An accidental Rant

Well,
I can sense it's all going downhill for the ol' blog. I am being predictably inconsistent in writing. Of course, one could always argue that because I am writing right now, I am actually being consistent. However, it has been a while since I last wrote anything of consequence.
I am freaking bored. That is the worst feeling. Some things happened today that made it so I basically am in vocational limbo today. I cannot go into work painting like I usually do on wednesday's, and I don't have much to do at the church, where I am the Media Director...so here I am writing in this blog. Usually when I am bored around a computer, I will spend hours just reading movie reviews and things like that. I am a sad, sad man.
I refuse to go on a tyraid, but I read something interesting today. There was this show on NBC called The Book of Daniel. You might have heard of it. Basically about an Episscopal Priest whose family is screwed up (seriously screwed up) and who sees Jesus regularly. Anyway, it was quite controversial. So controversial that the R.R. rose up and organized a boycott. The AFA and other Righties. Well, guess what? After 3 episodes, the show is being cancelled. When I read that today I had mixed feelings. I thought WOW, that show is off the air because of the power of "Us" the christians (NOTE: I did not participate in the boycott). But part of me got sick, thinking "That's a lot of power the "church" has wielded. Is that healthy?"
Using power and influence in a good way is one thing, but to wield political power from a pulpit is sketchy business. For three reasons.
1) We can all look in a history textbook and see what happens when the "Church" gets too much political power.
2) We as the church will jepardize the balance of freedoms afforded us in the constitution. In other words, if we start regulating and censoring THOSE that we disagree with now when we have power, then when we are no longer in power those who disagree with us and our lifestyle with censor and regulate OUR beliefs. All because WE set the precendent.
3) You throw the Church into an identity crisis. You have a schizm of idealologies. Are we a religious organization? A faith community? A political party? A non-profit organization? A watch-dog group? Do we care about the poor and hurting? Do we lobby for legislation against homosexuals? So which is it? Love or the sword? Holy and loving, or Holy and Fighting? You see?

Understand, I do not agree with everything I see or hear. I am a follower of Christ. I believe that the Bible is God's word. I try to live it out in my life the best that I can. But here's the thing, I have my hands full trying to get ME to be more like Jesus, so I don't have time to tell the rest of the world (let alone unbelievers) that they should try and be more like what I can't hardly be more like myself.
In Matthew 7, Jesus talks about Judging others. How you cannot try to take the speck of dust out of anothers eyes when there is a plank in your own. And how you should remove the plank from your eye, so you can then take care of the other persons dust. Well, I was thinking (I am not claiming this is truth) that maybe it's possible that Jesus knows that we will always have something in our eye. If not a plank, a speck of wood, if not a speck, a little dust, if not that, then something smaller, and on and on. None of us (as long as we are flesh) will have 20/20 spiritual vision. We will always be obscured by something of us: jealousy, envy, violence, predjudice, and (irony of ironies) judgement...etc... In other words maybe Jesus is saying (to use hyperbol-irony...i made that up) that "Sure, you wanna judge. Okay, you can judge someone else when pigs fly!" In other words, YOU WILL NEVER BE IN A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN JUDGE SOMEONE ELSE!
Just a thought.