I’ve been asking myself this for quite some time! As a committed Christian woman of no particular brand or breed, I’ve noticed the divisions and sub-divisions that continue to occur in what we fondly call the “Christian community”!
I have to tell you – it angers me! No, it outrages me!!
Over the past several weeks, I had two encounters that left me weary and sadly concerned for the health of the message and angered at the same time.
It was a glitzy national women’s organization annual event! I made certain I was seated at the table next to the executive director of a state commission – a state headed by a purportedly committed Christian man.
The conversation went well enough in the beginning. Then the time came for each of us to introduce ourselves, our businesses and say a little something about what we do. I concluded my A Women’s Place remarks with the following statement, “and we have a section for Christian women who desire to grow and mature in their faith!”
During the meal, the state executive (a female) leaned toward me with her head down and started her remarks thusly, “it’s just my personal opinion, Linda.” She then suggested I connect with one of the country’s largest (at least it used to be so) denominational women’s organizations. When I stated that wasn’t the audience we were looking to attract, she launched into a quiet tirade about how she can’t stand “right-wing conservative, Bible-thumping Christians who engage in such and such “bashing”, blah, blah, blah!
When she paused long enough to take a breath, I asked what it was about me and what I said that caused her to think I belonged in that group. She didn’t have an answer. But obviously, she was still into her emotional tirade, because she went at it again. No matter how much I tried to assure her I didn’t fit into that mold and neither did the vision and mission for A Women’s Place, she would not hear of it.
Finally, boiling a wee bit myself, I asked the question again! Again, she had no answer. I concluded the discussion by telling her I wasn’t interested in attracting women from large denominational groups as that was not our focus and I doubted the women in the group of which she spoke knew what “Christian spiritual growth” was! (I know the group intimately or at least I did because it was the very denomination in which I grew up).
When she realized she had driven the nail about as deep as she could, she softened slightly, informed me that she too is a “Christian” and a member of that denominational women’s group; and repeated for the fifth or so time, that her comments were simply her “personal opinion”!
I left the table knowing that she would never have me speak at a conference that she was considering for younger women for the pure and simple reason that she had ‘pegged’ me by the words I used to describe a portion of the AWP vision and mission.
The second encounter was even sadder. I met with a beautiful committed Christian woman who is a member of our online network and produces lovely Christian symbol jewelry. Her business plan is particularly unique because the jewelry is made by disabled individuals in a sheltered workshop and a portion of profit goes back to the non-profit agency.
My friend related how the most negative, hateful, malicious remarks had been made to her by “Christians”! Pastors, ministers, lay persons all berated her for what she is doing and would not even consider ‘partnering’ with her to market, distribute and sell the products.
When I asked the profession of one young couple who were most vicious with their words, my friend said they are “founding a church”!
“Great”, I said! “Just what we need is another denomination or non-denomination!”
What is wrong with us? What happened over the centuries that we find ourselves in such a condition with the Body splintered in a thousand different ways and each splinter warring with the other?
I seem to remember that Paul admonished one of the early Christian communities he founded, not to engage in meaningless arguments and disputes. He would roll over if he saw how we start new ‘churches’ over such menial things as makeup or none; long sleeves or sleeveless; wine in the chalice or grape juice; where and when someone was baptized, etc. Things that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the Gospel!
For me, the Gospel message is simple! There are certain basic fundamental (not to be confused with ‘fundamentalism’) truths which I ‘buy into’ 100%! But sometime over the centuries since Constantine’s ‘fake’ conversion and the politicizing of the Christian message – we’ve lost its beauty and simplicity. We’ve turned the most amazing relationship one could ever have into the cold, hard stone called “religion” and relegated relationship to something mentally unbalanced folks who need an emotional high engage in on street corners or dimly lit storefront buildings.
I know that sounds a little harsh. Just try talking to someone about the relationship you have with the ‘man’ Jesus and see how long it takes them to ask you “what church do you belong to?” Watch their face when you tell them you attend services on the internet and do not adhere to any denomination or non-denomination (non-denominationalism is now a ‘denomination’). Or sadder yet, watch them shrink, turn away and walk as quickly as they can from your presence.
They do so because they’ve been conditioned to expect some poorly written, theologically inaccurate ‘tract’ to be shoved at them with the accompanying all too familiar phrase, “brother (or sister), are you saved?”
I was asked that once by someone who didn’t know me and my response was, “yes, at the Cross!” I could hardly keep a straight face when the person suddenly was at a loss for words!
I’m being unusually harsh! But this is no small matter and it’s certainly NOT a laughing matter. Is it any wonder that we’ve not come further than we have in moving the Kingdom into all avenues of life experience, including the marketplace? Who wants to hear “Good News” dripping from the lips of some of the most angry, verbally vicious men and women, known the world over, when the Good News sounds anything but “Good”!
It isn’t my role to “save” anyone. The Lord already did that! It is my role to ‘plant seeds’! It isn’t my job to carve notches in my belt every time I brow-beat another soul into submission and announce to all who would hear that so & so was saved by “me” and now attends the same church I do!
I conclude with a snippet from my life years ago. I was having conversation with a young woman whose life was a ‘mess’. She asked some really tough life questions. Our conversation turned to matters of the spirit and I shared where I was at that time in terms of a relationship with Jesus. She had an answer for everything! And the words she used told me that she had been deeply hurt by the ‘well-meaning’ folks at the corner pentecostal hangout and sure enough that was a fact. She didn’t ‘cotton’ to their ‘angry God’ routine.
But her main question centered on why it was so important that she accept Jesus and why God might be mad at her if she didn’t!
Led by the Spirit I’m sure, I told her the following parable. “Jenny, you and I are parents. We love our children and we come out fighting mad when someone does them wrong or in some manner hurts them – because we love them. Correct?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Well, what if a situation arose in our lives where we had no choice but to allow our child to go into a situation that most likely would result in their death?”
“Uh huh,” she said.
“And after it was all said and done, someone rejected the very notion that our child, who we dearly loved, was someone special. Or said something really nasty about our child! How would we feel?”
“I’d be so _____ angry,” she said.
“Jenny, that’s how my Heavenly Dad feels when we refuse to acknowledge that His Son was someone special!”
She didn’t say a word, but I saw the tears in her eyes when we said goodbye.
I don’t know what happened, because our paths parted. I don’t know if she ever accepted the Gift. But the metaphor touched her heart! The Spirit-given parable brought heavenly ‘stuff’ down to earth with words that another human being could identify with and begin, hopefully to comprehend the awesome gift given by a LOVING God!
“Religion”, which is the mindset of even most Christians today, is about ‘rules, regulations, codes, dogmas and doctrines’! The Gospel is about relationship - a ‘marriage’ between the Creator and His creatures; male and female.
It’s just that simple!
Maybe when we start sharing the REAL Good News. . .Then maybe we can all get along!
Author Resource:-
Linda S. Fitzgerald, M.S. Ed, has a passion for enriching, empowering and encouraging women to achieve their God-given destiny. A professional therapist by background and destiny-design coach, she is chief architect for the web’s newest online COMMUNITY for all women whether over 40 or not!
Please visit http://www.awomensplace.org/blog for great information on topics of interest to women transitioning through life’s most exciting season.
Checkout http://www.awomensplace.org to join dynamic women of excellence as we journey through the 2nd half of life together!
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.christian-article-bank.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites