2008 Woodie Awards
The Last Straw
Yearning for Eden
Issue date: 2/22/06 Section: Opinion
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News Editor
Disney released an animated movie in the 90's that made my childhood imagination dance like musical notes across the page. Aladdin was a kid who yearned for something more in his life. He stumbled upon a magic lamp with a genie inside who would grant Aladdin three wishes. We've all heard the story. Aladdin wanted his life to be better, perfect. Christians are the same way, with a little variation.
A lot of Christians believe that the Christian lifestyle is already perfect. The necktie is perfectly center, with a "Jesus First" lapel pin as the tie tack. The ladies' dress heels are at a perfect height, and the skirt at a measured length to please others and not distract. We have the Eden lifestyle and we're taking it to the streets. The problem is, no one is perfect and we're giving Christianity overkill.
Evangelism outreach is great and I'm not here to bash it. The thing is, Christians have a bad reputation of spoon-feeding our beliefs on a dying society. We have two chips, one on each shoulder, to keep ourselves balanced. Some self-proclaimed Christians shun the public and act like we're higher society than the rest. Treat Christianity like the Titanic. We're upper class with our full course meals, while the non-believers are in third class with the rats. They look for a better life, much like Aladdin.
Instead of connecting with the third class and truly helping their lives, we make like first class passengers and only offer them our coats for them to hang. We're contained in a sinking vessel and looking to save ourselves.
As Christians we tend to see the world living in a perfect bubble. We think each Christian should dress the same, act the same, walk, talk, sleep, eat and breathe the same. I remember I used to love baking cookies when I was younger. We had multiple shapes of cookie cutters and I would take my time making a fun shape, slicing the cutter through a blanket of sugary dough. Evangelism is the same way.
We're trying to make clones of the same Christian cookie, hoping to reproduce the precise replica of the Christian norm. Not all cookies are the same. Sometimes pieces of them chip away. Not all Christians are the same, either.
I'm a Baptist at a Southern Baptist school, with some Pentecostal friends and some Methodist professors, and a partridge in a pear tree. I have two tattoos when another person quotes the Bible verse that mentions, "Our bodies are His temple" like it's their job. I attend a church that accepts people for who they are and what they wear, but local ministry teams here and at my home prohibit members from wearing facial piercings or having shaggy, scruffy hair.