As I went through my week I ran across a couple of things that I found interesting. One of them was a newspaper article and the other was a book of fiction.
The newspaper article (Star Tribune-Sunday, March 11, 2007-Dan Berry- New York Times) talked about a man, a minister of from Wisconsin. His name is Roy Ratcliff, minister of the Mandrake Road Church of Christ in Madison. Just a man. It pretty much stated that his one claim to fame was the baptism of Jeffrey Dahmer, back in 1994. One may remember him as a serial killer and you would be correct. You may ask yourself why he would have done such a thing.
I will try to tell you why I think he did it. He sat with him and talked, found he was seeking forgiveness from God. Does not state whether he was seeking forgiveness from the families that he tore apart. Many would say that he was a monster and did not deserve forgiveness. They may be right, but as my best friend said to me this week, "It is not our right to decide who gets forgiveness or not." I believe the Bible also says "Judge not, for yest be judged". He was doing his job as he saw it. He saw is as his job to baptize a person that wished to be baptized and leave it in God's hands.
The article goes on to relate how this has had an effect on others as they learn of it. Some have told him that he did the right thing and many others just walk away, others praise him to his face and then talk behind his back. This is in and out of the church.
He is rarely invited to other churches to talk about the salvation of the least of us, because he guesses, "there is a sense of shame." At gatherings of preachers in the region one minister from Milwaukee constantly points him out to others and says; Do you know who that man is? Do you know what he did? "I've become a little bit jaded by the hypocrisy," Ratcliff says.
As well he should. If a man/woman is to stand in front of you and say forgive others as god forgives you, and then goes out and finds fault with others, who is he/she to tell you how to live your life, how to believe, what to believe, and what you need to do to get forgiveness from the god/gods you believe in. I find nothing wrong with religion, it is in the way that it is brought out, how it is presented to others and then that person or church can not live the way that they tell you how you need to live to have salvation. I will do anything and everything in my power to point out this hypocrisy to the powers that be. I do understand that these people are just people, subject to faults as we all are. However, if one stands for something and then tries to tell others how to live then they need to try harder to live the way they say you have to live.
The other thing that I ran across was in a book I was reading (A God in Ruins by Leon Uris-1999-page 81).
""There is one bottom line for me," Father Sean said, "and that is the message of love from Jesus. All the rest of it, miracles and saints and whatever we've contrived or distorted, doesn't matter. Love is the bottom line. Find something in that message you can weave into your life."
Even as he spoke, Father Sean realized that Quinn would always inquire, always challenge a Church that did not promote inquiry and challenge. But no other religion would work for him, either, because he could never truly accept what was unacceptable to him."
I will sit and ponder this, for if nothing else, I promote inquiry and challenge. I hope that anyone reading this will also ponder.
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