Friday, November 14, 2008

The Blog Incarnate!

Now that the election is over, I have the opportunity to talk about something that occurred a couple weeks ago:

On Oct. 31, 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther is said to have nailed a list of complaints about the
universal church to his chapel door, thereby igniting the Protestant Reformation. 491 years later, my congregation invited others to do the same. To this end, they placed a large wooden door outside of the Chapel with paper, markers, and tacks, and a sign encouraging all passers by to post their own their own theses upon the Church.

The picture shows the door after two days. After the door have been out for two week it was entirely covered with comments which were presented before the congregation:

Try to understand and love even those with whom we disagree however fervently.

No war in this world.

Buildings, Houses, People.

Peace. ☮

God’s love outweighs any sin.

He makes people. God.

The church must lead a change in our culture of consumption to convert our economy away from accumulation of worthless stuff to sharing of resources.

That we as Christians live completely with much more than enough while others are in need.

Let’s destroy the idea of “sin.” It is harder to believe that God likes us exactly for who we are, with no exceptions, than to think otherwise. Perhaps we are fine, just as we are.

Impression :) .

The extent of our love is the limit of God’s omnipotence. May we unbound God’s salvation that all creation will be free to praise God’s victory of love.

I choose love, life, and alignment with God’s plan.

To know God is to do justice.

Peace.

The church needs to change to meet the needs of the people instead of expecting people to change to fit into the church.

All churches should understand that love, acceptance and brotherhood of all fellow humans is the most important lesson of Christ.

We need the church to boldly proclaim peace!

Walmart. And people’s need for it.

Trader-Joes.

Those churches dedicated to God’s love for all people are called to be prophetic voices, not complacent voices.

Jesus would choose for our first priority that all beings everywhere have water, food, clothing. (Everyone gives $1. Give collect to favorite charity.)

Let birdies free and help animals to be happy. Leave animals in peace.

Peace shall reign.

Modern day church has become a bunch of people pleasers instead of people who desire to “please God,” who is holy & righteous (Galatians 1).

Being pro-life should mean sustaining a culture of ALL life.

I object to the inaction of millions of well mannered Lutherans who stood by as our nation conducts an illegal and immoral occupation in Iraq.

Homosexuality is forbidden by the Bible. Repent and Jesus forgives with infinite love. & if you don’t repent, Jesus kills & tortures you in eternal hellfire. Amen. God is love.
Stop human slavery.

Jesus Loves Everyone! So, too, the Church, our Lord’s representative on Earth, should strive to show Love to all, without words of judgment, intolerance or hate.

The church should be subverting nationalism, not supporting it.

The commandment was to love another, not judge one another. ☮

As we gather to worship You, our worship may enable our empathy with our fellow creatures.

The radicals are not always right. But the conservatives are always wrong. We can always do more and better.

Warm spiritual greetings—The worst problem is that those of us who are willing to be involved with peace and justice campaigns are inadequately supported by the larger Christian community. Particularly at volatile, large venue direct actions, protests, and demonstrations, and attenuating service efforts, support for participants is next to nothing. Where’s the solidarity for those on socio-political and in more recent years, environmental, front lines? I think it’s wonderful to
be close to Christ. Where are the rest of you? Posted by Berkeley Catholic worker, recently returned from organizing in Denver and 6th visit to Washington DC confronting the confusion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Face painting for ☮. Work for peace. Music, art, dance for ☮. Jesus is the prince of peace. Pray & meditate for ☮.

Peace festivals with international food.

The Bible was written by human beings, who are fallible even if they serve an infallible God.

Love is the only absolute.

Love, and else will work out. This is true.

Reason and direct observation should guide our beliefs, not various interpretations of supernatural events long ago.

Since the Catholic Church has never attempted to deny the civil rights of divorced heterosexuals, what is really behind their support of Proposition 8?

The church must lead a change in our culture of consumption to convert our economy away from accumulation of worthless stuff to sharing of resources.

Unborn babies being killed, and their mothers stuck with no choice but abortion.

More tolerance, no strings attached welcome. God loves everyone—no exceptions! Peace for all. Justice for all. Food for all. Shelter for all. Love for all.

Separate the church from the system.

God’s love and grace is for everyone … so … health care should be available to everyone one.

Squeaky (he’s nice!). More peace! Less war!

Be open to, listen to, see those around you.

Put out the fire, 1st by water, then by fire.

No strings attached welcome.

I’d like to be able to be Christian and not have to hide it.

Care for EVERYONE – the hungry, the sick, the poor, those who are different from us, those whose opinions differ. True action, welcoming open hearts – in our church & in our world.

Church shouldn’t be about gathering once a week at some building to have someone tell us a certain way to live our lives with a set of rules … BUT … church should be about doing our best to love and serve our neighbors unconditionally … As a fellowship of followers of Jesus Christ!

Peace. ☮ No war.

The Christian church began as a subversive movement against the Roman Empire, which had co-opted the Jewish elite. But now the church is corrupted by power. We need to quit being co-opted by the American empire and work for peace instead.
What posting resonates most with you? What would you add?

2 comments:

Ben Colahan said...

As a fun self-referential game, compare the picture in this post to a picture in the third-ever post on this blog:
http://pltsblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/
evangelizing-lutherans.html

Daniel said...

I think that this is an amazingly wonderful experiment. I feel that a lot of these posts resonate very strongly with me. Some of my favorites:
"The church must lead a change in our culture..."
"Modern day church has become a bunch of people pleasers..."
"Church shouldn't be about gathering once a week at some building..."