Is It Your Business?

Following the service today, Pastor shared some highlights from his participation in a regional Lutheran ministers' gathering. He said that it seemed a shame to spend so much time indoors when the weather was so beautiful, but he appreciated a four-hour break one afternoon and made the most of it. He visited each of the 38 shops along a tourist strip along the waterfront of this southern town, inquiring of each shop owner -- and any employees or customers present -- whether they had "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Aside from the fact that his choice of activity effectively placed him back indoors on that beautiful afternoon, I marvel, again, at the blindness of religious people. The complete absence of self-reflection or common courtesy. It does not occur to them to consider how it would feel to have someone of a different religion (or none at all) confront them with a question that wrongly assumes a shared point of reference.

To the best of my knowledge, Jesus Christ only approached people who were engaged in behavior that was harmful, unjust or unkind -- to themselves or someone else. It is difficult to imagine him strolling into the shop of woman merely selling her homemade candles and challenging her belief system.

It is ironic how insensitive and invasive the practice of Christianity has become -- Love thy neighbor, indeed...