I love running. Recently began habitual running December of last year. Used to run when I was in the US Navy stationed on Guam. We ran and SCUBA dived a lot because nothing happens on Guam...ever. Good or bad.
Worse thing that seemed to happen after WWII was the unfortunate invasion of Brown Tree Snakes introduced by military transports. Although they posed no immediate risk to humans they decimated the indigenous bird population. Most are extinct except a few including my favorite, the Black Drongo.
The blatantly territorial Black Drongo survives on Guam because it violently dive bombs all life forms, including humans. Running is a dangerous proposition when the Black Drongo is nesting, which is. The confounded birds will pounce unsuspecting pedestrians and won’t stop, even if you run far away from its nest. They may be the progenitors of the infamous Angry Birds game, which seems to be a popular past time while listening to the pastor’s sermons.
The US Marines rushed the Guam beaches on July 21, 1944 and basically exterminated the Japanese military personnel who had “forcefully annexed” Guam shortly after their attack on Pearl Harbor. Ironically, to rid the island of the Brown Tree snake the USDA will begin a new invasion. They will begin parachuting tiny dead mice laced with tylenol into the jungles. Evidently, they will use small parachutes so the small mammals will get tangled in the trees and not land on the jungle floor and unintentionally poison other unsuspecting animals.
Just as Guam once teemed with bird life like an aviary, the United States used to be populated by an abundant variety of Christian bodies. But as time has gone by, the number of self-identifying “Christian” people has shrunk considerably. Although not extinct by a long shot, many of the remaining Christians are about as pleasant and helpful as the Black Drongo.
Through all the research I’ve accomplished it is obvious that early Christians converts were not attracted to the faith because of the Church’s stance on the sociopolitical issues de jure or their specified lists defining the sacred and profane. They were attracted to the faith because they were won over by the loving hearts of other followers of “The Way”. Here’s the issue we face: when Christianity became an institutionalized religion it quickly abandoned living into “The Way” for enforcing orthodoxy with a mix of orthopraxy. That is, as an institution, Christianity became less about following Jesus than it did about following what others in power said to do.
It is the height of hubris to assume that any human can interpret the Bible or the Spirit’s will simply because they embrace a human tradition as basis for their authority. And therein lies the great friction for Christians the world over: from where does your authority originate? Luther and the Western European Reformists went to scripture. Many did well and many did not. However, the fact remains that the early church was a confederated body of diverse beliefs and actions, centered and founded upon the person called Jesus of Nazareth.
Thankfully, we’ve been given the gift of scripture, historical theology, archaeology, and science (to name a few) -so that we can better understand the why and how of being a Christian. But the most important thing gifted to us is the Church of Jesus Christ as we gather for worship. Nothing on Earth is more powerful or hopeful. In the end, although we Christians are called to stand for specific moral and ethical standards we need to be more loving about how we do it. Otherwise, we risk becoming the Black Drongo of the Christian Church, running off more people than we attract.
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