An article I was reading in National Geographic Adventure about Wade Davis poignantly illustrated what I was thinking about in the Garden tonight. He is a ethnobotanist who has gone all over the world experiencing the plants and traditions of cultures while trying to let people know how important it is to preserve cultures all over the world. He states that one of the biggest problems for smaller cultures today is that they are being absorbed by larger societies because the people in these cultures are told that to be successful they have to earn more money at a plant in a big city. In reality their culture is destroyed and they are not any better off because of it.
Reading this article made me think of the Christian culture all over the world. It is what I was thinking about tonight when I was in the Garden of the Gods after a night mountain bike ride to go sit on the rocks and think. I realized that I was questioning God in a large part due to the failings of religion around me. When I look at Christians as a whole there are not very many that I respect for their actions outside of the church. If I was hitch hiking back from a long bike ride the chances of someone picking me up who was a christian are not high. At least in Colorado, a redneck or a bike/snowboard bum would be more likely to pick me up. Or if I needed food I would be more likely to get it from some hippies camped beside the road then if I went up to a car full of Christians and begged for it. Why are Christians so afraid of the world around them. God has brought so many beautiful things out of the non-Christian culture. I mean why is it that not many Christian bands are really any good??? And why is it that if you have a boss that is mormon or a co-worker that he is more likely to treat you with respect and dignity then if that person is a Christian.
Why is it that so many Christians expect new converts to conform to their culture. It is kindve like how the southern Baptists expect members of their church not to ever drink and say that it is biblically wrong to drink when they encounter other people. Or how a lot of churches ask their kids to give up secular music for Christian music. So much Christian music really stinks. If a kid is really musically inclined he or she is probably going to go for non-christian bands so instead of steering him towards inferior music why not find secular bands that are clean and present good values. It is really not that hard
My friend Patti was saying yesterday that relationships are really the cornerstone of a good church. Not the sermon or the music but the relationships you have with the people in that church and how they make you feel loved and cared for and inspire you to want to show that love and care to everybody you will meet in your daily life. The Christian life is not about rules and figures, it is about loving your neighbor to show them christs love and the rest naturally follows. Rules tend to drive people farther away from God while love tends to drive them closer to him.
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