A lot of religious people are kooks. Across the board. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, pick your favorite flavor. That probably sounds funny coming from a preacher. But when you have been in this business as long as I have, you tend to have so much insider information that you start wishing you could just simplify it all down. You start craving the religious equivalent of a chopper.
This past Sunday, in the class I teach, I made the observation that one of the things that (hopefully) makes our church stand out is that we are not a bunch of kooks. Know what I mean?
We don't kill people in the name of our God. We don't protest soldiers' funerals. We don't play with snakes, or do jumping jacks during worship, or put up billboards around town as monuments of self-importance.
Let me try to make an observation that I hope can be heard as more analytical than judgmental. Ready? Here goes. I think the thing that makes non-Muslims suspicious of Muslims is the lack of voice we hear coming from the Muslim community against the violence perpetrated by extremists. We hear it occasionally, but probably not enough.
Now, here is another tough observation: We Christians are not doing much better on that front. We are not speaking out enough when the crazy Christians flip their lids. Perhaps one of the messages we need to be saying more is, "That's not us."
The media is responsible for some of the blame. They prefer kooks over level heads most days of the week. Twenty-four hour news networks like people who yell at each other. Reasoned discourse? Not so much. They give voice to religious types who do crazy things while the rest of us who try to practice simple faith are just not that... (What's the word I'm looking for?)... newsworthy. Simple and normal just doesn't sell.
Sigh. That's me in the corner. That's me in the spotlight losing my religion.
I tried editing and rewriting this particular piece so that it would not sound so negative. I really tried. But the cold fact is that the contemporary global religious landscape gives us plenty of fodder for negative observations. Sad but true.
I posted on facebook this week, "Practicing simplicity is complicated." It is. Not too easy to survey one's life and figure out what needs deleting. I still carry around some attitudes and postures that need mellowing. Even as I write this I know deep down that I have a long way to go. Every whisper, every waking hour I'm choosing my confession. But I know this much: We need to figure out what it means to be a Christian without being religious. Moreover, I wonder if we simple followers of Jesus can get the word out that not all of us are crazy. Because some of us are staying plenty busy when a religious kook gets media happy and tries to represent the whole of the devoted masses. We are staying busy saying, "That's not us."
The hard part is finding a way to say it louder.
