Guilted Christianity

Isn't it strange how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?

Isn't it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you're at church, and how short they seem when you're watching a good movie?

Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to say when you're praying but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend?

Isn't it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?

Isn't it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games but they do whatever is possible to sit at the last row in Church?

Isn't it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?

Isn't it strange how we send jokes in e-mails and they are forwarded right away but when we are going to send messages about God, we think about it twice before we share it with others?

I have received this email forward a number of times. There was a time in my life when this guilt trip (let's face it, that's what it really is) would have tripped my guilt meter but good. But I read this again and thought, "Yeah. Why is it that these things are all true, because they are!" Two hours at a movie or time behind my favorite novel is way more fun than the same time spent at church or in the Bible. And it isn't that I'm not a spiritual person. I spend an inordinate amount of time digesting just about anything about spirituality. But church is boring. And reading the Bible cover to cover is as well.

What the heck is going on here that an email forward like this is universal enough to be sent around? After all, isn't it for the Faithful that this email circulates to begin with? It is saying that the Faithful are more apt to want to be at the movies, read a good novel, and spend money on their favorite vice than be in relationship to God and the church. And it is saying that's not okay.

I say, there's a REASON movies, novels, gossip, jokes and non-front-row seats are appealing. They are real. They are what life is. I believe Christ himself would have found them appealing as well. And I'm not convinced he would have been a regular in church either. Else he would have followed the rules of the religion to which he belonged and been in temple regularly instead of healing on the Sabbath and tending to the heathens.

The email forward finishes with this whammy:

If you choose not to share His message you may deprive yourself from being blessed as well as depriving others who may need God in their life.

True enough. But exactly what IS his message? Let's be clear here. I believe his message is to do what it takes to Love with reckless abandon. If church is firing people up to be giving of time and money with no concern for self, forgiving of (and breaking bread with) even the one who has murdered our sons and daughters or committed adultery against us, and makes us courageous enough to speak about it with anyone, then by golly, that's a place to be. But so are a lot of other places that do the same. The proof is in the puddin'. I know when a person loves me well and I care not how they got there. Love is Love, whether it came from sitting in church or a movie or the forest glen. Love is Love, whether it came from a Christian or a Buddhist. Love is Love because God is Love and God is not exclusively anything.

I happen to be a Christian, born and raised. It is the language to God that I am most familiar with. I am done being guilted into being a Christian. I come freely by way of everything I do/say/think. And I believe this was Christ's Teaching.