In the confessional

In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller talks about an interesting idea. At Reed College in Portland, Oregon during a big student party/festival the Christian students tried to put up a confessional as an outreach. But, as Miller takes almost a whole chapter to illustrate, this was no ordinary confessional. Instead of people entering a confessional and confessing, when they entered the confessional they were confessed to. The Christian leaders apologized for all the wrong and evils that have been done in the name of Christ. Homophobia. Genocide of Native Americans. The whole deal.

Anyhow....I have a confession to make.

I am sorry many of us miss the point, and we think that Christianity is about political power and yelling over the crowd instead of serving.

On behalf of Christians everywhere, I apologize for statements like this from Pat Robertson.

And this discussion on Hannity and Colmes last night--I apologize on behalf of my fellow believers for culturally imperial comments such as these with James Dobson and Sean Hannity:

HANNITY: Yes, well, doesn't it get to the heart of — and maybe there are lessons for America to learn here — about people that need to identify with the culture? I know a lot of people don't want to talk about the word assimilation.

For example, every immigrant group that's come to America, they've assimilated. They've learned the language of success, which is the language of English.

In many instances, this did not happen here. Are there lessons for America to learn, especially as we know grapple with a very strong illegal immigration population in the country?

DOBSON: You know, the family of mankind is a very small community. And what's going on in Europe also has antecedence here. And I think there is a lesson to be learned here.

Where, in the past, we have had "E. Pluribus Unum." We have had, "From many, one."

Now it seems we've gone from one, many. And people come here, but they want to retain their identity and don't want to assimilate into who we are. If they don't want to do that, they really shouldn't come here, because they know what they're getting when they come here.

**shaking my head**

This may reflect the self centeredness of many of us, but it does not reflect the heart of Jesus. Again, I confess this sin as a part of the Christian community to anyone who it offends, because it offends me.