Honestly, I do not know why I chose religion as a topic.

First, you are bound to offend someone, even more so than talking about veterans.

Second, religion is complicated. God needed 707 pages (by some counts) to explain it, and even then most people still do not understand, so I cannot possibly scratch the surface in under 550 words.

Third, it is not prudent to generalize many from the actions of a few.

Even with those things said, there still are frustrations I must vent concerning Christianity.

I will start with the church. I understand the service is aimed at praising God, and I value singing hymns and listening to the Gospel. I just feel like relevance is missing. When Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail, he wrote to other pastors asking them to stand with him for civil rights, and they never did. Just like those pastors failed to insert relevancy in the teaching of the church then, I feel that the church is again missing those opportunities today.

Granted, a proactive church is a double-edged sword. The church has the potential to do great good, but with poor leadership can do terrible things. Take for example Reverend Terry Jones, who wanted to burn the Koran. While he is in no way mainstream, he and other radicals are the ones that draw the most attention. There must be more standards so people like Jones are not representing the word of God.

My last beef is with those who mix religion with politics. Jesus said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and the First Amendment of the Constitution includes the establishment clause. Yet, we have people that say they believe Jesus and the Constitution as one.

Christianity has always been tarnished by the misdeeds of men. It has and still is being used as a tool of political control. For much of its existence, the church has failed to live up to the teachings of Christ, and is too satisfied with money and membership to shake the unrighteous from its ranks.

The following is a message for real Christians. Its advice is not mine, but that of the Lord. If we are to be more than an increasing irrelevant group that is represented by a minority of radicals, we must act to reform.

Real Christians, we have not been doing our duty. I know we may be hesitant to correct other ‘Christians’ given the plank in our eye, but there are too many weeds in the Lord’s garden. Passers-by are not taken in by the beauty and fulfilled by the substance of what we have tended, but are repelled by the irritation that the weeds produce.

Gather the flowers that grow between the cracks in the road. Only if you can successfully transplant those flowers that are beneath the foot of others to the garden of the Lord, are you then able to change weeds into water lilies?

Do not doubt the competence of your soul. If the Lord has given you lumber and nails, then build a fence to guard the garden. It is insufficient to remain stagnant with what he has provided.