Mega-churches and cathedrals I read recently that the building of St. Peter's in Rome, the church we usually see the Pope in, was at least partly a cause of the reformation. The way it came about was that the Pope in 1506, Pope Julius II, decided to finance the construction through the sale of indulgences. It was the aggressive sales campaign that prompted Luther to condemn indulgences in his posting of the 95 Theses in 1517.

Really I don't know what that has to do with anything, except that it seems to me there is no need for huge ornate churches, no matter how beautiful and inspiring. My personal opinion is that no congregation should exceed two or three hundred members. Once you get beyond that things start to get impersonal I think. I have heard that in some of the so-called "mega-churches" this reality has been recognized and they have smaller groups that meet for fellowship outside of the Sunday "entertainment service" with the headliner preacher. Rather than have ten thousand people all being entertained by "praise bands" and hi-tech video systems in several "showings" in a huge hall, I think it would be more beneficial to the kingdom of God if there were 30 or 40 smaller neighborhood congregations where people could receive the means of grace, which are the sacraments where God promises to grant forgiveness of sins and to be with His people.

I think the same goes for those magnificent but absurdly expensive to build and maintain cathedrals that are all over the place. Surely we no longer need such extravagant "temples" since our God no longer dwells in a building as he did in Jerusalem, but dwells in His people, he is with us in the Sacraments and the Word, and in our hearts.

It seems to me that simplicity and moderation would be a good way to go on this.

Hypocrisy at Comedy Central (a post from Gene Edward Veith on Cranach)

Comedy Central did censor "South Park" from making a cartoon character out of Mohammed. Instead, "South Park" showed a disprespectful, utterly repellant image of Jesus. Click here if you want the details. Comedy Central did NOT, of course, censor that.

Islam apparently occupies a privileged position in Western pop culture and, judging from its treatment on university campuses, high culture. Islam may not be satirized or (to use the new verb) disrespected. or questioned as to its truth or morality. Christianity, though,is fair game.

Muslims throw this back at us, saying that, see, Christians do not honor their prophet as we honor ours. Some Christians think that we should take to the streets and make it more dangerous for the media to blaspheme our Lord. Or is there something about the nature of Christianity that makes that sort of reaction inappropriate?

I have been talking with a Muslim co-worker for several weeks about Christianity and Islam and the huge differences between them. One of those differences is that Jesus allowed himself to be mocked, humiliated, spat upon and tortured to death. Mohammed killed his enemies and conquered a kingdom for himself, or for Allah as he liked to claim. The reaction of Muslims to perceived insults to the Prophet and Christian reactions to insults to Christ tend to reflect this difference. I realize that in some times and places people claiming to be Christians have used violence to defend and spread the faith, but they are the exception not the rule. In Islam war and intimidation and threats of violence are the normal methods of gaining converts.

Another difference between Christianity and Islam is in who God is. Muslims like to claim that they worship the same God as we Christians do, this is a lie. The One True God is the Triune God described in the Bible, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our God, the True God, became a man and died for us, their false god, Allah, is an indescribable single unity who would never think of becoming a man. The True God became flesh, the True God is the man-God, Jesus Christ! This is mere heresy and nonsense to the Muslim.

My Muslim co-worker can't seem to really believe that I am saying that Jesus is God. He keeps saying, yes he is a great prophet. I just keep repeating, Jesus is God, who took on human flesh in order to take our place in death, to die for our sins, to defeat death and the devil, and he rose from the dead and lives still. My Muslim co-worker can't accept that, though I think the Holy Spirit is working on him.
  ¶ 4/18/2006 05:01:00 PM 0 Comments