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| Vandalizing Religious Images In America |
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The image of God is being mutilated and vandalized in temples all across America. Yet the press is mostly silent. And most Christians remain silent too.
When church buildings are bombed or burned, the press sounds an alarm. Christians pray and speak out against the injustice. But when the image inside the temple is torn apart, few seem to care.
The temple is the human body. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” The image of God is “one of the least of these” — the beautiful, developing child resting peacefully inside her or his mother -- one of the most beautiful religious images in the world. Even ultrasound pictures of the innocent touch our hearts.
The desecration is called abortion — the brutal killing of the child made in the image of God by pulling her or him into pieces. The silence is the absence of sorrow, or outrage, or guilt, or repentance, or shame. Perhaps denial helps us sleep at night.
Yet, I believe that God would rather that every picture of Jesus in every church building in America be torn asunder by vandals, than for one more unborn baby to be killed in America. |
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| To add a comment to "Vandalizing Religious Images In America" |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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Praise God!
WE are Church- has been on my mind all day.
Lord help us spread you love in this nation! |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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While I certainly agree with you, I feel you fall far short. God's temple is also destroyed--though be it most slowly--by drugs, alcohol, obesity, neglect, laziness, poor nutrition and a host of other atrocities we tend to ignore because their are not convenient to talk about, or don't normally have an immediate, dramatic impact.
Of course, this is not limited to American, but in one-way-or-another, it is a world-wide phenomena.
I think it is safe to say that more temples are 'torn-down' by self-inflected abuses than the atrocities inflicted on others, including abortion. |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| ALL those things we should be standing against- Yes |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| Chris: I agree that self-destruction is a sin. The destruction of others, however,in addition to being a sin, is a matter of social justice and a call for the church to speak out on behalf of the least of these. |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| Bubbles: Thanks for pointing our our need to spread love. Love and social justice go hand in hand. Paul said we shoud be "speaking the truth in love." |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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I will refrain from commenting on 'social justice' for now--I'll do that on my own blog one day.
For now, let me just say that in my opinion "the church" cannot speak out, only individuals can--just as you and I are. However, each time I raise my hand to say something, it seems to slap me with the reminder, "let thee without sin cast the first stone." |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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Hummm... If that were the only commandment in the Word of God then I could see -US- The Church- just sitting and letting the world just drink, drug, kill anyone they like and any other thing but that is not what we are called to do.
This is not casting stones- it is a law that WE have allowed to BE a law. If we truly are the majority then we should have not allowed it to become a law. |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| Sometimes we let Satan in the back doors of our Church's! |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| Yet, Chris, I'm sure you know that Jesus, John the Baptist, and Peter all preached repent. They were not casting stones. They were calling people to a better life. |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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This certainly went further than I intended; however, let me try to summarize.
All I'm trying to say is, as evangelists, we (the greater 'body') should do all we can to make sure that we are living the life God has called us to, before we point fingers. While it is almost natural to rate one sin as worse than another, I don't believe God 'grades on a scale.' We can never be perfect, but we also can never stop striving. |
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| June 14, 2008 |
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| Killing the preborn is indeed a disturbing injustice, Steve. It's unfortunate that the practice is so widespread. :-( |
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| June 15, 2008 |
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| That is powerful and true statement, Doyle! |
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| June 16, 2008 |
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| Put it another way. If there was a picture of the prophet Mohamed in the Muslim world and people vandalised it - there'd be an absolute outcry, and somebody's head would be on the chopping block. Yet it seems perfectly "acceptable" if I may use that term - to do it to images of God. The press don't say anything, neither do (as you have put it) most Christians. Something in this equation is wrong. |
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| June 16, 2008 |
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| Stevie: There is a strange absence of outrage among 21st Century Christians. We are like Lot and his family. We have accepted decadence and killing as normal. |
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| June 16, 2008 |
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| There's a strange absence in the 21st century WORLD full stop. Or as you would say over there, PERIOD! |
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