December 01, 2010
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"Millions of Americans are Good without God"
The reporter was interviewing a Fort Worth Pastor who said that he encouraging Christians to boycott the bus line during the holiday season. I did some research after this and found this quote.
“We are offended byy the anti-God signs and we are very disappointed that The-T Transportation Authority would approve this, especially during the season when Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” said Bishop B.E. George, with Ministers Against Crime.
Stay with me on this but I'm a pastor and I'm not offended by the quote at all. In fact, I am encouraged because I believe that millions of Americans probably think it's absolutely true and I'm glad that they are willing to admit it especially here in the Bible Belt where "Christianity" is linked to culture, the Republican party and the Country Club.
I just don't know how boycotting people who don't believe in God is something that we are taught anywhere in scripture.
I work in a mainline denomination that has really struggled in the past 5 years. We've lost a couple million members and those who have stayed are struggling with some very tough issues about Biblical interpretation, the role of Jesus and the authority of scripture.
I don't believe that rejecting people who don't believe in God is the right way to go about loving people.
Back in September the Christian community was slammed pretty good by the Pew research study that showed that "Atheists, Agnostics, Mormons and Jews actually scored higher on a religious knowledge survey" I don't remember the Christian community being so angry at that survey. We were embarrassed and we should have been but we didn't point a lot of fingers at ourselves. The spiritual maturity of many Christians in the United States now is not something that I think the "millions of Americans who are Good without God" are looking at and feeling compelled to follow.
So my take on this. Let's ride the bus. I'd be way more comfortable getting on the bus with people who don't believe in God and ask questions to find out why they feel that way. I'd like to ask questions about what that statement means. I'm guessing that for many of them that what they are not rejecting God so much as they are rejecting the Churches in the United States. And if we want to boycott anything as Christians let's boycott the churches that are teaching an incredibly skewed version of God that honestly I don't need either.
So if you don't need God I'd love to talk to you. Not to "convert" you or "change" you but to just have a conversation and to share some honest conversation about all of this. If you want to get on a bus and go for a ride I'm cool with that.
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