| A sermon, and Packy's response |
| A sermon, and Packy's response |
|
Now, I took this off the message before I sent it out. Why?
Because the story it followed was a really nice story, one that got the message of God's love across with honey. Why follow it up with vinegar?
More to my point, I'm a very religious person. In fact, I teach Sunday School. I don't, however, shove this fact in everyone's noses. Why? Because I've noticed that people tune out when you start preaching to them. "Good Lord," they think, "another God fanatic..."
If I've got a message to comminucate, the worst thing I can do is rapidly alienate the people I want my message to go to. Those of you who take the time to think about what messages PackyHumor is trying to communicate will disciver that it's a really simple one: that life can be filled with humor and joy without resorting to prejudice, intolerance, and hatred.
But prejudice, intolerance and hatred is what this little sermon above seems to be all about: oh, it's all wrapped in "God" language, but what is this actually saying? Let's take a look:
Funny how this is so true and shame on us!Gee, in the first line it tells us we should be ashamed. Ashamed of what? Ashamed of how a group of boys can transcend competition and display love for another? Forgive me, but by starting with this tone, the writer of this part (who is obviously different from the writer of the 'Shaya' story) is starting off on the wrong foot.
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world is going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Or is it scary? Funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan (who by the way, also "believes" in God)From the bad start in the first sentence, this sermon goes downhill into a rant about the state of the world. Note how each line starts with "Funny how..." Why is this? Well, it becomes clear in the next 3 lines:
Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace. Funny isn't it?Clearly, this author is upset about internet humor. Why? Because a good deal of it is lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene. The author figures that by guilting you into sending this message on (you know you sent that dirty email, and now you're afraid to send on one that talks about God), his message (and yes, I'm convinced that this kind of vitriolic rhetoric could only come from a male) will get circulated. However, the guilt trip doesn't end there...
Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week. Are you laughing? Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.See, obviously, I'm a bad Christian, because I don't preach fire and brimstone at all my friends. I don't tell them they're going to hell becuase they don't believe the same things I do. I don't tell them that they're sinners because they don't follow the same religious leader I do (for those of you that are wondering, my particular religious leader of choice just got back from a trip to Israel where the media followed his every shaky step from Nazareth to Jerusalem).
Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me. Are you thinking?This is where I stop. This author clearly doesn't know diddly about what God thinks, because he's filled with hate and anger. God is a god of LOVE, not a god of hate and anger. We're directed to spread the good news of God's love, not shove that news up people's noses. Mock piety is it's own reward. If the author of this sermon wants to go about showing off his sackcloth and ashes to everyone who will pay attention to him, he has gotten his reward already.
However, those Christians who live good lives and provide a good example of christian love for those who they come in contact with need never mention the name of Christ to be better preachers than those who invoke the Lord's name both day and night. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man in need is avoided by two very pious members of the community, people who spoke the name of God to all whom would listen. The one who not only stopped to help him but opened his purse strigs to pay for the man's care never once mentioned the name of God, yet he was the true brother, the true neighbor, the true messenger of God's message of love.
I don't believe in sending on caustic sermons demonizing people. "Holier
than thou" messages don't win converts... they turn people away. The God I
believe in tells me I should preach his good news joyfully and wherever I
go. If I predispose people to tune me out, I've failed in my task.
