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!
