Tuesday, July 27, 2010

So sick of the Law

The flier/fund-raising-appeal/guilt-trip arrived in the mail. "Two Children die every minute - what are you doing about it?"

Oh, guess it wasn't a fund raiser. . . it was an ad for a CPH children's book. It's about how children can get involved in helping to fund anti-malaria projects.

This is how we advertise a children's book about helping your neighbor? Really? This is how we get out information about the LMI (Lutheran Malaria Initiative - a joint project between Lutheran World Relief, the LCMS, and the ELCA)?

Well, other than buying this book, what can I do? The flier tells me where I fit in.
Pray - makes sense.
Learn - I am supposed to learn more about LMI, and help my community as well.
Advocate - I am supposed to write my senator or representative and tell them to send money to malaria programs.
Give - I am supposed to hold a fundraiser.

I am just so, so sick of the Law. It ruins everything, turns any kindness or goodness to ashes. If you are so moved to show kindness to those with Malaria - wonderful. But why, why do you think you have the right or authority to tell me that I should contact my congressman and tell them to spend money?

Yes, loving the neighbor is a wonderful thing. Go love your neighbor. Love him to the best of your ability. Encourage others to love their neighbor - let them know of opportunities that they have that they might not be aware of. . . but come on, enough with the guilt trips. There's always more than enough of the poor in need of support, there's always more than enough causes to champion. Don't try to use the law to guilt people into acting in accordance with your particular whim.

Please?

Yes, it's nice that my "purchase will help save lives by connecting people to the Lutheran Malaria Imitative and its mission." But I really want Church and Churchly mailings to be something more than "Lutherans are a powerful force for change!"

And not once, not at all is Christ Jesus mentioned in this flier. Not even a generic mentioning of "God".

I am so, so sick of the Law, and social "change" - whatever direction it takes, even if it is something that is fine and righteous, is nothing but the Law. Why? Because it can be talked about without reference to Christ. Ugh.

Just. . . ugh.

3 comments:

Scott Diekmann said...

If Rev. Tieman can do the same thing from the convention podium by telling you to get out of the boat, I guess we should expect CPH to do it as well. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel isn't observed in two situations:
1) Fund raising
2) Mission
And if it's fund raising and mission concurently, watch out!

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

Preaching is not motivational speaking, and Church is not a sanctimonious pep rally. We have forgotten this.

Mike Baker said...

We may think that the Law doesn't fix us, but some how we just don't want to ever believe it. Maybe if we just find new ways to present or quantify law-keeping then it will finally become as effective as we think it should be.

It seems that even when we finally understand Law and Gospel, we still don't get it. :P