And I still disagree with . . .
Quote:
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A close look at The LSM reveals it is no different than any other church organization.
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. . . because it looks at the splashy errors that hit the news and banishes every other organization to the same status and fate.
But I see may church organizations, from small to large that are faithfully exhibiting their love of God and neighbor even as they hunger and thirst for righteousness.
It's the "any other" part of the statement that is problematic. When I see the results of a Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, Robert Tilton, Jim Bakker . . . and Lee and his miscreant sons . . . it hurts because those are
not the norm. They are the exception. And they (excluding the LSM) got big enough to be observed in a big way. But the number of churches and their preachers, from very small to even other "megas," that are not like that screams at the injustice of calling them all "just like the LSM" or "just like Bakker" and his prosperity gospel ministry.
It just comes off (to me) sounding like Lee was right that everything in Christianity is terrible, and now we see that the LRC/LSM is too. They've got (drum roll, please) . . . clergy!! (and guess what, so does the LRC/LSM.) And rather than turning away from it and back to the way, we continue to follow his errors as we declare the LRC/LSM to just join the rest of Christianity in some quagmire.
Lee was a huckster. But we are still quoting his lyrics day after day. We declare that he was right about everything except his miscreant sons. We evidently want him to be right about everything, and when it turns out that his organization stinks, we declare that it is "just like every other church organization."
I'm offending plenty of people now. And there will be a few private push-backs (if history repeats itself).
But we know we are smarter and more spiritual than all those who went before us for the past 2,000 years. They all got it wrong (well, maybe except a very select few that virtually no one ever heard of) and we got it right.
Well, sort of. Right enough to create a fourth God. And learn how to walk in backward to cover the gross sins of our leaders.
Actually, the real error is that, despite the love we had (and still have) for one another, and the good times we had in the early days, the thing that was off track is more likely to have been the LRC than the bulk of Christianity. Might have even been more off than the RCC in some ways.
But we are still dissecting Christianity through the microscope Lee gave us as we allow specific miscreants — the exceptions — color the whole thing as "just like . . . ."