How long does a bar of soap dedicated to hand washing typically last before it shrinks to nothing? The better question is not how long it lasts, but if it is effective while it does. Can a bar of soap get dirty? It sits there on the bathroom sink just waiting to be used on the next set of filthy hands. How can a bar of soap clean my hands when it's purpose is to get rubbed on bacteria-laden hands over and over? Which brings me to my church story from yesterday.
One of the readings was 1 Corinthians 19:6:
Brothers and sisters: If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!I am reflecting on this as the reading continued, thinking about the times I have fallen short of His glory. I am also thinking what a sad state this country finds itself in today because so many have lost their way by rejecting God. Going to church for me is like washing my hands. It's an experience of renewal and cleansing. So far, so good. And then came the Prayers of Intentions. The very first one went something like this:
"Let us pray that the government will spend it's money favoring the poor..."
My blood pressure immediately spiked. I threw up my arms as if to scream "WTF", which are letters you are not supposed to reflect upon during Mass. I looked around, but other than my wife wearing a horrified look on her face (worried that I was going to go postal in church), everyone else seemed to be either oblivious to, or NOT OFFENDED BY what was just said.
You conservative bloggers out there need no explanation of what I was roiled about. However, for the clueless little kiddies that may have stumbled onto this website (and for adults who are working toward their GED and for all other liberals), let me make this perfectly clear. IT AIN'T THE GOVERNMENT'S MONEY! This so-called prayer was not even a thinly veiled call for socialist spreading of the wealth. It was a blatant, in your face demand for punishing the successful by redistributing their wealth by government mandate. JESUS DID NOT TELL US TO GIVE EVERYTHING TO CAESAR AND LET HIM SPLIT IT UP! He said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's". This is why I go to church. It is my Christian duty to help the poor. That is why I give to charities and why I contribute to the collection plate. I don't come to church to "pray" for a socialistic government solution of redistribution. I know this system of government has never worked before in the history of the world. Socialism does not help the poor, rather it creates a dependency on government. The sole reason for government in a socialist/communist society is to perpetuate power for itself by keeping it's citizens strung out like a heroin addict looking for the next fix.
Bottom line, the socialism practiced by Obama and the rest of the democrats is against my religion. I'm certainly NOT going to pray they are successful at it IN MY OWN CHURCH.
So I walked out. I don't go to church with the purpose of getting offended. I am not easily offended and have pretty thick skin. However, I go to church to worship God. I pick up the bar of soap to wash the scum and bacteria off of my hands, not to transfer the germs from the soap to them. I live in the very liberal State of Michigan, in the far left community that is hometown to Michael Moore, if you get my drift. I know what punk liberalism is. Attending Church should be an escape from it. Instead, I felt as dirty as if I had just washed my hands with a dead trout.
There is definitely a difference in freely giving to the poor and being forced to give to the poor. Last I checked, the whole point was to be driven to want to give, as that is Christian. I don't think God makes a point of forcing us into a whole lot... I would be pissed, too.
ReplyDeleteI went to All Saints in Pasadena for many years and finally quit going when I got tired of hearing myself ask, "When do we worship?"
ReplyDeleteThe services have been co-opted by leftist political diatribe under the "leadership" of the rector, Ed Bacon.
But it is the church of choice for many of Hollywood's elite, so I guess that makes it OK. It's where the money is.
Good post and great analogy.
ReplyDeleteI have had this argument more than once that the government does not have money. If they have money, our taxes are too high.
Oh boy, have I ever been there my friend.
ReplyDeleteLiberal politics is infiltrating every sphere of life. Science. Schools. Entertainment. Economics. Church. You can't get away from it.
ReplyDeleteBlade , This has nothing to do with your current posting but I have to tell you that my-off the chart-far left-wacky-lib sister is going to the iditarod dog sled race in Alaska sometime in March. She is sure she will see Sarah Palin there and promised to have her picture taken with Sarah!! I'm as excited as a little girl!!!
ReplyDeleteLinz- I agree. It should have been phrased without government, for it is our individual responsibility to love our neighbor as ourselves, not to give that responsibility to our leaders like some kind of "carbon love credits".
ReplyDeletePCC- Michael Moore himself was in a pew behind me in this church MANY years ago. I think it was Easter and I think he was just casing the joint for a possible movie idea to ridicule the believers.
Chuck- And so we must persevere.
MD- Sometimes the choir needs preaching to. Something about the close proximity to the organ pipes leaving them deaf and dumb.
Cube- Not in my humble abode. There is that.
Pic Pic- Tell her to pick me up a moose steak!
Since Obama’s earnest drive to convince the nation to weaken its economic strength through redistribution as well as weaken its national defense, COUPLED WITH HIS UNPRECEDENTED WHITE HOUSE TAKEOVER OF DECENNIAL CENSUS TAKING FROM THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, has confirmed the very threats to our Republic’s survival that the Constitution was designed to avert, it no longer is sustainable for the United States Supreme Court and Military Joint Chiefs to refrain from exercising WHAT IS THEIR ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO DEFEND THE NATION FROM UNLAWFUL USURPATION. The questions of Obama’s Kenyan birth and his father’s Kenyan/British citizenship (admitted on his own website) have been conflated by his sustained unwillingnes to supply his long form birth certificate now under seal, and compounded by his internet posting of a discredited ‘after-the-fact’ short form ‘certificate’. In the absence of these issues being acknowledged and addressed, IT IS MANIFEST THAT OBAMA REMAINS INELIGIBLE TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 2 OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Being a 14th Amendment ‘citizen’ is not sufficient. A ‘President’ MUST BE an Article 2 ‘natural born citizen’ AS DEFINED BY THE FRAMERS’ INTENT.
ReplyDeleteThis whole country is in serious need of moral hygiene, so it's particularly sad to note that so many churches have become politically oriented. And I really don't understand how leftist ideology is compatible with Christian values.
ReplyDeleteTrue talk. At least , that is what my high schooler likes to call it.
ReplyDelete