Collateral Damage

In the name of preserving purity, the church has so separated itself from the world that it is no longer a transformative agent. If one reads all of the Old Testament stories literally, the view of God as loving becomes an impossibility. it's not the wrath of God against evil-doers, but everyone in the neighborhood gets taken out as well. For what? For just being around- collateral damage!

There are many such Old Testament stories where the sin of one somehow infects the whole community. The message that comes across loud and clear is that we all need to be watching our brothers and sisters to make sure that they are maintaining community purity lest we get nailed. And just what IS community purity anyway?

Why are we living by the rules of the head anyway?

From such a theology comes collective blame for everything from the Irish famine to the Katrina hurricane. Of course we know that AIDS is the result of perverted sexual activities. And those who live a pure sexual life, but get AIDS through an infected blood supply: well, that's just more collateral damage!

Does anyone remember Ai? Like Marcion, that's not my God!

Such stories are vivid reminders (if you so interpret them) of how important it is that each church police its membership, that each denomination remains faithful to their dogmatic principles, and that we stay free of entanglements with other religions even though such behavior comes across as elitist.

Just as the Catholic community saw Protestantism adopt most of the their agendas, choosing only to knock down a few doctrines, Christianity carried forward the Jewish principles of separation of races, adherence to strict purity codes, and collective accountability for the holiness of the whole. In fact, for a season, the God of the Hebrews held me accountable for the sins of my great great grandfathers, but alas that was changed before we closed the books on the Old Testament.