When being different becomes the same

Tonight was my second Sunday at Mosaic, which is an organized group of Christians that meet every week at the old Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles (also known as a Church meeting, but they don't call it that).

It's really exciting, and they have a good message... it's not wishy-washy like I was expecting like (putting on a stoner voice), "Come to Jesus and everything will be... cool, man." No, it wasn't like that. Fully commendable, and they're doing a great thing there. But some things have been rubbing be the wrong way, and I think I finally pinpointed what it was. I think they may be trying so hard to be different and "prove" that all of these stereotypes are wrong, they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. Rather than taking what is wrong and making it right, they take what is wrong and just chuck it so there's nothing left. Let me explain.

The person speaking on this series of the "Controversial Jesus" is very good. He's to the point, he addresses things that some people may not like to, and he is easy to listen to. He's funny, charismatic, and he relates well to the crowd. But he doesn't like religion.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand what he means by that, and why he must be frustrated, but there's a problem with discounting religion altogether as a bad thing. Religion in and of itself is not a bad thing. Essentially what religion is, is a series of rituals performed by a group of people that believe the same thing. The purpose of those rituals should stand as reminders of why they believe what they believe, and to have a sort of structure to those beliefs. The trouble with religion is that frequently it is those same rituals that are emphasized, and they lose their purpose--the performers look to the ritual for cleansing salvation instead of simply using them as symbols for what they have their faith in. Getting rid of religion and ritual altogether would mean getting rid of Christmas, Easter, Sunday meetings, Saturday meetings (for Jews or SDA's), or anything else you can think of that has anything to do with organization.

The intention here is a good one, but unfortunately, I don't believe it has been thought through. Jesus did not come to remove religion, he came to fulfill it and make it perfect... In fact, I think at the very least he showed us how religion serves a purpose, not to save, but simply stand as a reminder and a maintainer of reverence for the God who saved you.

The second thing that bothered me more tonight than the first time (because he did the same thing) was embedded in his analogies. I'd have to listen to the first one again to get it, but tonight he was talking about how the crowds took Barabbus back and had Jesus crucified instead. He began making comparisons to today -- "Honestly, now, if we were given the option, would you choose to crucify Ghandi or Saddam Hussein? Probably Saddam, right?" (then the part that got to me:) "If we were given Charles Manson or Billy Graham, we'd probably pick Manson, right??" It should be pretty obvious what I find wrong with that statement, but I'll tell you for the sake of maintaining my novel-long blogs...

Think about it... a man who persecutes Christians and makes a living off of it. He finds pleasure in seeing them in pain. Yeah, I'm glad that we saw Paul coming (Saul at the time) so that we could get rid of him before he killed to many of us. I'm glad that when we think of a Christian we think of someone who, yeah is a sinner, but didn't do anything too horrible, so it's okay, they can still be saved. God likes them better. NO!!! NO!!! NO!!! If we're talking about degrees of sin and salvation, IT DOESN'T MATTER! So you've already given up on Charles Manson? I really hope no one compares him to Saddam Hussein or Hitler. He hasn't killed thousands of people because he felt like it. Paul did. Maybe not thousands, but at least hundreds. He was trying to kill them all. He would have whipped out the gas chambers and lined them up along ditches and mowed them down with a machine gun, had he the technology. God had other plans for Paul. Maybe God has different plans for Charles Manson. Maybe he's going to be on his way somewhere and have something go to horribly wrong that he's going to recognize that something is at work. Maybe he's going to experience something that is so beyond anything we could imagine, that he will BE the next Billy Graham. Charles Manson's life is not over. We have yet to see how God is going to use him for His plan.

The one thing that I'd like everyone to recognize... is that I am no better than those people who spit on Jesus, flogged him, nailed down his hands, or even were in the crowds yelling, "CRUCIFY HIM!!!"

All I know is that the only difference between me and them... is that God took pity on me. That's it.