When you see church signs that seem to display messages that no church in its right mind would allow to be displayed, you immediately suspect that one of those famous online “church sign generators” has been employed to create a bit of fiction.

But a church sign in Jonesville, South Carolina — that’s in the Upstate near Greenville — apparently really did display the message, “Obama Osama Humm Are they brothers?”

Ah, yes…it’s one of those churches.

According to the blog Not Very Bright, when NBC affiliate WYFF approached the pastor of the church, he said the sign wasn’t meant to be racial or political.

No, seriously.

A sign comparing Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden wasn’t meant to be political, according to the preacher.

He added this:

“It’s simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ.”

In where? The White House? Gee…that sure sounds political to me.

Obama, as most of us who haven’t been hiding under rocks for the last year know, is a member of a Christian church in Chicago. The church’s now-retired pastor may be “out there,” but he’s clearly not Muslim. When WYFF asked the Jonesville preacher about whether he really thinks that after all of the coverage of Obama’s church, Obama is actually Muslim, here was the response:

“I don’t know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don’t know. He says he’s not. I hope he’s not. But I don’t know. And it’s just something to try to stir people’s minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody.”

Tell that to the Muslims. Shouldn’t Christians be making efforts to reach out to the Muslim community in a friendly, positive way, to demonstrate God’s love?

I’m sure this church has plenty of members who say things like, “Well, we just don’t know anything about this Obama guy.” I’m really tired of hearing that.

If you want to know something about Obama, people, then turn off American Idol, get up off your rump and do a little research! It takes very little time to find out something about him. He’s published a couple of books, has done countless interviews, and is constantly written about.

If by now you know “nothing” about Obama, it’s because you don’t want to. And that ought to make you ineligible to vote. Not because you aren’t considering him specifically, but because you are unwilling to do the absolute bare minimum in terms of being prepared to select the next leader of the country. The same goes for people who claim to know nothing about Hillary Clinton or John McCain. You’ve had time to learn something about all three by now.

I bet Jesus would make sure He knew about all of the candidates before He walked in a voting booth.

Oh, the craziness that exists in my home state of South Carolina.

Over the weekend, I visited family and friends who live in Lexington County. I was reminded of a ridiculous set of laws I had forgotten even existed. The laws in question are known as “Blue Laws” and were originally enacted to prevent businesses from opening on Sundays, to allow for employees to attend church.

Over the years, much of the state has eased or thrown out blue laws altogether. For example, in Charleston County, I can go to a Super Wal-Mart at any hour of the day or night, and buy anything they sell. (The one possible exemption to this is alcohol, but since I almost never buy even a bottle of wine, I wouldn’t know, anyway.)

While I was shopping in this Lexington County Super Wal-Mart, I noticed that sections of the store had been roped off with a single line of thin yellow rope. I didn’t really think anything about that, since most of the time when I’m in a Wal-Mart store, something is always blocked off, either for floor cleaning or restocking. I got the items I needed and proceeded to the checkouts. That’s when it was pointed out that I wouldn’t be able to buy the majority of what was in my buggy until 1:30 that afternoon.

At the time, it was 12:15.

Ironically, on my way to checkouts, I stopped and spoke to a man named Tony, who attends my parents’ church. He’s a worship leader and Sunday School teacher. He was all suited up, and clearly had come from church. So my shopping in the store at that time would have been absolutely possible even if I had attended church myself that morning.

Back in Charleston, my pastor has a great phrase for the kinds of people who would enact Blue Laws to begin with. He refers to them as “J-FARS.” That’s Jesus Followers Acting Really Stupidly.”

Does anyone believe that Jesus really cares whether I buy a pair of khakis at 12:15pm or 1:30pm on a Sunday? Wouldn’t He be much more interested in whether or not I believe in Him? (And contrary to what some overly-righteous might have you believe, you do not have to be in church every time the door opens just to do that.)

Blue Laws were never a good idea. But in this day of churches offering multiple worship times, plus the internet offering new and innovative ways to worship, they’re now not only a bad idea, but a hopelessly backward example of J-FARS.

They need to go. At once.

Can I get an “Amen?”

With Halloween just days away, many churchgoers are engrossed in the annual debate: should they allow their kids to go trick-or-treating or should they forego the celebration of a “pagan holiday” and go instead to the more “innocent” fall festivals many churches have planned as a safe alternative?

Over at ChristianBlog.com, one writer raises the following points about a planned Fall Festival:

1) This festival has been held the last 3 years and always around Halloween.
2) Children are invited to attend in costume.
3) Children receive candy for playing games.

These three reasons in my mind say that this is nothing but a Halloween party in disguise. Why are we as Christians not only participating in a pagan holiday but holding a party for it in our church. I know for many Christians the pagan routs of this holiday are long forgotten. But that is not the point.

Actually, that is the point. It’s the whole point. And it’s a point that a lot of Christians seem far too capable of missing.

When a child dresses up as a favorite super hero, goes door to door in his neighborhood, and accepts candy from kindly neighbors, is he sinning because he is commemorating the practices of pagans who were only out to sin?

I don’t think so. What he is doing has nothing…absolutely nothing…to do with a pagan ritual. The child isn’t trying to embrace paganism. The child is merely play-acting.

The same kind of fight comes up now in the spring, when it’s time to celebrate Easter. There are many Christian parents who don’t want their children getting anywhere near Easter eggs. Why? Continue reading “Halloween Party or Fall Festival?”

A while back, I wrote a piece about an experience at Starbucks coffee in which I noticed that a religious message appeared on the cup I drank from.

That particular message was from Dr. Rick Warren, author of the book The Purpose-Driven Life. Here’s what the cup said:

“You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose.”

I found his quotation rather interesting, and it sparked some other thoughts about religion that I wrote about in that post. In short, reading someone else’s opinion inspired me to think a little about religion. It didn’t matter whether or not I agree with Warren; his thoughts on religion prompted me to consider my own beliefs. That, to me, was all that mattered.

But unlike some people, I was not deluded into thinking that Starbucks was trying to reinvent itself into some kind of church. The entire board of directors of the coffee empire — and I assume it has a board of directors — may be Christians. But they may be Buddhists for all I know. I don’t visit their store, or any other coffee stores, because of the religion of those who serve up the coffee: I go for the product. The fact that Starbucks long ago decided to start printing thought-provoking quotations, which it calls its “The Way I See It” campaign, on its packaging is an interesting idea, but not one that I think one should get overly-preoccupied with.

Enter Michelle Incanno of Ohio. She dropped by an area Starbucks and ordered her typical brew. What was apparently atypical about this particular visit was the quotation that ended up on her cup. Rather than a message that could be classified as “pro-God,” she was met with one she considers “anti-God:”

“Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure.”

This message was written by a man in London who happened to be a Starbucks customer. There’s no qualification posted on the door that says you have to be a Christian to enter. The baristas do not quiz you on the Bible when you attempt to order a latte. So the fact that some of Starbucks’ customers might not necessarily be Christians.

Some Christians — I’m sure you’ll be stunned to learn — aren’t as open-minded as I am. They are promising never to set foot in a Starbucks again because it is apparently so “liberal” and “God-hating.” (They’ve never seen that Warren cup I mentioned earlier.)

I read some ridiculous comments attacking Starbucks and everything it stands for. I wonder why some Christians feel they need to do so. They probably never asked their baristas what their religious preferences were. So they could have been served by Wiccans, for all they know. And they probably never took the time, while in the grip of coffee craving, to attempt to read up on a single officer of that company for any hint as to what one of them might believe.

Incanno and others have claimed that they wouldn’t feel right about going back to the coffee store they used to frequent. Incanno herself said, “I don’t think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee.”

But if she just wanted coffee, why would she waste the time to read the cup, anyway? I’ve had coffee from plenty of coffee stores and I couldn’t tell you what was written on the cups. Maybe all of them had some kind of message on them. Maybe only Starbucks cups did. But who cares? That’s not why I went in there to start with.

What would Jesus do? Would he boycott Starbucks? Would he call up a reporter and complain? Would he fire off an angry letter to the corporate office?

I don’t think so. I suspect that he’d sit in the middle of the store and lead a peaceful discussion about what faith really is. And he’d show compassion, not hatred, to those who didn’t immediately believe. And I even think he’d welcome questions from those who just weren’t sure. And to those who listened to the questions and still didn’t immediately accept, I’m guessing he’d show patience, not condemnation.

Discussion, which is all these silly little coffee cups are trying to inspire, is a healthy thing. If God had meant for us to accept everything blindly, he wouldn’t have given us the gift of reason, would he?