About 20 years ago I read a theology book that I felt minimized some deep truths. The author had turned mysteries into candy. I was terrified that I would do the same thing: trivialize the truth for the sake of popularity. That night I had this disturbing image in a dream:
cartoon: Pastor Gumball
- My biggest fear about my ministry « From My Heart, Out Of My Mind
- Pastors, What Are We Feeding Our Flocks? | deekdubberly.com
Leave a Reply
Trackback URL
http://www.nakedpastor.com/archives/4679/trackback
-
Cartoonist. Artist. Spirituality Coach. Writer. Speaker.
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
It is not so much what is dispensed that bothers me. We see the Gospel through our own eyes, our own history, our own point in time; and we can hardly do less than speak it as we have come to understand it. It’s when a man puts a price tag on it, as if he, alone, has conquered and has a God-given call to make a profit off of it in the name of “spreading the Gospel”. That nickel slot at the top of your gumball machine says it all…
“I don’t want the Father, you know I want a vending machine
I don’t want the Son, you know I want a jury of peers
I don’t want the Spirit, you know I want the kick drum”
wow jim!
It is hard make your understanding of the truth accessible without making into something completely different.
NP: Good luck with that. It is my prayer that every teacher of the Word of God will remain truthful and not become a trader or a traitor…
np: I know you say you have always been afraid you would trivialize the truth…….have you ever fallen and done it?
‘Gumball Ministries’…I like it.
Now had that been a Keg with a tap dispensing beer, you may have been on to something.
I like to think of it instead as dispensing something for them to chew on…at least as long as it is gum, and not some sticky sweet, over-saccharined sugar treat
Well, you’ve got preachers dispensing candy, and you’ve got preachers preaching fire and brimstone. And I guess a bunch of other approaches. I guess Jesus preached repentence. I don’t guess that’s ever been a popular message.
Lynn said:::
I guess Jesus preached repentence. I don’t guess that’s ever been a popular message.
——–You hit the nail on that. And it certainly isn’t a popular message in this blog site.
fishon
fishon said, on February 15th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Lynn said:::
I guess Jesus preached repentence. I don’t guess that’s ever been a popular message.
——–You hit the nail on that. And it certainly isn’t a popular message in this blog site.
I disagree (of course
I don’t think David, nor most of the respondents here are against repentance. As an atheist, I have no problem confessing my wrong doing and trying not to commit that action again. I think many of Davids subjects have repentance at the core. I submit that David disagrees with the subject of this cartoon, the “minimizing of deep truths”, and he probably feels those who dabble in such minimizing should repent.
An Episcopal priest friend once said…in jest…that the congregation messed up the liturgy so they needed to put the sacramentals in vending machines. Steve…yea…gumball ministries..set up in the mall and the supermarket. Bob…I agree with you…this crew, at least most of them, are open to growth and self examination. We saw that with some of David’s lists when people were publically confessing their faults and fears. The parody modality that David uses is definitely saying DON’T DO THIS!!!
Is that Nicky Gumball, the guy who started The Alpha Course? That’s pretty simplistic.
Except for the gumball preachers, maybe other preachers do want people to repent, but they have different approaches to try to achieve that. Sort of like a parent emphasizes either the positive or the negative, but they are trying to accomplish raising good kids, either way.
“You hit the nail on that. And it certainly isn’t a popular message in this blog site” (fishon)
Why do you think this?
Actually, this came to mind…
“You know you’re chewing bubblegum
You know what that is
But you still want some
You just can’t get enough
Of that lovie dovie stuff”
U2-Discotheque