9-14-11

Dear Family of faith,
Being a pastor is an impossible job, except by the grace of God; but it certainly is not a boring one. Today I got a phone call from a woman who was distraught because she had been to a Bible Study in another church and had heard the leader say that children with physical disabilities were cursed by God. When she went to the pastor of the church, he said the same thing!! Isn't that sad? In previous times I would have thought the whole thing too far-fetched-- that anyone in today's world would consider physical disabilities a punishment from God. But these days this is how bad it has gotten in the "church." That's one of the reasons that I put on our church sign this week, "We don't beat people up in here." The woman called me because she had seen a UCC ad on TV and had heard that we were an accepting church. It's so incredible to think that so many self-righteous Christians are in the business of keeping people away from God!
Also today, a zip lock bag of pamphlets was left in the church mailbox. There was no name to indicate who had left it there, but the bag was full of religious brochures from such diverse groups as the Mormons, fundamentalist churches, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Roman Catholics. Whoever left the bag was probably making a statement of some sort. I took it as the ultimate sign of disgust with the Christian Church as a whole-- that all those groups had become so loathsome with their judging and condemnation of everyone in the eyes of the bag owner that he/she was giving up on religion completely. The statement was perhaps, "Here, you can have it all back. I want none of your religion."
Dear family, we can rejoice that we are different from 'the pack.' People who come to our church are looking for affirmation and acceptance, for caring and compassion. I'm so glad that you are a people who have seen that as your identity--that you care less about what others think than about what Jesus thinks. Keep loving and caring!