Big Beliefs in Small Bites

From the Foreword

The book you hold in your hands, is one for the Twenty-First Century, a book in which you will discover over 160 short articles (blogs, to use the language of today), dealing mainly with religious and spiritual projects. And all of them deal with matters I wish I had read and understood as a young Christian.

Looking back, I see there had been a period when I was fairly fundamentalist in my outlook. But as the years went by, and as I meditated on the life of Jesus, I started to grow in my attitude to the Bible, the Church, the saints, and the way I regard people of other denominations and beliefs.

There was a time in some parts of the world where you weren’t welcome in the Church if you were of the wrong politics, or if you didn't obey some of the Church rules, or if your skin was thought to be of the wrong color. Above all, you were in mortal and spiritual danger if you were a thinking person and if you questioned some of the Church’s teachings. And not only matters about religion, either. Centuries ago, people like Galileo who had different ideas about science were cast out—excommunicated—from the Church. People who had different ideas of religion were burned alive. If a nation was thought to have departed from the true faith, it was deemed perfectly all right for another nation to attack and murder its people. All in the name of religion! All because people couldn’t accept that men and women are made differently, and that there is room in the world—and especially room in the Church—for differing points of view!

However, in fairness I should warn you. You may not like this book if you are an atheist. You may not approve of it if you are a fundamentalist. On the other hand, if you are one of the many Christians who believe in enquiring and asking questions, this volume will almost certainly provide you with a few answers and maybe a little entertainment. And who knows? It may cause you to nod in agreement and even to let out an occasional chuckle.

The worst word

What would you suggest is the worst word often used by Christians, a word so bad it is almost the exact opposite of ‘Christian’?

Atheist, perhaps? Sinner, maybe? Wickedness, possibly? Thief, adulterer, paedophile, murderer?

The most anti-Christian word I can think of is none of these.

It is a word we probably use frequently. It has nothing to do with sinfulness or religion at all. Some people see nothing wrong with it.

The word I mean is the word exclusive. It is a word that suggests narrowness, intolerance, parochialism.

Some people, and some social sets, are proud of being exclusive. But the Church should never be exclusive, mainly because our God is not exclusive. When making the world, God made a tremendous diversity, in planets and the stars; in animals and shrubs; in people of every sort.

We live in a universe marked by diversity. For centuries a fear of the unknown made people fearful of diversity. Now that fears of the unknown are disappearing, we should celebrate our diversity and exult in our differences…

‘You married me!’ the woman cried

Members of the clergy don’t always wear their clerical collars, especially when they are relaxing in bed, the bath, the garden, out shopping, washing their cars, and when they are on holiday.

A few years ago I was wearing casual clothes while I sat in a medical centre, sitting among other patients waiting to see a doctor.

After a few minutes a middle-aged woman came into the surgery.

I was engrossed in an old magazine, and so didn’t look up. Then I heard a voice calling out: “Hello, there! Don’t you remember me?”

In all honesty I couldn’t place the person’s face, and so I shook my head. “You don’t remember me?” she said in loud note of disbelief. “Don’t you remember?—you married me ten years ago!”

At that stage I seemed to have the complete attention of every person in the surgery. People were looking at me, as if to say: “Who are you, a bigamist? What a beast, marrying a woman and then forgetting her!”

I thought of that incident the other day when I read discussions over those whom some people think we should, or shouldn’t, marry….

On the wrong committee

Archbishop Tutu tells of a time when his family was upset because of one son’s choice of a sweetheart. The parents were not pleased about the choice of the young lady, and the disquiet was causing unhappiness in the family. Then one night Mrs Tutu prayed about it. The next day she told her family something God had made clear to her: she had put herself on the wrong committee.

“I’m not on the selection committee,” she said. “I’m on the welcoming committee. It is my son’s job to choose. It’s my job to welcome the person he chooses.”

Many a mother, and many an in-law, has had to remember that. Archbishop Tutu reminds us that by virtue of our baptism, we are brothers and sisters with all other Christians, whether or not we agree with them. What we share with them is always greater than any beliefs that may separate us.

And not only with fellow Christians. It is necessary that we learn to be just and fair to all people, of every religion and race.

Some of the sins of the Church

It is a healthy sign when leaders can admit that the Church had not always been perfect. As the Bible says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, God will forgive” (I John 1:8).

When Jesus went to God’s house, the Temple, the first thing he did was to clear it out. “Judgment must begin at the house of God,” he said. All of which makes me wonder about some of the sins committed by churches. Here are a few of them: …