My Father's Daughter

A fascinating article by USA Today columnist Michael Medved concludes the following about conservative American Christians today:

"This new confidence on the part of conservative Christians highlights the vast gulf between this nation's religious conservatives and the vulnerability and hysteria of Islamist militants in the rest of the world. Widespread rhetorical and real-world violence in response to rude caricatures in an obscure Danish newspaper doesn't express religious strength or zeal but reflects, rather, an underlying sense of powerlessness and desperation.

With the spread of democracy even in unlikely Middle Eastern locales, Muslim fanatics sense they are losing the struggle; on the other hand, religious conservatives in the USA who take a cleareyed look at their own position of influence see themselves as part of the nation's most dynamic social and cultural force.

The refusal to launch a battle royal against the pro-gay messages of Brokeback Mountain doesn't show the weakness or defeatism of religious conservatives. Instead, it displays their strength and optimism as a maturing mass movement currently more interested in creating than complaining."

The American, conservative, politically minded, zealous, X-er in me is thrilled at this new respect. And to be called a "mass movement" is thrilling after so many years of barely registering on the national-influence scale... On the other hand didn't the decline of the early church, and ultimately Roman/"modern" civilization start with Constantine officially embracing Christianity and then legislating it on an empire? I’m all for being a Christian nation, but I am wary of being too well received, too popular for our own good. I recently read about a Hollywood insider who called Christians the new Gays, saying portraying gays positively used to be the edgy hip thing in TV and movies; now it’s portraying Christians positively. Wow. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Much of the culture perceives the church as a caricature. But the Church is not just people perception of it. It is a living Body, and when that Body is healthy there is no safer, sweeter, more simple place to belong. How do I help my local Church get past the world’s caricature of it to the place where it is all real, all the time? Or as Rick Warren defines it, an authentic, courteous, mutual, hospitable, unified place?