for revival and blessing on everyone else. Actually, though, perhaps the people deserving top hokum rating are the church patriarchs put up by their gullible following as figures with “covering authority” over their flocks. Of course, I mustn't forget to find a place for the anti-science fundamentalists, the fideists, the Christian conspiracy theorists, and the numerous restorationist start-up fellowships who start to look dangerously like cults populated as they are by spiritual egotists who think their opinions trumps the guidance of all other Christians. In fact, there are so many self-deceived con-artists out there that I'm undecided as to who should get top rating so perhaps they could take  turns at occupying the top slot. But one thing I'm sure of: Whatever special access to the Divine these people may claim, they are nonetheless behaving in an all too typically human way; a way that is repeated again and again in the annals of sectarian history.

Now, Jeff Lucas is a teaching pastor at Timberline Church, Colorado. He also writes a regular column for Christianity magazine and has received the VNP award for Christian authenticity on two occasions. (See here). He has hung out long enough in this Christianity business to have been well exposed to the snapsters I’ve outlined above. He’s definitely seen it all and it shows! For example, check out these quotes from his column in the May edition of Christianity magazine:




From Jeff Lucas’ article: Sorry folks but the VNP censor didn't leave us with much to read!

Lucas, like me, is clearly long in the tooth, but his articles are often a protest against Christians who are very sharp in the tooth and who, recycling the illustration Jeff uses in the quoted article, are like a shoal of snappy little piranha unable to resist the reflex action of biting to bits everything that comes their way. Lucas’ regular column sits on the last page of the magazine after the advert section and this may explain why he seldom gets letters of complaint from sort of people I've outlined above – once they have snapped their way through the mag. chomping at all the "doctrinal error", by the time they get to the adverts section they don't realise that there's still a tasty morsel left on the last page! Christianity magazine obviously wants to keep Jeff Lucas out of bite sight! Perhaps that’s also why our VNP censor rather over did it! Perhaps that’s why Jeff's stuck himself right out in the waterless Colorado Desert somewhere!

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