I hate segregation. I always have. When i was a kid it bothered me how the lunch room was segregated by color. Races, genders, families, professions and social clubs all try to stay in their corners away from the others.
One thing that I see from time to time which makes me sick is that Christians segregate themselves from people around them. This is to be expected since after all, we are all suffering from the human conditions of insecurity and selfishness. Rather than get to know people different from us, we work hard to only get to know people like us. We all do it don’t we?
I saw this in a really terrible way tonight.
I work online. I know a lot about the way the internet works and the thousands of ways to communicate with internet users from all over the world. One website that has gotten a lot of press lately is twitter. Twitter is like an online party that never stops. Information moves fast. I have heard about earthquakes and plane crashes before CNN reported it because of twitter. One guy even got rescued from an Egytptian Prison because of twitter!
Twitter is a good place to network with others and build relationships with all sorts of people.
Tonight i joined gospelr. Gospelr is a psuedo-twitter site. (notice it even keeps the “er”) Playing off of twitter fame gospelr does the same thing, but promotes itself as a twitter for Christians. That is only a minor paraphrase from the website.
Why, I asked. I didn’t get a really good answer. I’ve said elsewhere that the creator of gospelr is a genius – I totally admire his design and coding skills, his ingenuity and his creativity. But with talents like that why on earth keep it closed up for Christians?
What’s the problem?
You see here is the thing. For years, centuries perhaps, Christians have operated under the assumption that this world is all “going to hell in a hand basket” and we need to “duck and cover” so we can survive it.
We huddle together in our churches, in our youth groups, in our “Saturday skates” and Jesus cookouts. We have our own TV shows, our own movies, we even have our own candy!
When will it end? Jesus didn’t call us to go and form a club! He called us to GO! We have to mix in with people and live where they live and hurt where they hurt and rejoice when they rejoice. No wonder the church in this country is dying. We buried ourselves alive and now we are finally running out of air.
The only community in the bible where Christians gather is at church. We are told to meet together regularly for worship and prayer. We are not told to make sure we stay safe from dirty worldly influences.
Let me pause for a second and say I am not in any way transferring this attitude on the developer of gospelr. But a service that is “for Christians” could easily allow and even influence both Christians and non-Christians to think that’s what the Christian life is all about.
What is the gospel?
The gospel is not for Christians alone. The gospel tells us (in the words of Tolkien) that everything sad will come untrue. That all the pain and sadness has not only an explanation but an end! This is great stinking news! But our actions when we hide in our ghettos and communes say we are better than you. Is this the gospel? God forbid we ever communicate that either by our lives or by our words.
If you are a Christian reading this I beg you to find places you can get to know people. Don’t ask if they are a Christian. Ask them their name. Ask them their dreams and their hopes. Show them that you respect them as a person and you want to help them any way you can.
If you are not a Christian and you are reading this. If Christians have ever treated you like you are a project, I am sorry. If you have ever felt like Christians don’t really care about you. I am sorry. Please just know that Jesus never felt that way. Jesus didn’t teach his followers to hide from you and ignore you and judge you. He taught them to care about you. We just messed it up. Give us another chance and we will happily mix with you and join you where ever you are.
Thanks for posting this. I read this and it was really encouraging. That’s what I am tring really hard right now to break all those differnet bubbles and truely embrace diversity.
Thanks again.
Blessings