Pastor's Message

Christopher Hitchens died Thursday, December 15^th. He was 62. Mr. Hitchens was a very well known atheist. In 2007, Christopher wrote a book entitled, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. When he learned that he had esophageal cancer, he made sure to emphasize that he had not revised his position on God.  Christopher once wrote in his book, Letters to a Young Contrarian that,  “I’m not even an atheist so much as I am an anti-theist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful.”

 

The New York Times of December 28, 2011 has an article about the pain of Somali women who have been spoils of war. They interviewed a seventeen year old girl who was sexually abused by five militants in a holy war because, according to them, any resistance was considered a crime against Islam, punishable by death. She commented saying, “I don’t know what religion they are.”

 

On the fourth page of the same edition of the Times, there is an article about an eight year old Israeli girl. She is the daughter of American immigrants to Israel who are observant, modern, Orthodox Jews. The second grade girl is reportedly terrified of walking to her elementary school after ultra-Orthodox men spat on her, insulted her and called her a prostitute because her modest dress did not adhere exactly to their more rigorous dress code.

 

ABC News reported that on Wednesday, December 28^th, during an annual cleaning ritual at the site where Jesus was said to have been born, now the Church of the Nativity, a fight broke out among clergy. Priests and monks from the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations were cleaning the church in preparation for the upcoming Orthodox Christmas celebrations. The fight with brooms ended when club-wielding Palestinian police stormed the church. A police officer reported that “no one was arrested because all those involved were men of God.”

 

I am sorry to say that I understand why Mr. Hitchens believed that the influence of churches is harmful. In fact, I think that most of his anger against God is actually the fruit of believers in God.  In the hymnal, The Faith We Sing, there is a hymn entitled “The Summons”. The second verse reads, “Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?”

 

The problem is that the life of most believers does not attract but only scares the heavens out of people. Most atheists look at those behaviors above and decide that “if” that is how believers act, “if” those are the kind of people you will find in heaven, maybe hell is a better place. Can you blame them?

 

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

 

In the gospel we see Jesus angry only when he is dealing with religious, self-righteous people. In this New Year we need people who have resolved to reflect the image of God. If we are going to provoke anyone, let us do it in the spirit of Hebrews 10:24, “let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” In the New Year, when we usually make resolutions, let us resolve to honor the God that is love, proud that we carry his Son’s name. Let us be doers of the word, and not just hearers, let us honor the name we carry -- Christian.

 

Happy 2012!