“Malcolm was worshiping with men of all races, of all ages, and he realized that his God wasn’t a prejudiced God or wasn’t only allowed to communicate with one race — and that was pretty big, especially if you see the movie about Malcolm X.”

As I’ve talked to white friends, it’s interesting because they don’t realize the perspective many blacks have on Christianity because of slavery. When you think about how the Bible was used to promote slavery and how “sunday morning is the most segregated time in America,” then it’s easy to think that God is prejudiced or plays favorites.

As I talk to my family members that go to liberal churches that think that it is truly unloving of me to support fencing the Lord’s Supper, to say that is Scriptural that women should be ministers and that it’s unloving and not compassionate if I believe that women shouldn’t have abortions. My father once told me it’s discouraging to tell other African-Americans that they can’t gain God’s favor and that I should never talk about the doctrine of sin.

Does Paul not say in 2 Tim 4:3 that their will come a time when men want their ears to be tickled? Are we really surprised by this? American society wants a lovey-dovey Happy Valentine’s Day God. Sin, repentance, mortifying flesh, and bearing a cross would not make me come away from church feeling good about myself. Let us forget about a holy God who is separate and totally not like us, but instead let’s make God just feel like us.

Let’s make God in our image, flawed. Let us claim that His Word was written by fallible, jewish, males that can’t be trusted so we can pick and choose what applies to our lives. Let’s make God dependent upon us, so that we don’t have to rest on His cross and the blood of His Son. Let us make God in a way that He changes with the times, so that we can claim because the times have changed, so does God’s standard of sexuality. Now my itching ears have been tickeled.

An interesting comment was made above that said: “Instead of laughing at these people and their stories, they need to be welcomed into our churches with open arms, relentlessly pointed toward and shown the loving grace of Christ, rejoiced over when he saves them, and then taught to obey everything that he commands.” We can’t just welcome them into our churches. That will rarely be the first step. The first step is to welcome that into our lives. If the church is already viewed as rejecting people, how are we going to get them there? As I’ve dialouged with friends about reaching out, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most effective things we can do is show our weakness and that we are in need of grace. Way too often Christians come to others with the attitude of, “you are in need of a Savior,” but honestly, I am as much in need of a savior as any other sinner out there.

Yeah, God does reject people, let’s be honest. What is so glorious is that He accepts so many who don’t deserve to be accepted. Although many liberals won’t accept it, it’s glorious to know:

15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (Romans 9:15-16)

Instead of laughing at these people and their stories, they need to be welcomed into our churches with open arms, relentlessly pointed toward and shown the loving grace of Christ, rejoiced over when he saves them, and then taught to obey everything that he commands.

No disagreement there, Rae. =/

We’re called to judge those within the Church; but we need to “judge righteous judgment.” All to often, we judge like the Pharisees do. (Take the heavily-pierced kid at the end of the new ad.) While the UCC’s response is too far in the opposite direction, we ought to sift it for the kernels of God’s truth that are in there, and let God rebuke us through them.