SAWDUST TRAIL

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Some guy named Carl Medearis thinks that the world would be a much better place if Christians would just drop that ridiculous way-truth-life-no-one-comes-to-the-Father-except-by-Me nonsense:

For one group of people, the words “evangelist” and “missionary” bring to mind pious heroes performing good deeds that are unattainable for the average Christian. For another group, those same words represent just about everything that’s wrong with the world.

What do you mean?

Based on my experiences of living and traveling around the world, I know that religion is often an identity marker that determines people’s access to jobs, resources, civil liberties and political power.

I see you working, Carl. Christians are treated like crap in most of the Muslim world. Not all that long ago, many southern Sudanese Christians were enslaved by northern Sudanese Christians.

The Saudi entity won’t let Christians practice their faith at all. Pakistani Christians and Egyptian Copts are harassed and killed all the time, to the indifference, if not tacit approval of their governments. And if you leave Islam and become a Christian, you stand a pretty decent chance of losing your life.

Oh wait, you were talking about how evil Christians are. Never mind.

When I tell my Christian friends in America that some of the fiercest [Lebanese] militias were (and are) Christian, most are shocked. It doesn’t fit the us-versus-them mentality that evangelism fosters, in which we are always the innocent victims and they are always the aggressors.

I don’t know, Carl. If I lived in a place where one or all of my daughters could be kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam at any time, I’d probably own a gun too. But that’s just me.

This us-versus-them thinking is odd, given that Jesus was constantly breaking down walls between Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, men and women, sinners and saints. That’s why we have the parable of the Good Samaritan.

No, Carl, that’s not why we have the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Lord didn’t speak that parable to “break down walls” but to teach us that our neighbor is anyone who needs our help.

Jews in Jesus’ day thought of the Samaritans as the violent heretics, much the same way that Christians think of Muslims today. The idea that a Samaritan could be good was scandalous to first century Jews.

Really? Then could you show me in the Scriptures or other early sources(Josephus, say) any incident of Samaritans sneaking into Jerusalem and blowing people and stuff up? Dear God, Carl, there are little kids in Sunday schools from one end of this country to the other who know the Bible better than you.

Even the Apostle Paul insisted that it’s faith in Jesus that matters, not converting to a new religion or a new socio-religious identity.

Are you referring to this, Carl?

That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

I don’t see anything in there about Mohammed, Carl. Or the Buddha. Or Zoroaster or Lao Tzu or any other “spiritual leader,” for that matter. Just Jesus. Which seems a little exclusive of Paul, doesn’t it, Carl?

What if evangelicals today, instead of focusing on “evangelizing” and “converting” people, were to begin to think of Jesus not as starting a new religion, but as the central figure of a movement that transcends religious distinctions and identities?

I guess Star Trek has finally gotten to me because pedal-to-the-metal illogic like that is really beginning to grate on my nerves. Someone help me out here. We’re not to convince people to become Christians. But we should convince people that Jesus is “the central figure of a movement that transcends religious distinctions and identities.”

But if Jesus is “the central figure of a movement that transcends religious distinctions and identities,” doesn’t that suggest that lots of people all over the world are going to have to change their minds? Convert, if you will? Because why does Jesus get to be top dog; why not the Buddha or Mohammed?

Funny thing is, Jesus never said, “Go into the world and convert people to Christianity.” What he said was, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Disciples of who, Carl? Former Roller Derby legend Charlie O’Connell? And I don’t want to be a wet blanket or anything, big guy, but it behooves me to point out that Jesus uttered those words after He’d done something that no other “great spiritual leader” before or since has ever done. Rise from the dead.

Encouraging anyone and everyone to become an apprentice of Jesus, without manipulation, is a more open, dynamic and relational way of helping people who want to become more like Jesus — regardless of their religious identity.

It really makes me CROSS that Carl thinks that the whole purpose of the Christian life is only to encourage people to be like Jesus. Carl, if you suggest to atheists that they should be “more like Jesus,” they won’tCROSS you at all, particularly since you’ve just given them permission to stay out as late as they want to on Saturday nights. But I deliberately started this site so idiocy like that is my CROSS to bear.

Just because I believe that evangelicals should stop evangelizing doesn’t mean that they should to stop speaking of Jesus.

I speak of Jesus everywhere I go and with everyone I meet.

Carl? Your “Jesus” was a first-century Jewish guy who had a way with words whose death was a kind of first-century performance art. So I have four words of advice for you. Stop wasting your time.

It may come as a surprise to many Christians that Muslims are generally open to studying the life of Jesus as a model for leadership because they revere him as a prophet.

Who cares? I don’t need a “model for leadership.” And none of the prophets of God in the Bible(because that’s where they are and nowhere else) can do for me what I need to have done, Carl. Get me home to my Father in heaven. Only Jesus can do that.

Jesus met people where they were. Instead of trying to figure out who’s “in” and who’s “out,” why don’t we simply invite people to follow Jesus — and let Jesus run his kingdom?

For crying out loud, Carl, could you stay on message? Once again. We’re not supposed to convert people but invite them to follow Jesus. But if they follow Jesus, they’re going to have to quit following whoever they’re following now. Which implies a change of mind on their parts.

Some people call that conversion, Carl. Just sayin’.