Quote of the month
"It's amusing to observe the various organized religious groups meet, discuss, argue and then vote on what is and is not religion. I suppose religion by majority vote allows us to create God in the image that most suits our fancy. Then we can go smugly about our self-righteous business of condemning those who disagree with us. God has to have a good sense of humor to put up with us."
M.E. Hooper
Comments (5)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
I wonder if M.E. Hooper has ever attended one of these gatherings he's so 'amused' by. Or perhaps he's not aware that as time passes, churches have to make decisions about how to use biblical principles to address issues that aren't specifically mentioned in the Bible. I'm not sure what his suggested alternative is -- he conveniently (for him) offers none -- but I think it would be a fair guess to say he's in favor of the "every man for himself" school of religion. Unfortunately, that line of thinking doesn't eliminate the "smugness" he decries. We all just become our own smug selves who are free to interpret Scripture whichever way we choose without any authority to turn to.
No, M.E. Hooper has not attended a denominational convention, because if he had, he'd see just how seriously (and not smugly) Christians take the responsibility of interpreting Scripture.
Posted on June 22, 2006 3:27 PM
Just because they take themselves far more seriously than they really ought to, that doesn't make them "serious" to the outside observer. Rather, they look a lot more like Dark Age theologians arguing over the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin.
Posted on June 22, 2006 4:27 PM
Or Mr. Hooper can go about his business of smugly condemning religion!
Posted on June 27, 2006 7:36 AM
Yeah, that's always an option...
Posted on June 27, 2006 9:06 PM
I suspect that God allows religious societies to debate, discuss and interpret in order to accomplish the work of sanctification in each member of the Body, drawing from those who sincerely seek Him, the best of scholarship, devotion and faith.
We must have a living, regnerate relationship with God and be as free of known sin as possible in order to SEE spiritually. I believe that the Lord will indeed guide and direct us into His truth as we pray, submit to one another in love and rightly exegete the Word.
All of the failures and shortcomings of biblical religion, OT and NT has been the result of bringing the ignorance and prejudices of limited, fallen man into the process of interpretation. It is a miracle of God, the Paraclete, that we have as much apostolic and orthodox doctrine around as we do. The freefall of one major denomination into the quagmire of error and heresy of late is a vivid reminder of what happens when sinful, unbelieving persons wrongly divide the Word of Truth.
Posted on June 27, 2006 9:50 PM