Horrified by Holiness

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Today’s Blog Post


Horrified by Holiness

I have been horrified by the stories coming to my computer screen from a place called JOS in Nigeria. Just outside of Jos in some small villages over 200 were killed on Sunday AM – most were Christians that were supposedly killed by Muslim people. One report said that an entire village was wiped out with all the older people and children being killed by these murderers. Today they announced that they have arrested 200 people.

As a Christian the first thing I do is cringe. Hatred and violence is nothing new against Christian people around the world. Thousands are killed every month.

Yet the part that really makes me cringe is that the Jos murders were apparently in retaliation for 300 Muslims that were killed in January by the CHRISTAINS!

Hey the pendulum swings both ways.

Most of the Christian related media pick up the horror that is done to Christians. And most of the Islamic related media picks up the other horror which is done by Christians.

Just yesterday it was announced that seven people are being held in Ireland for questioning. All of them are originally from outside of Ireland - likely Islamic countries from what was inferred. These seven have been linked with a possible plot to kill Lars Vilks the Swedish Cartoonist that drew the Prophet Muhammad and caused terrible world wide anger among some Islamic people.

Religious wars are ugly. When the deep and bitter hatred is roused within a people group there seems to be very little one can do to quell that anger. Most people just shut up and move away from the angry people. We put our collective heads down and try to not to anger them more.

In Nigeria that isn’t possible however. Jos is in the State of Plateau – which is midway between the Muslim North and the Christian South of Nigeria. Where – quote – “The killings add to the tally of thousands who already have perished in Africa's most populous country in the last decade due to religious and political frictions. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people. Muslim-Christian battles killed up to 700 people in 2004. More than 300 residents died during a similar uprising in 2008.”

What a terrible thing these killings have become.

Why does it happen among religious people? How could some that claim to be “Holy” in the name of their God do such horrific things?

Well in my very simple way it is a problem of “Holiness”.

Now my “friends” that guard all things Holy will be ready to pounce on me with their wonderful Christian protectionism called “Holiness” – because a Minister, that’s me, is being critical of Holiness! How could a Man that is a Leader among “the Holy” state something so un-God like? I am to be a defender not a critic. Right?!

Well I am against Holiness! Not all Holiness – just some. The kind of Holiness that makes people do terrible things to each other in the name of their God and their belief is repulsive to those watching. And I am against it… mind you… not to the point of Crusading against it… or killing some one… but I will withdraw from it and have nothing to do with it.

“How could you, as a Pastor, act that way towards God’s people?” one may ask me.

Well over the years I have watched a lot of Church People act in Churchy Ways. Their actions and reactions to what is happening around them have been anything but nice. In fact if you put a reaction meter on them it would read “mean and nasty”.

Over the years I have lived through the rejection mode for Divorced People. In our “Holiness” mode certain churches that I have been a apart of disallowed divorced people to be a part of their body of believers. Of course it was to keep things “holy” that “we” rejected “them”. If we got too close to “them” their “un-holiness” would rub off on us. So we made rules that wouldn’t allow that to happen – The Keep them out rule was horrible!

As time went on the population changed with more and more people being divorced and we also realized that many of them were not responsible for what they did. Or maybe we realized that they were not that different from us… maybe.

As time changed things again the reality is that more and more simply lived together – unmarried. There were many reasons that this happened but few Holy People would ask what they were – they just kept making rules to protect their own holiness and guard the flock.

We never once killed an unholy person in our churches but rather turned them away by never talking to them… not allowing them to do anything or certain things that was felt they shouldn’t – because we were holy and they were not.

It makes me gag to think that this kind of attitude controlled and ruled the lives of people throughout my short 65 years.

If there was any one thing that turned me off and turned me out it was the COMPLETE LACK of GRACE. In fact when I saw this happen at one stage and the harm that it was able to inflict on one family, I wanted to tear the Hymn “Amazing Grace” from the Hymn book in that church.

Settle down Murray… deep breath… you don’t have to deal with that kind of attitude any more… it is in the past… deep breath now deep breath…

Now it is not in the past. People have been murdered near Jos in the name of their God and because of their Holiness. And in January another group was murdered in the name of their God and because of their Holiness!

In Peterborough another potential “spiritual murder” is attempted in our churches all the time when one group attempts to outlaw another in the veiled attempt of ‘holiness’.

Not being a pastor now and mixing with an amazing world I am blown away by a number of things. The people that I have met have been turned off of church and will never go back. AND these very same people show the Grace of God in ways that I could have never imagined. Yet they do not go to church – how could that be.

One man stated, “I wouldn’t go to church ever. I watched how the church(he named one) has treated my friends that didn’t meet their standards. That is not love. That is stupid. And I will have no part of stupid!”

In Nigeria there is a lot of stupid. In Ireland you can find more stupid. But right here at home – you will find even more stupid and a complete lack of God’s Grace – right in some of our pews.

And for the overly religious and the ultimate guardians of “holiness” – take a look at the Sadducees and Pharisees that followed Jesus every where… that helped to stone Stephen… they sit in our churches still.

God help us all.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

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Sources:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iNCU46VYMVf0VzhqkKJUus45PrDAD9EBM6480