Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas Jefferson

Blindfolded fear. An opiate for the masses. We often seek what is comfortable. We follow charismatic individuals who make decisions and tell us what is right and wrong. People across this world are looking for that. Simply look at the Self-help section of a bookstore. Growing up, I certainly don’t remember that section being as prominant as it is today, with Tony Robbins big grin smiling at me every time I walk nearby. People will follow without question, because they are living in fear of their own reality. They are afraid of being lost.

Growing up in Florida, going to Disneyworld is more of a routine event for families. Although a dreamland for children, it can be a nightmare for parents, weaving through crowds of strangers and waiting in lines for hours with impatient children. Well, one year it became a nightmare for myself. My family and I were working through said crowds on our way to Tomorrowland, when suddenly I got to a clearning, looked around, and saw no one from my family. There is rarely a more terrifying feeling for a small child than not recognizing anyone around you and being overwhelmed by a bunch of strangers trying to help you. I even remembered my GI Joe training… “Where did you see them last?”… but to no avail. Apparently knowing was only half the battle, and I was unaware what the other half was because Joe never told me.

This is the fear. If we slow down and examine things for ourselves, we can see suddenly how difficult and lonely life can be. But, in following blindly, we may also miss how wonderful life can be, and allow others to tell us how to think. By sitting on Church of Synagogues on weekends and allowing a Pastor or Rabbi to preach from “scripture” and never test the words he or she is saying is an extremely dangerous task. Faith has gone in a huge wave. Until the 1400-1500s, people had no choice but to follow the teachings of the religious leaders, because Scripture was extremely hard to come by, and most people were illiterate. Come the 1700-1800, with the printing press and literacy on the rise, we have things like the great awakening. Religious writers and thinkers knew scripture back and forth. More importantly, so did their followers. And their followers felt ready to question their leaders every step of the way… not to find fault in them, but to make sure they were not following blindly. We are at a day now when there are more bibles, torahs, etc than ever before, yet faith and scripture has become so casual and so nonchalant, that we are once again, blindly following what our charismatic leaders tell us.

I’ll use this example. I have attend a service in town where thousands of young adults/college students/etc go once a week. The speaker at this event has been heralded as a wonderful communicator and really can preach a message. To his credit, he really is an awesome, charismatic communicator, in a way that you almost want to eat up every word he says… and some do. The problem is, there were some real inherent flaws in his message. He was going on and on about this semicolon in the scripture… how God put that semicolon in there because the sentence was supposed to have this one meaning and cannot be interpreted any other way. This problem was two fold.

1. There are absolutely no punctuations in the original Greek language, so the use of the semicolon was done by someone who was interpreting the scripture as they translated.
2. The interpretation fit a very conservative framework, even though there are many that interpret differently.

Instead of simply arguing that there are different interpretations, and that he believes his way is the most accurate, he led people to believe that there was only one unequivocal message in the text he was discussing. This is dangerous. More dangerous than any secular attack on faith.

But people will follow. They want to follow. We are a country of followers, and are looking around for people to follow. We like to think that we are leaders, and unique, and think for ourselves, but we have been so ingrained through the media and through our schools, that we don’t even know we do it. It take a leader like Michael Moore or Billy Graham or Bill O’Reilly or Joel Osteen and people desire to follow, even if the message isn’t great. We are afraid. We are afraid to question because that requires us to think. Thinking requires us to be educated on the issue. Education requires us to work and study. We are left in our slothfulness to be led one by one off the edge of the cliff. We truly might be the stupid lemmings.

Its the same scene. You can find it all across the country on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights, perchance on a Saturday night.

The room is dimly lit. There may be some form of candles, some colored lights pointed towards a stage with some musicians dressed in the most recent fashions they bought straight off the mannequin at Urban Outfitters. Suddenly, music begins to play, and it sounds like a U2 knock-off band playing songs that are secular love songs with the word baby replaced by Jesus. Music always starts upbeat, but eventually progresses to a mellow fingerpick, coined by some as “Cosmic Glue,” as the lead singer says things like, “Meet us here,” or “you are worthy.”

I would guess that almost all church-goers who attend a contemporary style service knows exactly what I am talking about. Its ‘The Formula’ as Tara Leigh Cobble calls it in a recent article called “Worshipping in Reverse.” Contemporary worship leaders have been tasked with the burden of getting us “in the mood” for worship. It has become the stardard to work through the Formula as a means of engaging people emotionally before the Word is preached. But is this not the exact opposite of what God has prescribed for us in the very same Word? Is it not the Word of God revealed to us that leads us to worship. The historic church circumvented our current situation by having songs that were literally word-by-word Scripture. Today’s worship songs are hardly that. Even songs by bands like Ten Shekel Shirt and others could pass as secular songs. So we’ve traded one for the other, but its really not an even trade.

Think of it this way. We love because He loved us first. We respond because of what God has first done. To show up to a service and get into the mood to worship God first is counter to this process. Lets propose an opposite service. Say you showed up for the service and it started with the pastor preaching. Through the word of God, he proclaims what God has done, is doing, and will do in the lives of His people. This allows God to speak to us through His own Word, and not just the words written by man about God. It is then that we can respond to His word and the preaching of His word with worship and song, in a natural order.

This is not a panacea for contemporary worship, nor am I saying that the Formula cannot work or serve a function. God is a God of order, and maybe he really has prescribed the best way for us to worship, worship that is a response to Him, not a preparation for Him.

Wood grain, water stains, sandwiches, statues. Apparently Jesus and Mary sure do make an impression everywhere they go. Once again, Mary has made an appearance. This time, in a piece of chocolate.

I think this time, the factory workers at this chocolate factory may have been breathing in the fumes a little too much. There is a pile of chocolate drippings which look more like excrement than the Virgin Mary (thanks Josh), and people are now worshipping this brown mass. These folks at the factory are really going to extremes:

Since the discovery of the drippings under a vat on Monday, employees of Bodega Chocolates have spent much of their time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it.

Let me recall my Bible lessons. Jesus certain made some appearances after his death in the stories, but in every case it was the physical man of Jesus standing in front of folks, plain as day. I don’t remember Paul eating some potato pancakes and saying, “Man, these fried potatoes sure look like Jesus. It must be a sign.” For all you know, that face in on your sandwich looks more like a homeless man or a terrorist than anything else. “There’s a generic bearded looking figure in my soup. It must be Jesus!”

Come on people. Have we lost our minds? Has our faith has become so shallow that we are searching for even the most obscure things to boost it? Faith without seeing is true belief, not this crap.

I came upon this precious find a while back. Apparently there is a market amongst Catholics to have Jesus (in statue form) participating in sports with other children.

		Here we find Jesus being tackled playing some playground football. Apparently Jesus does not need a damn helmet like the children. I mean, he IS Jesus. Secondly, that kid in the red has some balls tackling Jesus.
		I don’t know about you, but this is a little too questionable for my taste. Jesus is looking a little creepy all cuddled up with that girl, helping her putt. I think he wouldn’t be able to live near bus stops in Georgia.
		Jesus can walk on water, but apparently he still needs ice skates. I mean, damn, that’s some cold-ass water. Not common in the sands of Jerusalem.
		Alright, once again we find the creepy Jesus.
		Last one to the Temple Gates has to get crucified!

I love large blanket statements. Actually, I really don’t. At all. They are never really appeasing or helpful just spoken aloud during a situation. I mean, given time and experience, you learn to really adapt them to your mentality where they do help you cope, but saying something like “Everything changes,” or “Everything happens for a reason,” isn’t always comforting to me. I mean, I recognize those things are true, but sometimes its still good to gripe and complain about them.

It seems like the psalmists know what God is about and aren’t really second guessing everything. They just want to complain. They just want to gripe about the way things are and how they are going and their status quo. So, go ahead. I think He can take it. He’s been in our shoes… he understands that life isn’t always easy. I mean, come on, I don’t think crucifixion is exactly joyful.