I’m going to church tomorrow for the first time in quite a while, and like always when I’m about to go, I’m nervous. So I thought this was worth talking about. I’ve always felt this way about church, because I probably set foot in a church about five times when I was growing up. As an adult, every time I went to church, I had this same feeling, if more so than now. I was worried that I might overstep some boundary or not know some convention that made it obvious that I Was A Stranger Here. I’ve been a stranger in more ways than that, but for some reason church always really brought it out.
I don’t know if that’s unusual, or if other people whose religious background is as vague as mine feel the same way. But the inclusiveness of churches is sometimes hard to see. Not that some don’t try, of course, but at some point you have to take the risk of being a stranger in order to become a friend, and maybe some people aren’t ready to take that risk. I am, or at least I will tomorrow.
There is a Christian band called Casting Crowns that has a song “If We Are The Body”:
—-“It’s crowded in worship today
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know
A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances
Tells him that his chances are better out on the road
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come”—
Words that all Christians should keep in mind when they have a guest in their church.
A few questions from a blog idiot
How do you keep the spammers from eating you alive? i\’ve seen blogs with nothing but spam postings.
How do you keep some left wing extremist from posting racist or defamatory rhetoric? and if you cant stop them, what are you legally liabel when they do?
can viruses be posted to blogs?