Pluralism...inclusiveness...?

Warning: This post is not thought out. It's a collection of thoughts I've had swirling around in my brain the last few days and I'm basically putting them down here. So, if I sound odd, that's why. Or at least that's my excuse for today's post. Can't really explain all the others.

Lately there have been discussions about churches allowing Muslims to worship in their facilities. Perhaps not using the sanctuary or worshiping together as one, but using extra space they have as a form of outreach. I have to admit it is the neighborly thing to do.

If my neighbor across the street has a kitchen fire and they really can't afford to eat out every day until it's repaired, I would find it a great honor to offer the use of my kitchen. Together we could come up with freezer meals and hopefully she'd be able to have a way to heat them at home...or heat them here to take with her.

But in that scenario the religion of my neighbor (or perhaps her lack of one) does not factor in. When a church open its doors for Muslim worship, it does. Greatly.

Islam is a religion that as part of its daily prayers insults Christians and Jews. Blatantly. Now I'm a big person...and Christ is even bigger. We can take it. However, to open a church to a group of people denouncing them in their prayers doesn't make sense.

I'm not talking about refusing to work with Muslims for common good. Churches that have a strong pro-life stance, for example, could work toward a pro-life cause with a local mosque with the same idea. Same thing with any kind of community service that both congregations felt strongly about and where working together wouldn't involve either group compromising their beliefs. I'm all for this. We need more of it and to see it on the news.

Also, there is the issue of some mainstream churches going liberal. I don't mean they're all voting Democrat. I mean they are taking liberties with scripture and reinterpreting it to suit their own ends. They are reinterpreting it so as not to call a sin a sin. They are telling people living in open, public, unrepentant sin that it's OK...God didn't really mean that.

Oh, really? Before I continue, this has nothing to do with hate. This has nothing to do with denying sinners the grace and mercy of Christ. If it was, I'd have to be the first in line to get kicked out. Like all Christians I'm a miserable sinner in need of Christ's grace and mercy.

As a Lutheran I believe in the proper use of Law and Gospel. You can't have one without the other. The Law is there for a reason. It's a mirror that forces us to see the log in our eyes so we can get it out. We must stand on the edge of a cliff and see hell down there and realize we're about to fall head first. If we don't, then why on earth would we need a Gospel?

By the same token, we need the Gospel because the Law by itself is death. We would be constantly be striving to do something we can't and failing miserably. We would be under the delusion that our works, our lives, our decisions determined whether or not we're saved.

When you start to reinterpret scripture and take it upon yourself, as a sinful human being, to decide what God, the perfect, loving Father, really means, contrary to the words He used, you're doing something you have no right to do. As much as I love God and trust in His goodness, I'm scared to death at the idea of trying to explain away things He's made clear from the beginning. It's not my place and it's not yours.

Also, think this through to its logical conclusion...once you've started to tell people that the Bible isn't inerrant and there are things in there that are wrong, where do you stop? You've given people the idea that they can pick and choose what to believe and how to view it and it's OK. Then you notice that teachings of Buddha or Mohammad are creeping into your church. Wait a minute! How did that get in there? The Bible says that Christ is the Way, and the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except by Him. How can you be dragging in Buddha and Mohammad? Well, you said that the scripture isn't inerrant and it's open to interpretation. If it's wrong about homosexuality and other things, then maybe it's wrong about Christ too.

Once you start something like this, how do apply the brakes before the inevitable train wreck?

Is it hateful to tell sinners to cut it out? No. Christ Himself did it...remember the woman caught in adultery? "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." The only sin that can keep you out of heaven is the sin of unbelief. When a person continues in unrepentant sin because they just don't want to give it up, there are two problems there. First they are making their sin into an idol. Something they refuse to let go of. Second they're risking falling into unbelief. How long can you believe in something that runs counter to something you refuse to give up? Many churches think they're doing a great thing...but are they really?

I warned you this post would be muddled. A phone call in the middle didn't help the train of thought either. There's more I want to say more clearly. But for now I've put it out there. Comments?