I grew up in a blue collar home. I ‘m proud of it, I learned the value of hard work and doing what it takes to support a family. But growing up blue collar imbued me with an underdog mentality. Typical small town movie stuff. I didn’t get how you could have private clubs where rich people could play golf and “regular” people couldn’t. I didn’t understand why there were two swimming pools in our town, one for white kids and one for black kids. When I was in grade school I had a friend who was retarded. I hated the way high school kids made fun of him, made him stand on his head in mud puddles or sing at the top of his lungs while they laughed. Underdog stuff.
I started going to church in the ninth grade and became a believer in Jesus shortly after I started attending. I read the Scriptures and it seemed like God was for the underdog.Here was a place where everyone was equal; no rich or poor, no white or black, no young or old, no Jew nor Greek, no male or female, no smart or retarded. Just people.
Idealistic, I suppose. Church people are like everybody else. They put together groups and don’t want other people to be in them. They’re fearful of people that are different than them. They don’t want to exclude people from church, I mean, they all want people to get saved as long as they aren’t in their groups. As long as they aren’t too demanding. As long as they don’t talk too much or say inappropriate things. As long as they smell okay and fit the definition of “normal.” I’ve known people to quit groups and quit churches because of people they defined as EGR people. Extra Grace Required. Puhleeze.
If you think you’ve never been an EGR person, think again. You drive someone crazy. Someone thinks you talk to much or smell funny or don’t fit their group. Someone things you are needy or poor or retarded. But when it happens to you, oh what an injustice!
We fret about doctrine and crosses and Bible translations and appropriate music and blah, blah, blah, but we can’t grasp the simplest concepts. Love your neighbor. Take care of those in need. If we can’t do that or at least work toward it, we should just shut the doors. What’s the point?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no angel, pretty far from it actually. Just read through my other blogs. But this one is simple. If we can’t treat everyone with kindness, if we can’t open up our gatherings to people different than us, if we want church to be our country club, we don’t get it. Any of it.
