September 20, 2018
Gluten Free Christianity
Timothy Birdnow
In response to the story about Gluten free communion wafers Martha Mathewson, wife of our North Central Editor Dana, gives us an amusing anecdote:
The Catholic Church has offered GF hosts (the wafer -- known as The Body of Christ) for quite a while now -- so apparently they are ahead of the curve in this (if the Episcopal Church is any example).
A bit of an amusing story:
About 2 1/2 years ago, I was acting interim music director and liturgist in the church where I am now (just) accompanist and pianist. In that role, I attended the staff meetings.
One item of discussion:
"Father, this past Sunday, Jesus was stale".
"Yes, I know. Our order didn't arrive in time."
(It took me a minute before I 'Got' it, and I burst out laughing, thus completely interrupting the proceedings!).
End
This provides an unwitting critique of the Catholic Church (to which I, Tim, am a member in good standing). The Catholic Church is so afraid of offending people they will not call out what they themselves have declared to be sins out of fear of losing people in the pews on Sunday - and the money they place in the collection baskets. They also are worried about their tax exempt status. So the Sunday homily consists of soft platitudes, polemics, and "gluten free" empty spiritual calories packaged in as non-offensive manner as possible. Jesus was stale is a fitting criticism of so much of modern Catholicism.
The Church says abortion, homosexuality, adultery, and a host of other common practices among Americans will lead souls to Hell and that anyone guilty of such sins must abstain from Holy Communion until they have cleansed themselves via the Rite of Reconciliation (Confession). But they won't mention it at all. They KNOW there are people living unrepentantly in this state who are coming to church and receiving Holy Communion and they say nothing out of fear of political backlash and lost revenue. They allow Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and others to openly support abortion and gay marriage and still claim to be Catholics. They have no courage at all.
Jesus was the ultimate in moral courage, and he didn't give a hoot about coaxing people in. He instructed his Disciples to "shake the dust of the town off your feet and move on" when they were not well received. Jesus wanted to present the message, the whole of it, and let people decide for themselves. He did not want to try to coax and cajole. He was unwilling to alter His message to please the crowd. In the end they killed Him for it, hut that was His job, and He did it. The modern Catholic Church is more concerned with pleasing the World than pleasing God.
And when you are a suck up, a yes-man, a posterior kisser, you are universally despised. Catholicism is waning because it won't present anything but a stale Jesus, or a cartoonish Jesus, a variant on Barney the Dinosaur. It's all about hugs and kisses and well wishes without the other aspect. Christianity deals with some harsh and terrible things. It says that Man is condemned to the worst isolation from all that is good if he continues down the path that seems right to him. There are real, grave consequences to our lives and what we do and think. The modern Catholicism has rejected this by and large, in favor of a big warm fuzzy. Or it is all guilty and no grace, both flip sides of the same wrong coin. The guilty is not the guilt that promotes repentance so much as the guilt that is so beloved by the Left, the guilt that blames certain groups and beliefs from the past. Both are antithetical to true Christianity, and both lead to empty pews and a numb, unenthusiastic laity.
Stale Jesus indeed! Chewy hosts are the least of the problem.
In response to the story about Gluten free communion wafers Martha Mathewson, wife of our North Central Editor Dana, gives us an amusing anecdote:
The Catholic Church has offered GF hosts (the wafer -- known as The Body of Christ) for quite a while now -- so apparently they are ahead of the curve in this (if the Episcopal Church is any example).
A bit of an amusing story:
About 2 1/2 years ago, I was acting interim music director and liturgist in the church where I am now (just) accompanist and pianist. In that role, I attended the staff meetings.
One item of discussion:
"Father, this past Sunday, Jesus was stale".
"Yes, I know. Our order didn't arrive in time."
(It took me a minute before I 'Got' it, and I burst out laughing, thus completely interrupting the proceedings!).
End
This provides an unwitting critique of the Catholic Church (to which I, Tim, am a member in good standing). The Catholic Church is so afraid of offending people they will not call out what they themselves have declared to be sins out of fear of losing people in the pews on Sunday - and the money they place in the collection baskets. They also are worried about their tax exempt status. So the Sunday homily consists of soft platitudes, polemics, and "gluten free" empty spiritual calories packaged in as non-offensive manner as possible. Jesus was stale is a fitting criticism of so much of modern Catholicism.
The Church says abortion, homosexuality, adultery, and a host of other common practices among Americans will lead souls to Hell and that anyone guilty of such sins must abstain from Holy Communion until they have cleansed themselves via the Rite of Reconciliation (Confession). But they won't mention it at all. They KNOW there are people living unrepentantly in this state who are coming to church and receiving Holy Communion and they say nothing out of fear of political backlash and lost revenue. They allow Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and others to openly support abortion and gay marriage and still claim to be Catholics. They have no courage at all.
Jesus was the ultimate in moral courage, and he didn't give a hoot about coaxing people in. He instructed his Disciples to "shake the dust of the town off your feet and move on" when they were not well received. Jesus wanted to present the message, the whole of it, and let people decide for themselves. He did not want to try to coax and cajole. He was unwilling to alter His message to please the crowd. In the end they killed Him for it, hut that was His job, and He did it. The modern Catholic Church is more concerned with pleasing the World than pleasing God.
And when you are a suck up, a yes-man, a posterior kisser, you are universally despised. Catholicism is waning because it won't present anything but a stale Jesus, or a cartoonish Jesus, a variant on Barney the Dinosaur. It's all about hugs and kisses and well wishes without the other aspect. Christianity deals with some harsh and terrible things. It says that Man is condemned to the worst isolation from all that is good if he continues down the path that seems right to him. There are real, grave consequences to our lives and what we do and think. The modern Catholicism has rejected this by and large, in favor of a big warm fuzzy. Or it is all guilty and no grace, both flip sides of the same wrong coin. The guilty is not the guilt that promotes repentance so much as the guilt that is so beloved by the Left, the guilt that blames certain groups and beliefs from the past. Both are antithetical to true Christianity, and both lead to empty pews and a numb, unenthusiastic laity.
Stale Jesus indeed! Chewy hosts are the least of the problem.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:50 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 661 words, total size 4 kb.
1
David Dickinson adds:
"Jesus is stale."
That reminds me, one of the Emmy's hosts said the other night that the only white people who thank Jesus (when accepting an award) are Republicans and ex-crackheads. My first thought was, my goodness, another group that's no longer welcome in the Democrat Party - Christians?
"Jesus is stale."
That reminds me, one of the Emmy's hosts said the other night that the only white people who thank Jesus (when accepting an award) are Republicans and ex-crackheads. My first thought was, my goodness, another group that's no longer welcome in the Democrat Party - Christians?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at September 20, 2018 08:57 AM (GAZD8)
Posted by: Thanos at September 24, 2018 04:08 AM (kEvfG)
22kb generated in CPU 0.0082, elapsed 0.2437 seconds.
37 queries taking 0.2369 seconds, 160 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
37 queries taking 0.2369 seconds, 160 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
