I’ve been keeping up with the Internet Monk, Micheal Spencer, for about a year now. I’ve got him on my blogroll, and I think you should check him out. He generally says things that I’ve been thinking, and he says it better than I could have ever articulated it. He also has a tendency to admit when he’s wrong; I could learn from that.
At any rate, Micheal did a little tribute to George Carlin on the occasion of his death that ruffled a few feathers. He basically said that Carlin had some pretty observant things to say, and there was more truth in his act than there has been in a lot of sermons out there in evangelical Christianity. That may have been a bit forward, but I’d have to say that was an interesting point.
I know Carlin is responsible for helping to make comedy not so family-friendly, and that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Whether or not you want to check him out is your decision; you’re an adult. I’d rather listen to George Carlin do the Hippy Dippy Weatherman than Todd Bentley talk about kicking old people in the face to heal them from diseases. Carlin was a very observant man, and he had some pretty interesting critiques of life in these United States. He also had some particularly biting things to say about religion.
I know the cool thing to say is “It’s against my relationship to have a religion” and that’s fine, but (Christians, Christ-followers, whatever the buzzword is) to listen up and not write off the critiques against us, particularly the hypocrisy that mars us all.
I think we need more voices within the Church to be this observant, and once again, examining. The Reformers were good at that, and they said some fairly biting things about what was going on in their day as well. I wonder if they would look like preachers or if they would look more like stand-up comedians in our day. That’s all speculative, and maybe I’m just trying to be edgy and cool. I mean, we’re trying to be family-friendly and keep things at some ideal status quo when we’re divorcing at a higher rate than all those people who are trying to destroy our families.
We’re serving a loving God incarnated in Jesus Christ, but when my church did a Q & A series, the #1 most asked question was “Why are Christians so mean?”
We love our enemies and turn the other cheek, but everyone needs to carry an assault rifle.
It’s good to be united when we’re attacked by terrorists, but when it’s election time, we better be wary of that guy with the crazy name who keeps up with all that unity talk. After all, unity led to the bloodiest war in the history of the United States.
Now I’m just griping, so I’ll stop. A mule can kick down a barn door, but it takes a man to build one.
Filed under: Christianity, Gripes, Life
