Monday, October 15, 2007

Intermission One

A snippets…

I once went to a church and the Pastor promised the church that their monetary problems were over. He told us that as he spoke, our accounts were doubling and doubling again… and the congregation went wild. Not necessarily because they believed it I think, but because they began to imagine a life free of monetary struggles. Some of the congregation proceeded to throw money at the pastor (yes it was that kind of church) and the pastor encouraged such shows of support. After much hooplah, and much money was deposited on the stage, the pastor ended his sermon.

Like a schoolboy eager to get home for cartoons, I jumped onto my computer and checked my account. Without surprise but with disappointment I witnessed my account was exactly how I had left it. After leaving the church, I told myself, that pastor should be ashamed of himself for abusing the faith of his congregation and misrepresenting Christianity. But I said, wait and see what your bank account looks like before condemning the man. Well now that I had checked, I proceeded to have my mental argument with the Pastor…

Me: How could you promise something that could not be delivered?
Pastor: Why would you say I did such a thing… the good Lord promised these things to those with faith.
Me: What do you mean by that?
Pastor: If you would have believed…just believed that this blessing would happen to you… it would have happened. The good book tells us that all things are possible in Christ… and that you only need the faith of a mustard seed. You did not believe with all your heart that this blessing would happen did you?
Me: Well no I did not…
Pastor: Then you should not blame me for you not receiving your blessing, blame yourself. But be consoled in knowing that it is very difficult to believe wholly and that I suspect most if not all suffered from your lack of faith.

And that is where the conversation would end. I could not condemn the pastor, because he was right. I did not have faith in his promises, and I will never know what would have happened if I did. And that is the beauty of religion, there is no disputing it. You either believe it or you don’t. You cannot disprove Christianity. It has no form, no substance with which to base your arguments. Faith is an idea and you cannot crush or destroy it.

1 Comments:

Blogger TheRealestOne said...

are you talking aboutthat crunk-tastic church we went to?

12:35 AM  

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