So its Sunday afternoon and I am exhausted. I did a craft fair yesterday and preached this morning – it was all fun but I’m tired and a bit brain dead. Which is perhaps why I have a series of mini-rants at the moment.
First Mark Driscoll (who get my vote as my least favorite person in the entire universe) is up to his junk again. This time its his blog post on the whole Ted Haggard scandal and his advice for pastors (here). Not only does he assume all pastors work in megachurches and are CEOs and teachers (as opposed to pastors), his suggestions would completely restrict pastors from loving and serving people. So much for following Christ. According to Driscoll if the prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair showed up at his home group, he would ask her to never return (so as to protect himself from temptation). Whatever. Oh – and Driscoll managed to find a way to twist this to blame women as well. Apparently women are the ones at fault for either being too sexy and therefore appealing or letting oneself go and forcing a man to look elsewhere. He therefore uses this as another argument for why women shouldn’t serve in any role whatsoever in churches (apparently now not even as secretaries). Why am I not surprised that a scandal involving a male leader caught with a male prostitute would be used by Driscoll to continue his rhetoric against women…
Then there is stupid political stuff. Election day is only two days away, so political stupidity can be expected. In the continuing sign-wars, since there are laws about removing or burning political signs, Hastert’s folks have fallen to placing their signs directing in front of and behind Laesch’s signs obstructing one’s view of his sign. How freaking childish is that. It’s like the kid who jumps to the front of every picture so only he can be seen.
And yesterday I actually had a lady tell me (unsolicited I might add) that she hopes the republicans win because she heard in an email from a friend that al-Qaeda wants the democrats to win. Now I’ve heard that line given as a joke on The Daily Show – but I didn’t think anyone actually believed it. And to believe it because you read it in an email forward!!! This my friends is democracy in action.
And finally to wrap up the rants, I have to mention the most recent church sign at our local Yorkville crummy church sign church. It said something like “be happy the SON is shining.” Now yesterday when I drove past it – it was cold, gray, dismal, and spitting rain. The trees are skeletons and the chance of seeing blue sky between now and next May is slim. And right as I drove past it the song “Wonderful” by Everclear came of the radio. Here are the lyrics –
Coz when it gets too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
I close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope its over when I open them
I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again
I hope my Mom
And I hope my Dad
Would figure out why they get so mad
I hear them scream
I hear them fight
They say bad words that make me wanna cry
I close my eyes when I go to bed
And I dream of angels that make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say everything will be wonderful some dayChorus
Promises mean everything
When you’re little and the world so big
I just don’t understand
how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes
and tell me everything is wonderful nowPlease don’t tell me everything is wonderful now
I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that it’s all ok
I laugh a lot so my friends won’t know
When the bell rings that I just don’t wanna go
I go to my room and I close my eyes
I make believe that I have a new life
I don’t believe you when you say
Everything will be wonderful some dayNo no no no
I don’t want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now
No no no no
I don’t want to hear you say that I will understand some day
No no no no
I don’t want to hear you say that you both have grown in a different way
No no no no
I don’t want to meet your friend
And I don’t want to start over again
I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Some days I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everythingPlease don’t tell me everything is wonderful now…
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now ..
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful now ..I don’t want to hear you tell me everything is wonderful now……
Please don’t tell me everything is wonderful…….
It made me wonder how often as a church (the body of Christ) we ignore reality and tell happy lies to make ourselves feel better. Everything’s wonderful, be happy the SON is shining. When will we get past the lies and the platitudes and be real. Be real enough to cry, to feel, to admit that there is crap in this world, that its all not okay, and get off our butts and do something about it.
Ah. okay – rants over for the moment (at least the stuff its safe to post online…). Feel free to add on if it would help…