Christian Sinus Infection

Ever since we got back from Indiana I’ve been fighting a sinus infection.  It’s kind of like a little coming home present that Indiana gives me every time I go there.  Just a little something to make sure I don’t forget it when I come back to Denver.  
So this intro was supposed to tie into what I wanted to write about because it also has to do with being sick, but then as I was going to write the transition I realized it didn’t work very well, so I’m not going to use it.  I know, you’re probably thinking, “Do you have some kind of whack computer that doesn’t let you delete things or are you just too lazy?”  I guess I’ll go with the second answer, although my computer here at the church is from about 1983…

So anyway, on to what I wanted to write about in the first place.  I am so sick, to the point of physical manifestations, of people being proud of how much they dislike or even hate different incarnations of the church.  I was reading a few entries on a blog called bad christian this morning and came to one entitled “Tony speaks.”  About three-fourths of the way down he talks about something he thinks Rob Bell at Mars Hill church does well, and then goes on to assure people that he really dislikes Rob and Mars Hill and that even though they do something well it pains him to say it.  I feel like I’ve been noticing this more and more in books written by Christian authors.  It’s not just that they see things that they think need to be changed in the church, but they are very proud of the fact that they don’t like the people or churches who are doing them the way they don’t like (sorry, I know that’s a jumbled sentence, but what am I going to do on a computer that won’t delete?).  

This kind of attitude really angers me (and to be honest I’ve seen it in myself some which also angers me so I’m trying to purge that)!  Why in the world would we be proud of hating other members of the kingdom of God?  These people are supposed to be our brothers and sisters in Christ for crying out loud!  That doesn’t mean we agree with everything they do or say, but I would think it would mean we would not take great pleasure in hating them.  Jesus prayed that his followers would be one as he and the Father are one.  God must weep over our competitive, prideful, hateful, condescending, know-it-all attitude toward one another.