Moment of Blindingly Obvious Realization

[spatch]

It just occurred to me, while standing in the shower with the shampoo and all, that good ol' Chan Chandler, the North Carolina Baptist minister who first threatened, then shooed out members of his congregation if they did not vote for or support George Bush, has defied one of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me." Now while I'm not certain if he led his charges in the Pledge of Allegiance before every service (which would fall into the Graven Images category bigtime) I believe I am safe in the assertion that, yeah, telling someone they can't come in and worship their god because they're not following some Mortal-in-Chief is, indeed, putting said M-i-C before the Lord. Lord don't like that, especially the Hebrew Bible Lord who gave the commandments to Moses in the first place.

As I realized this a great big glob of shampoo suds fell into my eyes and it stung a lot and I broke a Commandment in the ensuing scuffle. Sure, we're all sinners, but most of us sinners prefer to stick to the tried-and-true: Lord's-name-in-vain-taking, Sabbath-day-not-holy-keeping, neighbor's-stuff-coveting, false-witness-bearing, adultery-committing, poor-English-constructing, but it takes a real revolutionary like Chan Chandler to go back to a real oldschool dilly and gleefully break it in a fit of jingoistic pique. So bravo, Pastor Chandler! We hypocrites salute you and hold you as a shining example of how to really do things up right.

Comments

[annilita.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, plus there is the whole "render unto Ceaser what is Ceaser's" thing that Christ taught. He had the seperation of church and state and state and church thing down 2000 years ago.

And I broke the law by speeding on the way to church today, so I guess I qualify as a hypocrite myself.

w00t!

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I think one of the most important principles to remember in order to be an ACTUAL Christian is that Christ wasn't a Christian.

In other words, he was living a very admirable life within a Jewish society, following Jewish laws, being a respectful community member, etc. He didn't need to convert people or proselytize them or demand they change their values in order to love them and to live Christianly himself, and he was the ultimate Christian, even though he technically wasn't one of course.

FWIW, I'm not a Christian, though I could just as easily find my niche in any of the major religions.

[annilita.livejournal.com]

I meant on the way to the gym. I'm not that religious.

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Yyyyyyeah, the people who are loudly "Christian" are SO un-Christian in their values. Particularly at following the Christian practice of viewing prayer and worship as personal matters to be quietly undertaken within the family, not boasted about.

[dpolicar]

While disagreeing with your theological point, I really enjoyed reading this.

[luckimunki.livejournal.com]

To be frank, and quite possibly offensive, I think the way some Christians go on about Jesus breaks the First Commandment out right. Because God is God, and well, Jesus is God, too, and yeah, there's a third one, okay. But still, it's one God if you look at it from a funny angle and squint. And don't make me get into the whole saint business.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget that whole "Love Thy Neighbor" thing. With examples, no less. Christ gave all of two commandments, and the most vocal proponents of "Christianity" violate a full 50% of them.