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“Sometimes I think there is really only one Christian denomination in America: American Civil Religion — a consumerist, militarist, therapeutic, colonial, nationalist chaplaincy that baptizes and blesses whatever the richest and most powerful nation on the planet wants to do.”

Brian McLaren in The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

The next sentence begins, “But then I hear a voice like Shane’s…”

We better hope he is wrong in the first sentence and I am just starting Shane’s book to see what different voice he raises.  But, if he is correct in the first sentence, where does that leave the American church when its master is neither the wealthiest nor the most powerful on earth? The data is already in.  That day is fast approaching.

We can keep our heads in the sand.  But then the only side of Christianity the world will see is the one today’s popular TV and radio hosts already display so brazenly.

I’m going to see what Shane has to say, then go back and read Tolstoy.  Bought both with a gift card from one of my young students today.  And, I am going to visit the nation best poised to overtake us.  Meanwhile, I will be contemplating whether the church will ever join those of us looking for our way back to The Way.

peace

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My daughter’s little Corolla blew the alternator the other day and left her stranded in the median of the expressway.  I had to go pretty far and through several lights to get on the expressway at a point that would get me to her.  By the time I got there, two tattooed men in an older pickup already had her car tied to their truck saying they would tow it anywhere she wanted.  They had chased off at least one car neither they nor my daughter liked the looks of trying to convince her to “just get in and we’ll give you a ride.”

They also said they would fix it for her since she had just bought the new alternator.  I hesitated, having spent four and half hours the day before figuring out how to just replace a split belt hoping that was the only problem.  (Worked just long enough for me to go buy gas too!)  She already had an appointment to get it fixed at a local shop the next day.  Then Mer mentioned needing to stop at Autozone, which was close by, to get another belt since the new one just broke.  They said, “Great!  You ride with your dad.  We’ll pull the car up there, and they will even loan us the tools to fix it for you.”

And they did just that. They brought her car up to Autozone’s lot, took the tools I had brought along, popped the hood, and started working.   The alternator had been out of the car for several minutes when my daughter brought them some cold drinks from inside and asked me if the old alternator was what she needed to take in to get her core refund back.  It was still so hot I couldn’t even pick it up!  I had to lay the box beside it and roll it in.  And those two men stood there in the sun, worked on that HOT engine, put in the new alternator, and were going to drive away with nothing but a cold drink and a thank you.  I paid them anyway, and they acted surprised.  The older of the two thanked me (how backwards is that!) and said, “We’re Christians.  When you see somebody in trouble, you stop and help.  That’s just what you do.”

And it occurs to me that I would like to peek at God’s record book.  I have a feeling that the angels who actually show up to do His will when people are in trouble are tattooed fellows in older vehicles a lot more often than suits in new cars.  Jesus said it was hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom.  These two men were already living in it!

peace,

Greg

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