On Paul and the Baptists
Posted in Facebook is such an interesting phenomenon. I never thought much of it until our new pastor started making great use of it; as it turns out, FB is a great tool for churches. It makes it so much easier to keep tabs with a congregation care for them when you have a tool which makes it that easy to keep up with who’s doing what and how everyone is feeling.
And the good and bad of FB is that it’s easy to find people. On the one hand I’ve been found by friends that go so far back that my memory of our times together is hazy, and then on the other I keep running into ex-girlfriends. But hey, if they’re the ones adding me as friends, then I guess I couldn’t have been that bad a guy. But those aren’t the ones that have me thinking; it’s all my old Baptist friends. I suddenly have a better understanding for so much of what Paul has to say.
My old Baptist friends are good people. They all know why I chose to leave the SBC; I disagreed with its theology and its culture. Oh yeah, I also left because of a girl (who isn’t my friend on FB), but that’s irrelevant. And the further I get away from the SBC the more I think that God was in a lot of things that happened thirteen years ago. Yet I still find myself wanting to gain the approval of my old Baptist friends, and that means being tempted to change what I say on Facebook.
This is where Paul comes in. It seems so strange that Paul’s writings to Jews would apply to an ex-Baptist, but they do. Paul reminds members of the Way that they are not only called to follow Christ, but they are also free, and in some ways even called, to give up their culture (and don’t forget Peter who was specifically called to sit down to a meal of tasty pig). He reminds them of God’s grace, and he exhorts them to walk that fine line of loving the people who cannot give it up while living firmly in a new one. And so I’ve been purposely updating my Facebook page with statuses and comments that many years ago would have convinced me that I’m a backslidden Christian, not only because that’s who I am now, but also for the sake of my brethren who need to know that Christ would drink good beer with friends and sinners alike.
