G-d stuff, so those of you not interested, go see what’s happening at Brigid’s place.

I am constantly amazed at the people who still attribute the motives and actions of the ‘leaders” of the church as the church itself.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian Church is not a building; it is not a priest, or a minister, or a bishop, or the pope, or the things that they say or the things that they do. The Christian Church is composed, 100%, completely and inarguably, of Christians.

Un Christian behavior separates you from Christianity. When you say “That Christian priest raped that little boy” you are in fact wrong; a real Christian does not engage in that activity by definition. When you say “That Christian is a hypocrite!” You are also wrong. Hypocrisy is anathema to Christianity.

it may be possible that part of the confusion has arisen from the fact that such a wide variety of people call themselves “Christians’. Well, I can call myself an olympic athelete but the name does not allow me to run like FloJo. I can call myself a brain surgeon but not too many people will let me take a saw to their coconut.

Christianity is something to which you can aspire. It is not a destination but a journey, and just as you can get horribly lost anywhere in Detroit, you can lose your way on the way to Christianity. You can and many people do CLAIM Christ, but you also have to mean it. Calling yourself a parent but only showing up for your card on Fathers day don’t qualify you. Calling yourself a Christian and repeatedly engaging in un-Christian behavior is the same.

At each turning, individuals have separated themselves from a “Church” that they thought of as evil and went off on thier own, as often as not engaging in their own level of stupid as they went. I give you all protestant sects as proof of this. Not one of them is immune from ignorance, though each claims to be the ‘only true path to salvation’

I’ve recently even heard people say “Satan threw the Holy Spirit out of the church”. yeah, right, as if Satan commands that power.

The church, as I’ve said, is not Kenneth Copeland. it’s not Joel Osteen, God’s own Gilbert Gottfried. it’s not Pope Benedict.

It’s you and me. It’s pretty clear, too. Look at mathew 18:20. “For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

it’s not “For where there are two or three gathered with an approved minister of my faith, there am I in the midst of them.”

You don’t need a building or a minister or a pastor or a creed to have a Christian Worship service. You just need other people, striving to be Christians.