Fixing Things

Tonight was an interesting night! At church we discussed the book unChristian and its top six critiques of American Christianity.

1. Hypocritical: We give off a polished image but look no different than rest of the world.
   
2. Too Focused on Conversion: We target non-Christians and are more interested in conversions than we are discipleship and faith formation.
3. Anti-Homosexual: We are bigoted and focused on fixing their problem while ignoring ours.
4. Sheltered: We live in a naive bubble isolated from the world and suppress curiosity.
5. Too Political: We are assumed to be right-wing Republicans with a conservative agenda.
6. Judgmental: People doubt that we care about them and are more concerned with being right than loving them.

What was interesting was that the topic that carried the conversation was homosexuality. It seemed to trigger comments and touch people lives while none of the others did. A story came out about a teen in our church who struggles with homosexuality and has been told by his peers that their parents will not allow association with him. What a tragedy! How do we as the body of Christ love these people without associating with them? Huh!! Homophobia is rampant in our churches and this fear - this uncertainty about who we are - drives us to avoid homosexuals at all costs. It was such an enlightening discussion and hopefully a helpful one for the direction of the church. Time will tell...