Tuesday, June 11, 2002
My wife is at a conference in Orange County this week, so I went up and visited her for a day. We don't have HBO at home, so we turned it on at the hotel to see if there was a good movie on - nope. However, there was this documentary on:
American Standoff: America Undercover. It's about the Teamsters Union and their struggle for strength. As the story unfolded (we didn't see the whole thing), some of the union members and leaders talk candidly about their problems - people abandoning the cause when they don't see immediate results, political infighting, lack of trust of leadership, concern for their well-being, fear that their cause might not be worth the struggle. At one point I turned to my wife and said, "This sounds exactly like the church these days." I'd like to see the show again to confirm that thought process.
So much of the time we in the church personalize and spiritualize experiences that are part of the human condition within our culture. We think that our problems are the church's fault or a leader's fault or something that is unique to our situation, when in reality we need to be checking our own hearts. At some points we will find that yes, it is the church's fault or a leader's fault, but more frequently, I think, we'll find that we share a large responsibility and it's just more comfortable to point the finger elsewhere and retreat into a "poor me" game.
