Even through distortions and contradictions

My friend and debate partner lives up to the second half of his honorary title as he takes me to task for some sloppy thinking -- or maybe an attempt at making a logical jump that only fellow Christians would follow (my debate partner is Jewish). So he stands with wet noodles in hand ready to commence flogging.

"...the Christian Church is the only voice in our society that talks about God..."

Say what??!!! Sometimes you really puzzle me.

Just about everyone talks about God. Certainly, a vast spectrum of religious groups that can not be described as "the Christian Church" talk about God or a Higher Being or Great Spirit, etc.etc.etc. Even atheists talk about God as the, uh, entity? force? philosophy? thing? that they don't believe in.

And who or what is "the Christian Church" that has a "voice"? "The" implies a single, unique entity. It's my impression as an outsider that there is precious little, perhaps nothing, that all the various Christian groups agree about. Who or what is the legitimate voice of "the Christian Church"?

Yes, well deserved criticisms of my writing. Setting jokes aside, let's see if I can explain what I was trying to say.

I have a particular and personal concept of the Christian God, based on my understanding of the bible and personal religious experiences. I try to make this understanding central to the way I act, especially in the way I treat other people. It is the main reason why I go serve supper to a bunch of gay young adults of a different race each week. I look for this understanding to be reflected in the Christian Church that I'm a part of.

Some aspects of that concept of God include a directive to treat everyone with respect and compassion, a directive to be inclusive of all people, a directive to attempt to meet the basic needs of others, an offering from relief from grief and guilt, an offering of spiritual companionship, and offering of wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. Obviously, I have my own way of describing Christian concepts.

Starting with that, I usually don't pay much attention to the voices from completely different spiritual traditions (Buddhist, Islam, Hindu) and only mutter a little bit against those that claim there is no God.

But with the Christian Church -- in all its thousands of clamoring voices -- I've said a great deal. Many voices in the Christian Church also describe my personal concept of God and do it in a way the louder culture can hear. However, this blog is full of cases in which I rage against very loud Christian voices who contradict the message I believe the Christian Church should be presenting. But even through their distortions and contradictions these loud voices are at least talking about the Christian God. I wanted to say that while I say (or repeat) things that put the Christian Church in a bad light (and usually deservedly so) that doesn't diminish my belief in the Christian God these churches only partially describe. So perhaps the misunderstood sentence should have read in part "… the Christian Church is the only voice in our society that talks about the same God I believe in…"

My friend continues:

However, thank you for these very interesting Jefferson quotes. They certainly make your point. If I could travel in time, I would certainly visit with and listen closely to Jefferson, who also famously said:

"Every twenty years a revolution!"

Oh, how we need that vast national housecleaning of minds today!

I remember the "revolution" in 1968. Have we had one since?