Today is the day a number of professional basketball players become free agents. Everyone's all abuzz because LeBron James is now a free agent. Supposedly he's decided to go with chicago, but the Knicks and the Nets are said to be actively courting him. There's a campaign, "C'mon LeBron" that New Yorkers have to convince him to come to NYC. As much as I'd like to see him in a Knicks jersey (not Nets, because I think the new owner is a bit too weird. Interesting, but just a bit too weird) -- as much as I'd like to see LeBron in a Knicks jersey, if he were ever to have a bad day, I could see the fans going "C'mon, LeBron." Somehow, I don't think that would work. Also, the whole fairy dust thing, while it plays well in Cleveland, might not go over so well in MSG.
Ya know, I'm amazed at my church. Again, there often seems to be a disconnect between the things we say and the things we do. We preach equality, but we elect an indigenous African bishop who can only preside in Africa and whose rights, privileges, and salaries are less than those of the other bishops. Whether we intend to or ont, we're sending the message that Africans are somehow of a lesser status than other Christians. Aside from the irony that ours is an historically African-American church, there is also the irony that we profess to want to be a global church. This is our attempt at globalization?!?! By this kind of reckoning, what's the next step: appoint indigenous European bishops and give them twice the salary of African American bishops? What in the world were the people smoking when they came up with this idea?!?!?
Another thing I don't undersand about our church is how we can live in such a disconnect from the world around us. A good eighty percent of our membership is female, yet we have difficulty deciding if we want women to be among the bishops. It's as if, instead of being filled with a love for God and instead of being led by the Spirit of God, we have a church full of superstitious people who believe in a Zeus-like god and who live their lives trying not to anger the Zeus-like god so they can one day go and live with him. Huh???
that's not the kind of God I've come to know and love, it's not the kind of God who guides my feet and orders my life (when I listen). I know a God who causes me to ask the tough questions, One Who, even when my mind is set upon doing things my way, will cause a prick in my Spirit to make me remember His Way. I may or may not listen, but at least I feel the prick in my Spirit.
Which is why I have such a hard time with people who supposedly "love the Lord" and "want to do God's will" but who do things that smack of inequality, inequity, and injustice. Where is God in that mix?
The old saying is "God created Man in His Own Image and Man, being a gentleman, returned the favor."
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