Today at work someone announced her intentions to avoid watching a particular movie because its creator is an atheist. Not because something about the movie itself offended her specifically or went completely against her sensibilities (not even because the movie held no interest or was a shoddy piece of art). Simply because its maker doesn't follow her religion. I kept to myself the observation that if Christians avoided everything that came from a non-Christian, we'd be left pretty high and dry. But the "incident" (which I put in quotes because it was really more of a passing comment than a major deal) really had me thinking about the requirements God makes of us.
It seems so many people are deeply focused on living a detail-oriented Christian life. They listen to Christian music, avoid certain movies, don't drink, don't swear, don't smoke, memorize Bible verses, and protest for the right of Macy's to wish patrons a "Merry Christmas". But such a focus on details often, I think, detracts from living a truly Christian life. Attempting to be pure and blameless in all your actions has a tendency to make a person feel superior to the "heathens" who, say, smoke. And spending so much time and effort on these details pulls us away from the big picture, from seeing the homeless or hungry, from being kind and welcoming to everyone who cross our paths, from truly empathizing with those who don't follow the riles as well as we do.
There's nothing wrong with avoiding alcohol or listening to Christian music. But there is something wrong when that becomes your faith. It limits Jesus, making him some sort of cosmic enforcer of rules, a heavenly Hall Monitor. It also places way too much emphasis on our own powers of salvation: if we do everything right and follow all the rules, we will be saved, but if we slip up and break the rules, we will be damned. There's no room left for being the one-hundreth sheep, the sinner rejoiced over in Heaven.
Not to mention that there's no room left for some really cool movies.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sometimes Christians approach personal holiness by isolating themselves from things that they perceive as ungodly. And there's a point where that makes sense. I don't go into topless bars because I know my reaction won't be Christlike.
But it's also Christlike to immerse ourselves in the lives of the people who don't know God, and in their culture. Jesus went to eat with Zacchaeus, and almost everyone who witnessed it was angry with him, except for Zacchaeus, who felt so touched by love that he repented.
I don't always get that balance right. But Christ lived in his culture, and redeemed his culture. He didn't stand apart from it.
Thanks for the good thoughts.
Post a Comment