Christianity in the news…

If this first story were fiction it would be derided as unbelievable because it includes so many stereotypes. A pastor of a snake handling church with a ridiculously long name in Kentucky broke all kinds of laws to get and keep his snakes. Several of his parishioners died, but he was undeterred. And to top it off, the pastor’s name is “Coots.” No photos, so I don’t know how many teeth he has.

From one law enforcement officer: “You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense. A venomous snake isn’t a pet. You don’t play with it. If you do, you’re an idiot.”

That’s about the size of it. The theory behind these cults is that if you’re really a believer, the snakes can’t or won’t harm you. Their philosophy is based on Mark 16:17-18, which a) is disputed and b) if it is true, is practiced even by its advocates in an incomplete way, because they don’t also drink poison. I think the book of James provides a much better measuring stick than snake handling, if a measuring stick of our faith is needed.

The Pope is praying “there are no more schisms and fractures” in the Anglican community. Gene Robinson, an American homosexual activist Anglican bishop, was heckled in a Brit church, just as he was beginning to deplore “how sad and how discouraging that the Anglican communion would be tearing itself apart because two men…” and was interrupted at that point by a man who said, “Heretics like you, sir,” and went on for several minutes. (video) The response of the congregation is interesting. First, a slow clap which seems to indicate approval of the heckler. Then, when the church’s pastor hastily gets going on a song, they join and continue to sing to drown out the heckler until he is hustled out of the church. So did they agree, or not?

Dr. Christopher King, an Anglican “traditionalist” as the BBC calls him, said, “How do you go into the bible and pick and mix your theology? It’s not about being prejudiced. It’s about what’s in the bible.”

The bible has considerably more to say about homosexual acts than it does about snake handling, and in parts of the bible that are entirely undisputed. Robinson said, “This discussion of homosexuality we are having in the Church is not so significant because of what it says about homosexuality, but of what it says about God. “When someone stands up and says homosexuality is an abomination, does that make you want to get to know God?”

That’s just wrong on so many levels I’m not sure where to start. Can we believe the bible when it says that homosexual acts are sinful? (If we can, the next question is how do we treat any sinner?) Are Christians salespeople who should market the message in such a way that we entice people to get to know God? Or does God do the calling? Does God have the right to condemn certain behaviors? Is condemnation consistent with His character? Robinson’s biggest problem, in my view, is not that he’s a homosexual activist, it’s that he’s a church leader with an unbiblical view of God.

Finally, someone has a tape in which John Lennon purportedly described himself as a big fan of Jesus, created sometime after he claimed they were “bigger than Jesus” and Christianity would “vanish and shrink.” Lennon said, “Now I wasn’t saying that was a good idea, ’cause I’m one of Christ’s biggest fans. And if I can turn the focus on the Beatles on to Christ’s message, then that’s what we’re here to do.”

Well, he did do a fair amount of backpedaling from those statements:

So Jesus is just alright with him?  As to his contention that he was one of Christ’s biggest fans, as the Farker said, “He probably believed it at the time he said it. Musicians and actors tend to believe in something very strongly before they believe very strongly in something else a few minutes later.“