Ready to Rumble
Yeah, this is a fight starter, to be sure. I’m going to talk about BOTH politics AND religion. You’ve been warned.
First, let’s talk about the Tim Tebow, Focus on the Family, Super Bowl commercial. The “most controversial” ad of the year, even though there were tire commercials where the men chose tires over their wives, and men “not complaining” that their women have emasculated them because they can drive whatever they want? How is that less offensive than a mother saying she is thankful for a son that she almost lost. Nowhere in the Tebow ad did anyone say anything about abortion or give a judgment as to its morality. It simply pointed you to a website to learn more about their story.
I don’t know what has happened over there at family.org but, and they might pull my Christian card for this one, thank God James Dobson isn’t the public face over there on this one. He needed to step aside a long time ago and let families tell their stories about how Jesus rocked their world. Like the guy from KORN.
I have been spared, not from anything like meth, but spared none the less. In many cases suburbia might be as dangerous as meth to eternity. Because we are “good” on our own. We can debate the loftier sins without actually getting our hands dirty. We go to church on Sunday, sit next to people who look like us, make the same amount of money as us and have the same hygiene regimens as us. We send $30/month to charity who sent us a picture of a kid in Africa and we are doing our part for God and for orphans. We pray for the homeless, and by pray I mean, “Dear God, please help that homeless man (not go crazy at this particular moment, pull me out of my car and kill me in front of my children because I’m pretending I don’t see him while I talk on my phone). And we have done our part without really doing anything at all.
We take care of orphans only when it serves the purpose to ease the pain of our own need to fill our families, not as a directive from God. Truth be told, most Christians do not want to face the realities of the orphans. They want nothing to do with babies born addicted to drugs, or who have been sexually abused and may in turn abuse others. We want healthy, well adjusted orphans that fit it with our own family and who have no residual family members that we will have to deal with. Somehow, I think we have really missed the boat, and are doing it in the name of God.
We can blame the gov’ment, or society, or the culture we live in but WE are the problem. We expect the world to play by our rules when they aren’t even playing our game. Let me just throw this one out there, I think that Satan is proud of the work we are doing as Christians. I think he’s great with the work churches are doing in America. Sure, he’s lost a few to God, but those few pale in comparison to the numbers he would lose if we were effective Christians doing the work of God. Because right now, churches are the only place you can discuss God, and if you aren’t already in a church, what is the liklihood that you will find yourself in one? Because they are not known as safe havens for the hurting. That is something that we cannot blame on others.
A quick plug for my own church Imagine Fellowship we meet in a movie theater on the first Sunday of the month, shortly before the first showing of Saw IV. We don’t have a building, don’t want one, because the church is not a place we meet, the church is who we are. If you take away the building who you are becomes more evident. What difference are we making in the world? If we are not affecting our world, then what is our purpose?
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I wrote this in response to something I read on A girls site. A girl and me do monthly co-writings. She wrote about abortion and the Tim Tebow commercial here. And to be fair she wrote this before the commercial aired, and didn’t know that I was writing this in response.



February 8th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
The Tim Tebow commercial was all about the anticipation: what would they say, what would they do? Well…..not much..not even a single mention of abortion, Jesus, or Republicans.
….His mom sounded very much like any mom who experienced a difficult pregnancy: “I was so worried that I’d lose him.” Lots of noise, lots of attention, and then pretty much a fizzle. Ah well. xox
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February 8th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
james 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.
strong words. true words. epic church fail. personal fail.
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February 8th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I apologize now, I just left a rather ranty comment on A Girl’s blog. I didn’t mean it personally, I just got kinda worked up.
That being said, I completely agree with you Annie. The “church” as we know it today has done a pretty miserable job of reaching out and “caring for your neighbor”. Lots of talk, lots of judgement, very little action. *sigh*
Your church sounds pretty cool – next time I’m in TX I may have to stop by..
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February 8th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I am one of those adoptive parents that chose a “healthy” child. We were called to adopt from Africa, no doubt about that. Just had to share a lesson that I am learning myself. It’s so easy to assume that people do things for a certain reason. But the truth is you never really know the whole story. Some people are not capable of parenting children with abuse histories, drug addictions, etc.. It is so true that with the power of God, one can accomplish most anything. And I believe that while we chose a child free of major health concerns, we did what we were called to do.
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