rawr, heartburn and nausea

Two of several reasons I'm still awake despite desperately wanting sleep.

Looking over my class schedule, I'm actually starting Monday, the sixth. That is the beginning of my math class. My Psych class is the one starting on the seventh.

Erwin McManus bothers me. Here's a little blurb I stared at on Facebook;

"My goal is to destroy Christianity as a world religion and be a recatalyst for the movement of Jesus Christ," McManus, author of a new book called The Barbarian Way, said in a telephone interview. "Some people are upset with me because it sounds like I'm anti-Christian. I think they might be right."

It bothers me because of how sensationalistic the guy is. But he has a book to push, so I spose it makes sense. Mike Taylor posted it. He's one of two guys I know who are sort of tuning into the Emergent church thing. I dig the emerging church "movement". In a nutshell, it's (typically younger) people getting fed up with perceived passivity in modern Christian churches and culture, and their aims at "restoring" an active community. I thought it was largely evangelical, conservative types, but theologically and politically (because, despite what we say and think, they'll always be stuck together), it's very much based in the center. I'm curious to see how it pans out in the end.

There's a problem with McManus' goal of "re catalyzing" the movement of Jesus while simultaneously destroying the Christian religion. It mostly lies in definitions, so let's do this. I won't go far, just hitting up dictionary.com (picking and choosing the relevant ones, ie, the ones not about monks and nuns).

religion, noun
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects

3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices

4. something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience

5. strict faithfulness; devotion

6. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.

See the issue here? Of course, if I voiced this, I'd be met with things like "Well, you see, Sean, Jesus preached against religion." No. No he didn't. No matter how you strip it down, he still advocated to an adherence to the ten commandments and the God of Israel. Sorry folks, that's religion.

I can see why they would want to distance themselves from the word, though. "Religion" carries negative connotations nowadays, although it varies depending on who you are. In America, from an atheist or general non-Christian, it usually means all the ugliest bits of Christianity. I don't usually hear the word used by Christian speakers, I generally hear them talk about Muslims (although never just "Islam"). "Religion" in Europe I think may carry more equally for Islam than just Christianity, because of the giant rise in the "religion of peace" over that way, but I don't know, I only heard one angry old Brit complaining about all sides.

And I'm talking about when people start their rants using the words "religion" or "religious people". "Religious people" don't all go to churches. Some go to mosques and synagogues. Others go to kingdom halls, but they don't like it when you call them religious, since they're not a religion (right). So it becomes easier for McManus to say he wants to destroy "religion"-- that is, the ugliest bits of Christianity, for those of us in America-- and replace it with the much more palatable "movement of Jesus Christ".

It's good marketing, but that's about it.

Jesus preached against EXCLUSIVE religion. Everything he did was about inclusion of people to the kingdom of God. He brought the Jewish faith, however radical a rendering, to the Gentiles. He spent his time with the dregs of society-- tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes-- and treated them like people, which I'm sure was a change for them. The point was to make God accessible to everyone, not just the guys who could jump through the flaming hoops without any of the hair on their ass singed (excuse me, the high priests).

Okay, fine, it's a way for some people to get going in the right direction, but... the way McManus puts it seems very fallacious to me.

I hope this Pepcid holds out.

Sean