Lord, save us from Your followers

I know a lot of Christians who feel marginalized because since they hold some mainstream or some left of center political opinions. Their fellow believers criticize them and judge them, make them feel like they're not good enough Christians or not Christian enough because their views aren't enough aligned with the conservative evangelical monolith.

I'll admit that one reason I "piratized" my blog, http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com was because I was so frustrated with what I perceive as American Christian politics as not-so-Christ-like, driven by "tribalism," anger and legalism- but also because I was so desperate to be respected even though my personal opinions don't fit lock step with the extreme-right convention of my neighbors and fellow congregants here in the hinterlands.

But I also want to reach and reassure those disaffected progressives like me who can't seem to get past the fact that Jesus said to "turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give 'em the shirt off your back and love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you..." but so many American Christians these days say "torture saves lives, take the fight to them before they bring it here, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, better dead than red, I didn't come from no monkey, baby killers go to Hell, and God hates fags."

I have a friend who's a psychiatrist and a college professor, whom I know loves the Lord and has love and compassion for his patients and students who is feeling labeled, lumped, judged, and alienated by absolutist, authoritarian, fundamentalist, Pharisees lately (oops, there I've labeled, lumped-together, judged and possibly alienated them back,! hypocritical me).

What I fear is that Christians drive our brothers and sisters in Christ away from Jesus and out of His kingdom by making them feel like they can't possible belong. Sometimes we shout so loud and our political passions burn so hot that we eclipse the Son. Counter productive. Straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel.

Forgive me Lord if/when I do hold wrong opinions. Forgive me fellow Christians if/when I offend you or become a stumbling block for your faith. But Holy Crap- Dear GOD, will you PLEASE not let the fear and hate and anger and impulse for control that so many Christians have drive away Your lambs. Don't let Your sheep root and budge and bite like pigs at the trough.

Here's an awesome song lyric from the Lutheran duo, Lost and Found that speaks to this issue"

"So many people pushed away Ones that are loved told they can't stay The
question is what would Jesus say?God's own people close the door The loud and
the angry take the floor We know what you fear But what are you for? Furthermore
. . .
THE KINGDOM'S BIG ENOUGH FOR YOU
YOU WERE MADE TO BE HERE TOO
THE KINGDOM'S
BIG ENOUGH FOR YOU
WHERE YOU ARE AS YOU ARE"

THE KINGDOM © 2001, LOST AND FOUND http://speedwood.com

A "Christian Nation" begins at home

Bad Fruit

From October 2007 on my main blog-

I've offended dearly loved friends by being so frustrated with them for seeing the Bush administration in a favorable light. I'm sorry, sue me.

Right is right and wrong is wrong, or as they teach you when learning how to mount a horse, "left is right and right is wrong."

You'll know a tree by it's fruit. Jesus said that. So okay, look at Republican policies and this Administration, then look at all those "bleeding heart liberals" (including Jimmy Carter) that you think are such America-haters and unpatriotic, slimy socialist- Which group has the right kind of fruit? Check out Galatians chapter 5 (it's in the Bible).

Bad Apples;

• sexual immorality (Senator Craig, Senator Foley, Pastor Ted Haggard...)
  
• impurity and debauchery
• idolatry (Ronald Reagan, god of all that is 'Right') and
  
• witchcraft (Nancy Reagan's Astrologers)
  
• hatred (nooses in trees, torture at Abu Ghraib, xenophobia, racial profiling, gay bashing, alarm about illegal immigration, etc. etc....)
  
• discord (The religious right, the Big-business right, the internationalist right, the Neo-Con right, the gun-nut right, the nut-job in the woods in a militia and or white supremist group right....)
  
• jealousy (First Bill Clinton, now Hillary Clinton)
  
• fits of rage ( Vice President Cheney telling people to "F--- Off" all the time)
  
• selfish ambition (MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY, MONEY... big oil, Enron, stock portfolios, the Carlyle Group, Haliburton, did I mention big oil?
  
• dissensions
• factions and
  
• envy (did I mention the Clintons?)
  
• drunkenness (Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, and oh yeah, is 'W' a "dry-drunk?" How come no one cares that he usded to have a cocaine problem, but they freaked out when they heard that Bill Clinton once tried pot?)
  
• orgies, and the like (well, okay, who doesn't like a good orgy? Republican or Democrat)
  

Good Fruit:

• love (see also compassion, empathy, caring...)
  
• joy
  
• peace (blessed are the peacemakers, who said that? Hmmmm)
  
• patience (okay, not me)
  
• kindness
  
• goodness
• faithfulness
• gentleness and (you're right, not me again, or any other political humorist or cartoonist)
  
• self-control (yeah, I know- obviously I need to work on this one otherwise I wouldn't go off on rants like this or let my blood pressure go up every time someone compares George W. Bush to Abe Lincoln or Jesus or whoever. Breath, breath, find your happy place...)

Mil & Henry

Mildred, the church gossip, and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several members did not approve of her extra curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused Henry, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon.

She emphatically told Henry in front of several others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing.

Henry, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny.
He said nothing.

Later that evening, Henry quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house...walked home.... and left it there all night.

You gotta love Henry.