Lately, I have had something under my skin that has been slowly boiling to a point. During the course of my ministry, I run into these awkward, defeatist, calculated, oppressive, and damning theologies that make me absolutely sick to my stomach knowing that there are honest to God people who actually believe in this stuff, and they are either not motivated or they are motivated to live by these theologies. All this has made me realize this past week, that I am going to write a book. I need to write this book, because bad theologies are corrupting the souls of people, and it's about time someone stood up against this crap and told people the truth about God. This book is going to be about the cause and effects of bad theology. I bet everyone reading this right now has at one or time or another bumped into this kind of snarky, rigidity maybe in their families, maybe themselves, God forbid their church. All of us have this experience with at least one type of bad theology that frankly, really has nothing to do with God but rather has more to do with us. as people.

Bad theology for the most part, is just that...uh, bad. It has no zero tolerance for doubt, or grace. It definitely does not encompass a wide view of God, but that God is somehow reduced to this purveyor of judgment and punishment and that the best of the best only get through. Which by the way, assumes heaven is "somewhere else." Heaven is not somewhere else. Heaven is a continuation of life. Heaven is really what we make of this earth here and now. Jesus did not pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth AS IN heaven" because it sounded good. He meant it. We can bring heaven here in how we live for others...we can learn the ways of kingdom living here and now as opposed to passively waiting for them to pop into our spiritual bodies after we are dead.

Let me give you an example of bad theology: When I was home last October to help bury my friend, I heard this bad theology come out in a few ways, but the the predominant message was clear. Why did God take him? One such response made me ill... "Because God needed another angel." Whenever I hear this grim reaper theology about God, I tend to want to correct the uninformed that God is not dressed in black, holding a sickle, and looking to "take" souls away from anyone. God is not a taker of life. God is not in the life taking business. Biblically, God has been there and done that early on. After the flood, God made a covenant with humanity that as it is precious to God, God will not take life away ever again. This means that life is given to us as a gift. God gives life, even after we die. We are embraced with life after we leave this side of death. I agree with the ancient Judaic understanding of everlasting life - that "heaven" is a continuation of life; that we change as we are embraced by it in the presence of God himself. Death is not something that God viciously places bets on for any of us. We do have free will you know. Free will says that I can choose to live a certain way, make certain decisions, be a certain kind of person because I am created uniquely to do that. Now, in that creative design, I can become an over eater, I can choose to smoke until I get cancer, I can choose to shoot up with meth, I can choose depression over treatment, I can drink my problems away, I can choose behaviors that will cut my life short if not kill me quickly. I can choose to live a certain way or I can choose other ways, better ways, healthier ways.

My point is, that even though we may want to look around for someone to blame especially God, when someone we love dies, let's not forget that sometimes that person who has died made decisions which may have caused death to be induced unnaturally. I cannot begin to tell you how many funerals I have presided over where the person I am burying has made those terrible health choices and the family of that person then, turns around and blames God for "taking" their loved one away. Yes, cancer, debilitating diseases and other mysteries of the body are terrible and awful and cures for them are not known yet. I have all the confidence in the world that it's only a matter of time when cures for what kills us naturally, chemically, and physiologically will be discovered. But until then, let's not blame God for death. God has nothing to do with it. If anything when someone who is so riddled with cancer is suffering, it really is a blessing for them to die. I have been at the bedside of a guy whose body was so full of tumors that his pain was unbearable and he wanted to go. And he did, and those around him as he died were relieved.

Don't we think that God embraces us when we die? I mean, I am convinced that this God who I worship is a God of love, patience, and understanding. He is also responsible for giving life to everyone of us, even when we die. That's the central message of the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The tomb is still empty for a reason. That reason is that death is defeated. Death no longer has a grip on any one of us. For those who think that God is this Grim Reaper figure, they continue to close the tomb on Christ, and assume that God cannot overcome it for any of us. They assume that God needs to break us down, destroy our hope, and somehow punish us in our unpredictability of being human. It's that same theory that places God holding a gigantic magnifying glass, aimed directly at us, trying to somehow burn us from existence. God is responsible for the creation, redemption, and sanctification of all of us - all three of which give us life representing the Trinity. Why would God need to prove He is someone else when He has proven throughout time that He is love and life?

Anyway, that will be chapter one! I am convinced that I need to write this book, and the word "junkfood" will be in the actual title of the book somehow. If anything else, I will write this book for me, as a reference to give to people I come across who use this bad theology as a sort of crutch to lean on, because that's most likely the only theology they have ever known. Not that I will have it all down packed, but at least I need to give it a shot, offer some opinions, and write it as a suggestion book for church leaders to stop dishing out the bad stuff, and start a perspective change please! Any other suggestions for bad theology? I would be interested to hear from y'all. Thanks. More later...