Religion Is Personal

My faith is a very personal thing and I do not want any government telling me how to worship or what to believe. Recently I have received hundreds of emails from well meaning friends telling me [note not asking but telling] to write President Obama and congress telling them that this is a “Christian Nation.” They also want me to pass the message on to all my friends. It would seem that there is a campaign afoot.

I do not think that they understand the term “Christian Nation” or they would not send those emails. While we are a country whose citizens are predominately members of the Christian faith, we are not now nor have we ever been a “Christian Nation” and as a Christian Pastor I do not want us to be so.

The term “Christian Nation” denotes a country that has established an official relationship with a Christian .denomination. England is a “Christian Nation” because it has established an official Church/State relationship with the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth is officially the head of the Church of England. Spain is a “Christian Nation” because it has established an official Church/State relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.

Our founding fathers established this country as one that provides its citizens with total freedom of religion with a clear separation of church and state. One of those founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” We are a country that is in fact very religious. Almost every religion in the world has believers living here. Even though our money states, “In God We Trust”, we leave it to each religion to define the term ‘god’. It does not say Christian God, Jewish god, Muslim god, Hindu gods or Mormon god. Those who don’t believe in any god are free to ignore the term altogether.

As a Christian Pastor, I believe that the separation of church and state has been a major blessing for the Christian faith in America. The church is stronger because it has not relied on the government for support or recognition. With great wisdom the founding fathers placed in our constitution the first amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

We have always had other faiths than Christian in our country and their rights to freedom of religion have been respected here. They too are better off because of our great freedom of religion. All of our more than three hundred denominations of the Christian faith in the USA have been blessed and their rights of freedom of expression in the practice of their faith are respected. That would not be true in a country where a particular religion has been established as a state religion and it is the only one allowed. Think about it folks we do not want the government telling us what church to belong to, not even my church. Nor do we want the government collecting a “church tax” from everyone and giving it to some “established” church that is state approved. Religion is very personal, let’s leave the state out of it altogether.  

The Perversion of Religion

As a student of history and of world religions I have noted many times that people who are mean spirited or power driven will totally go against the teachings of a religion they espouse. It happens in every religion!

In the case of Jesus who taught love, forgiveness, peace and charity we find people of power acting in Christ name to make war, torture people, and call on Christians to hate those who are not Christians. In some cased to hate other Christians to do not follow the quote –TRUE WAY – unquote.

It is a perversion of the teachings of Jesus and it happens all the time. Even some preachers do it on TV.

As a preacher I am much aware that the people Jesus chastised were not the sinners but the religious leaders who were self righteous and perverted the faith. It makes me nervous every time I stand up to preach. I always pray that I will preach the Gospel in love and truth. 

Free Light

Dark rooms with no windows requiring turning lights on every time you enter. A dark spot near the kitchen stove that even turning the lights on did not fully cover. What to do?

Answer solar tubes and free light.  Even a full moon will light this one up. These are amazing in the amount of light they collect and diffuse through out the room. We installed three like this one. One in each bathroom and one over the stove. What a difference they  make for us.

They are better than sky lights and are insulated so that there is no heat transfer. These cost about $245 and were easy to install while a new roof was being put on. I am totally sold on free light with solar tubes.

A Question On Company Ethics

"Can a spiritual person work for an unethical company, knowing how they do business, even if they themselves act in a totally ethical way?"  Scott Park.

Good question with many answers. We each have to deal with our own standard of ethics and choose our path accordingly. The job market being what it is today often makes that choice tougher. I have known people who did quit their job because the company acted against their personal ethics. In one case it was at a great personal financial sacrifice to do that. When your job causes you to act in a way that you consider sinful then the eternal choice is clear.

With the realization that many corporations are managed in ways that violate our personal ethics and it may be difficult to find new employment in a company that is ethical. Ethical company's are out there so don't give up looking.One may need to start their own business to ensure that their standards of ethics are followed. It is never an easy choice when you have a family to take to support.

Good advice is to not give up one job before you have secured another. 

Marriage Equality

In the past sixty years I have witnessed many changes in our society that would have startled my parents. The baby boomers have grown up looking at life from a very different perspective and their children have gone far beyond them.

When I was a boy it was unheard of for blacks and whites to be married and yet today almost ten percent of weddings are mixed race of many varieties.  Indeed some of the brides and grooms are children of mixed race marriages. There were some states that outlawed such weddings. There were many arguments that it would ruin the sanctity of marriage to allow it. Now no state has such restrictions. In my church there are mixed race couples with beautiful children and no one thinks anything about it. We have a new normal for our society.

Today the argument is about same sex marriages and there are already a lot of them as one state after another have made it legal. The older generation rails against it but the under 40 group thinks it is the most natural thing. That group is not far from taking over the political arena. Our culture is evolving to a more open and more loving accepting society.

Some of us older generations are having a difficult time adjusting to this sweeping change. As with the mixed race time people are calling for laws for marriage to be only for one man and one woman. It calls into question the purpose of marriage. Marriages in the past were often arranged by the fathers and were for providing legal heirs. In the early days of America some states required that a man own property before he could take a wife.

If marriage is only to provide for the next generation what does that say for couples who do not wish to have children or can not have children? If marriage is to provide for stable family units would that not include same gender couples?  The debate is on but the direction of change in society has already been set and like it or not there is no turning it back.

I ponder the question that if the marriage of a black woman and a white man does not affect my marriage, will marriage between two women affects it?

My First Time

The first time I stood up to preach I was very nervous. I knew that I had been called by God to preach but a certain amount of fear made my knees wobble.

As I approached the pulpit where I had practiced the day before it felt different, there were about a thousand people in front of me. I prayed for God to give me courage.  Once I started my presentation my words came out in a flood. I know now that I made some nubie mistakes bout the congregation encouraged me and sent me into ministry as their “Timothy” any way. That was in 1967 in Austin Texas at Hyde Park Christian Church.

I remember two things from that event. First is that with God’s help I over came my fear. Second was that the pulpit was indeed my calling and my home. Though I am now retired from the pastorate I still enjoy preaching on occasion when there is a need for some one to fill in and I always feel right at home when I step up to the pulpit.

Avoid Future Regret

I usually mute TV ads because they are too loud and annoying. Last night I was distracted and left the sound on so an ad caught my attention. You may have watched this ad for a gold coin yourself.

It starts off showing a US government fifty dollar gold coin using  buffalo nickel as the form. The announcer stress in loud tone that the coin is minted in .9999 percent pure gold, and limited number because the mint ran out of the special gold blanks. In truth the coin had a limited production because it was struck for the collectors market.

The announcer then switches coins. He is selling what amounts to a counterfeit coin. In softer voice he says that it is a non-monetary gold clad replica. Clad means that there is a very thin 14 mm gold layer of unknown purity. It is being sold for $9.95 so it can not be the .9999 percent like the real coin. Again in a louder voice he stresses that this offer is for a limited time and you can purchase up to five coins per order.

At the end he invites you to avoid disappointment and future regret so buy right now so call the number. Well I always want to avoid future regret and experience tells me that most of the time if I purchase a "too good to be true" item I will regret spending the money on it.   

So I am avoiding future regret.