Choosing My Religion

A couple of months ago one church sign got a lot of publicity.  The sign read: God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians.  I thought about that a few times while I was preparing for this sermon.  Our last church had a marquis.  Had this sermon come around then maybe ours would have had the same message.  But you can't always get what you want.  So, I got to preach this sermon, but didn't get to have church-sign fun.  Life goes on.

What I wanted listeners to consider with this sermon is that the choice between being religious and spiritual is a false dichotomy.  Religion gets put down by many people.  I shared two videos this past week on our church's Facebook and weekly eNewsletter (AnotherNote) that shared two ideas about religion.  One was called Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus.  The other is called Why I Love Religion, and Love Jesus.  You should take a moment to listen to them.

Religion gets blamed for quite a bit.  Religion, though, doesn't kill people; people kill people.  And we can't laud religion over relationship because if you have a relationship with God then you have a religion.  So, instead of picking on religion, I think we should understand that our religion is there and that others are paying attention to it.  Here are a few thoughts to help you choose your religion.

++If you are reading by email or newsreader, click here to listen to the sermon.++



And yes, I did have REM's song in my mind when choosing this sermon title.  Stay blessed...john