In the years I’ve spent pastoring/mentoring, I’ve grown tired of trying to convince people that God doesn’t hate them because they don’t follow the rules as they should.
It’s an epidemic of sorts. In our culture, when someone gets religion, it’s as if a spirit comes down from heaven, like a dove softly landing on their shoulder, and whispers until they die:
“More than anything else, get your shit together.”
Some people manage to improve their behavior to a degree, but nobody can do it completely, and many are driven to anxiety by their newfound awareness of personal faults and failures. Ever wonder why religious people can be so cranky? And when the greatest fruit of your religion is self-loathing, you’re now open to all manner of activities, agendas, and campaigns that God would never endorse.
At best, the gospel of shit management will never do anything more than turn well-meaning religious people into something nobody else wants to be. Continue reading God Wants Something Much Deeper Than Obedience: Something Many Religious People Will Never Manage