The Message is all wrong

For quite some time now I have been struggling with the juxtaposition of Religious doctrine espoused weekly in our local churches against their growing toe dipping into the political sphere.  They are of course following the lead of their Diocese, conferences, etc., and it is a centuries old story.  Church corruption and the manipulation of God’s plan to suit social and political ideologies have been a root cause of repression, aggression and obsession for millennia; the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Reformation, etc.  It’s not new in our Time or in our culture.

In my lifetime and especially of late, I am increasingly finding myself at odds with Church and state.  God’s message of Love, caring, responsibility and good works have transgressed itself on the pulpit into social political commentary relative to division of the societal classes being exacerbated by our nation’s current socialist political leanings.  The targeted political divisiveness strategy now being employed by our country’s leadership for political expediency of advancing the Socialist agenda has ripped more than one hole in the underlying fabric of our Liberty and harmony as a nation. More has been done in five years to purposefully divide our Union than in the last two hundred and thirty-seven.

So I am dismayed to have been sitting in a small town Methodist sanctuary this morning listening the a mature but new Minister to this congregation degenerate a message about God’s Calling of the Heart and His imploring of His flock to seek Him through their Love and their deeds at all costs and with every fiber of their total capability, into a wealth is Evil and the Wealthy are Damned message.

It was clearly not his intent.  I believe somewhere in his conscience, his heart was true.  But wrapped up in all the orchestrated propaganda afflicting our lives each day, he just could not help himself.  The truth of his political leanings had to come out and his personal message of redistributed wealth over shadowed the beauty of God’s word.  In watching the Congregation and their reaction to his words, I would suspect he did some damage to the foundations of his Church this morning.

The dominant offshoot of the class warfare strategy is that it has divided the society into producers and consumers, givers and takers.  So many people are being cultivated to Take and Expect and to Believe they are Entitled to what others have made and earned  that the generosity of the producers is being tested to the core.

I personally no longer give like I used to, I still give generously, but I pick and choose my Charities VERY carefully after fully vetting their social leanings, their commitment to those they seek to help and the needs of those they provide for.  The Lord says we are not to sit in judgement of others, but He also compels us to be wise in using His Gifts to do good in the world.  We must be wary of Charlatans and Deceivers.  We must be just as wary of those who manipulate His Message for the advancement of political ideology as we must of those who do so for their own personal gain.

Knowing that the head of a Religious organization to which I could offer more of my time and talents in his heart believes I am evil for not writing a bigger check to his Church so that he can redistribute my time and talents for me makes my decision a lot easier.  I shall continue to give generously to do good in the world with organizations who will wisely use my gifts and not squander my talents to advance a redistributive political policy.