A Bruised Reed - ASBO Jesus

ASBOJesus does it again. http://asbojesus.wordpress.com/

For a while now I've been looking for succinct and clear ways to describe how me and Mrs Jockmcgonzo felt at points with regards to our church for me it was both before and after we lost our little girl. and along comes jon birch and does it easily.

When i was having panic attacks in church and couldn't stay in the meetings i was told to get over it.

only a month after we'd been through hell and lost our baby girl we were effectively asked why weren't we over it.

even now when to the vast extent i am as 'over it' as I'm ever going to be people still seem uncomfortable when i talk about her or when i talk about issues i have with the church and they tend to lump it all under the umbrella of "not over it yet"

and one more thing, i will never be over losing my little girl, i will be able to carry on, i will be able to see the blessings that I've been given, i will be able to rejoice in our healthy happy little boy, i suspect i even may one day be able to enjoy going to church again BUT I WILL NEVER stop missing her or talking about her and if this is what you expect to see from me before i reach your criteria of being 'over it' then walk up to me the next time you see me and say goodbye because it isn't going to happen. However i do want to stress that this doesn't mean I'm hung up on what happened or can't move past it just that she was a huge and important part of my life and that period of time will always be the time that who i was changed.

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A Bruised Reed - ASBO Jesus

A really thought provoking 5 part blog post

and it's only up to part 2

There's a very though provoking blog series going on at ourrisingsound.com at the minute called

5 ways worship music can be like bad hotel art

Part 1was worship music can be uninspired and is well worth a read

Part 2 is how worship music can be cheap and hits hard.

I Look forward to 3, 4 and 5 with only a little trepidation

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A really thought provoking 5 part blog post

Homosexuality, Sin and unforgivable sins

As per usual in my blog, no answers, but lots of questions.

Now I've ummed and ahhed about writing this post because of course it could lead to an awful lot of division so i would like to plead with anyone who reads it that this is just me asking questions and explaining where my head is, there is no ulterior motive just one man trying to work out his salvation and his faith fairly and critically.

so with that caveat in place let's begin.

I started thinking about this following a post and the comments thread on johnshore.com recently i got to thinking about Homosexuality and Christianity. (post and comments here http://johnshore.com/2009/09/12/nothing-says-love-like-a-lesbian-christian-minister-with-an-oven/ and I'm sure john will love me if the comments get going again given his more recent post http://johnshore.com/2009/09/16/helping-christians-be-bored-by-homosexuality-since-april-2007/ :o/

So where do I sit.

Probably still where i always have.

I've always been fascinated how different groups of Christians have their own 'unforgivable sins' (completely separate to the grieving of the holy spirit mentioned in the bible)

When i was at University the Christian Union had 2, they were pre-(and presumably extra-)marital sex and drunkenness. Now i can understand why there was focus on these two as lets face it that's what a lot of people believe the student life is but what i could never understand was why it seemed like if you committed these sins you were ostracized more than if you'd fancied your neighbour's ass.

It seems like for a lot of Christians now I'm older that Homosexuality is now the 'unforgivable sin' (well that and suggesting that worship could be louder/quieter/rockier/softer etc etc etc)

This isn't what i see in the bible, I think that the bible teaches that the wages of all sin is death, that no sin is worse than any other, all are equally capable of creating the divide that Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and resurrection were required to fill so that we could be reconciled to God and all are subject to the forgiving power of that sacrifice.

So why is homosexuality different? I don't think it is.

So what can we do about this, well firstly if you're the type of Christian who immediately on finding out that someone is gay jumps down their throat (pun originally unintended) about it, please make sure you're at least a consistent uncompassionate jerk and do the same for people who get drunk, take the lord's name in vain or whichever other OT graceless laws you want to yoke them with

or alternatively you could start to get to know that person as a person and not just a label and then lovingly and compassionately talk to them about all the sin in their lives as you let them lovingly and compassionately talk to you about yours.

P.S. This has ended up being a very different post to the one i first drafted but isn't that always the way, maybe I'll save the other stuff for a rainy day because to paraphrase monty python 'it was a good bit and had the west wing in it'

P.P.S. Honorable mention for comment that made me laugh most to Michael of http://megaloi.blogspot.com/ for this comment http://johnshore.com/2009/09/12/nothing-says-love-like-a-lesbian-christian-minister-with-an-oven/#comment-15568

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Homosexuality, Sin and unforgivable sins

A must read blog

Do you want to
a) have you heart strings pulled
b) increase your compassion levels
c) increase your understanding of what mum's with disabled children go through.
d) know more about children with cerebral palsy
e) laugh, cry and generally experience emotions on a profound level
f) many more things that i can't even think of right now

then you want to read the blog of a special young mum and her thoughts about life with her gorgeous girl Elin who is profoundly disabled following oxygen starvation at birth.

visit http://cerebralpalsyjourney.blogspot.com/ comment and encourage her to keep it up.

Ruth's story is very close to my heart as her Paul, Elin and Caitlin are members of my family and Elin was born the day after me and Mrs. Jockmcgonzo lost our little baby girl. That week it felt like no one was ever going to have a normal birth ever again.

But enough about me, if you've read this far that means you haven't read her blog yet. go do it now. I'll wait.

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A must read blog

To be safe or good?

I remember a few times when i had started reading a blog or a book and thinking "i don't quite like where this is going" or "i don't agree with that" and stopping reading.

What was i scared of?

was my belief or my reasoning about that subject so weak that reading one post/book would turn it around with no input from me.

I suspect what i should have done is read the post and actually thought about what they were saying compared it with what i believed and accepted what was left standing as the best reasoning at the time.

It seems like all around us we're looking for the safe blog, the safe preaching, the safe music rather than the good.

I'll buy this book as its in a Christian book shop, I'll buy this music as they say their a Christian band, I'll believe this sermon as it's from a church in my stream.

Surely there is a better way, surely we should be searching everywhere for what is good and true rather than what is safe. surely this will lead to us being a) more well rounded in our beliefs b) more able to defend and stand up for what we believe as its reasoned as well as faith and c) more interesting as we all won't be listening/reading/watching the same things.

It reminds me of the line in the lion, the witch and the wardrobe when Mr Beaver is describing Aslan (the Jesus character) Lucy (a young girl) asks "is he safe?" Mr Beaver replies "Safe! No, but he's good"

the problem with looking for the good of everything be it books, TV, music, blogs is that you have to go through a lot of dross but if you know what you believe and are willing to hold it up to what you see and hear and look for what is good and true then you just might get to the point where you too are not safe but you're good.

EOM--

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To be safe or good?

Who wants to see a real Christian

Interesting  wording for the subject i thought. I obviously can't say that the people i talk about are any more or less Christian than anyone else but they seem to be people that are honest to God, honest to themselves and honest to their blogs. (it goes without saying that the guys in my blogroll that talk about faith fall in this category too [well most of the time])

In no paticular order

John Shore http://johnshore.com - Professional writer and has some interesting posts that seem to me to be honest.
Jason Boyett http://blog.jasonboyett.com - author of the pocket guides to sainthood, the afterlife and the bible.
Ben Norton http://bluesoul.wordpress.com - author of espresso scripture
David Hayward http://www.nakedpastor.com - pastor of a vineyard church in canada

that will do for now, what i'd say is if you've got some time, read the writings of these people, subscribe to their RSS feeds and when you're reading think, "Is this what i belive?" "Am i right to believe what i believe?" and then even if you find yourself disagreeing violently with what the say you have critically thought about your beliefs and found them to be good and that is always a worthwhile use of your time.

So to end my current favourite quote from C.S. Lewis (feel free to extend it to any area of life, it will work)

“We do not need more people writing Christian books; what we need is more Christians writing good books.”

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Who wants to see a real Christian

Posterous - blog and update cleverly to everywhere at once.

If this does everything it says it can then it should be an incredible success that may only be stopped by google wave. guess only time will tell

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Posterous - blog and update cleverly to everywhere at once.