Roots

The more I learn about the origins of the common practices and traditions that pass for modern Christianity, the more upset and disillusioned I become. I was just reading about the origins of Christmas and all its attendant practices and traditions. Christmas trees, caroling and even gift-giving have origins that were secular at best and ranging all the way up to blatantly pagan, which is to say diametrically opposed to the deity of Christ. We celebrate the birth of Christ at the wrong time of year. Indeed, the scriptures make no mention of celebrating a person's birth, not even the birth of our savior. The gifts of the Magi were the types of homage rendered to a king.

Note that I do not say that I am moving away from the actual cause of Christ; far from it! I long to move closer to Christ than ever. The problem is that I can't seem to find anyone who wants to go there with me. Everyone is so mired in the rituals and traditions that spawn from extra-Biblical sources including everything from the worship of Ashera and Baal to Druidism and Pantheism.

What would truly Biblical living, worship and koinonia look like? I imagine that such practices would be so radically different from all the modern denominations as to appear to be a completely separate religion. Christmas would disappear completely. Easter would change to a Passover Seder with no rabbits and no egg rolls. The pastorate would change from a corps of overeducated professionals who do nothing but solicit funds and build ridiculously huge churches, and instead become a collection of men and women striving to build Christ's Church, one believer at a time, leaving the massive manifestations of divine power to the Holy Spirit.

One of the greatest problems in the church today is the ascendency of the so-called Prosperity Gospel.  This line of thought teaches that those who are truly devout will be richly blessed, but in order to achieve such blessings, one must commit as much as possible to the ministries of a large church, with a high-profile minister.  What these churches resemble is not the image of a First Century church so much as they do a multi-level marketing scheme, where only the leader and a handpicked few really prosper.  And, since when did the measure of the success of a Christian ministry become the affluence of its leaders?  It just seems to me that we are rewarding the wrong behaviors.  

Socialists everywhere I look

What in the world has happened to a large proportion of our leaders these days?  There seems to be no middle ground on any issue and the result is that our country is gridlocked and getting nowhere fast.  Even the so-called independents are getting into the act!  I watched a video of an interview of former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and though some of the things he was saying sounded interesting and decided to check out his book from the library and see what he has to say.  I was flabbergasted to find that he advocates a 90% tax on people who make over $400,000 per year.  Really? 

A person works hard, builds a company (contrary to the opinion of our current president) and, when he begins to achieve an executive salary, he must give back $360,000 of his earnings and live on only $40,000.  What would be the incentive for a person to excel in such a scenario?  Why would anyone bother to recruit, train and retain quality workers?  Why would they work hard to keep track of a payroll and meet their share of investment and health care contributions?  Is the intent of such taxation to make every business a local street corner operation where the owners scratch out a living year after year without any reason to expand?  When will politicians stop treating success like a crime? 

While I agree our current tax code is a mess, I do not agree that the way to fix things is to tax our most productive citizens far beyond reason.  Change the tax code!  Simplify it and take out a bunch of those stupid deductions!  Make sure that those below the poverty line are not paying tax!  Why is there a poverty line when it is meaningless at tax time?  If someone is impoverished, they ought not to have to pay any tax!  But to suggest that someone who has succeeded should have to give up what they have won by their labor and intelligence simply so the government can expand and give money to those who did not succeed is simply ridiculous. 

That way lies malaise, as those who can achieve great success begin to see that there is no reason to do so.  Where then will jobs come from and who will fund the programs that we really do need to retain?  We are already seeing the effect of governmental policies that are toxic to business as Campbell Soup and others pull out of California.  How many more businesses will have to close their American operations and move to other countries before our politicians realize they are causing this migration that will make our country extinct all too soon?