I think to begin to unravel the mystery of how to address issues of Church and culture there needs to be an understanding of universal and particular sin.  Universal sins are those specifically addressed in the Bible, murder, hatred, fornication, adultery and the ever troublesome eating food sacrificed to idols.  These sins are universally prohibited to all who call themselves Christians.  There are other activities that may be engaged in simultaneously by two different Christians, one sinning and the other not.  These we will refer to as particular sins.  As image bearers of God who have been quickened by the Holy Spirit of God we have been given a conscience that is a guide to the way we are to live our lives.  True issues begin when we attempt to apply our own convictions to particular sins or cultural issues universally.  There are many Christians who claim that the Bible says Christians shouldn’t smoke; that it is a sin to do so.  This can be extracted from knowing that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it would be a sin to defile that temple, I find it ironic that most of these preacher are terribly obese and don’t the hypocrisy.  To some this may be a sinful act but it is not specifically addressed in the Bible so we must user our conscience given by God.  These sins have become pets of our church culture; it would be amusing if it was not so costly to the Kingdom of God. 

            There are many issues besides sin, which are not specifically addressed in the word of God.  These fall into issues of culture, many of our traditions and ways of doing things in the church are just that, tradition.  There is nothing inherently wrong with following those traditions they are rich in value and worthy of our attention, however they belong to a culture that is not entirely our own.  The church has a culture and a life all of its own and I find it is this culture that most people wish to avoid like prostate exam back to back with and IRS audit, I guess they are the same thing when you get down to it.  It is not Jesus that repels people it is the culture of the church that drives them away like lemmings over the cliff.  We must begin to understand our own culture to unravel it from the gospel to know what is what.  Unfortunately they are so closely entwined even to those of us in the mix it is almost impossible to tell the difference but it must be found if we are to discover how to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people around us and present it in their culture instead of demanding they come into ours to meet Jesus…

If you have any ideas please post them in the comments…

            I have been forced to watch a great deal of political ads as of late, and they are proving something profound to me.  I was correct in my assumption that politics in America has simply become the choice of the lesser of two evils.  Every commercial that comes across the airwaves is nothing but mudslinging, there is more mud that Woodstock ’95.  No candidate has yet to tell me why I should vote for them, but I am very well informed on the reasons their opponent is evil and I shouldn’t vote for their opponent, leaving me with only the option of voting for them.  But since they have given me no good reason to vote for them, only reasons not to vote for their opponent, assume they believe what I believe.  I am voting for the lesser of two evils.

            Our two party system stopped working the minute they became the same party.  Both sides of the aisle are simply concerned with serving the needs of, not the people they supposedly represent but the party its self.  I watched “Man of the Year” this weekend and it was a fairly good movie although it seem to try to be a little to John Grisham for my taste.  While I rarely agree with Robin Williams on anything political I think this movie will strike a chord with many people who are tired of the status quo in American politics.  I look to the quotes of our Fathers who looked upon the government, not as an end all be all, to solve our problems, but a necessary evil at best.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” –Alexander Tyler

“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”– Thomas Jefferson

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
– James Madison

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.”– James Madison

A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”– Thomas Jefferson

        Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. – C.S. Lewis (I know not one of our Founding Fathers but a true statement)

            Oh, if only they were not so right…