Parallel Universe

I came across an interesting tidbit in my blog-watching the other day. There's a new wiki out there! Now that's not news by itself, but the new wiki should be of interest to Christians. It is called Conservapedia and according to the main page on the site it represents "a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American." I guess we should all celebrate that someone has had the vision to set up a "user-controlled free encyclopedia on the internet" with a Christian bias as an alternative to Wikipedia, also a "user-controlled free encyclopedia on the internet".

But this surely sounds like Christians are constructing a parallel universe in which to live and interact with one another. Or as my high school Bible class observed, sounds like a monastery or what the stylites did. Now in all fairness, Conservapedia has a ton of company in the parallel Christian universe. National Association of Religious Broadcasters. National Christian Storytellers Association. Christian Booksellers Association. Christian Association for Psychological Studies. National Christian College Athletic Association. Christian Martial Arts Association. Christian Association of Stellar Explorers. "Christian Association" in my favorite search engine returned almost 7 million hits! And that says nothing about second- and third-degree separationism, and on and on and on.

Is it any wonder that the American culture in particular and that of much of the world is going to hell? But that is the starting point for too many Christians today. The world is going to hell, there's nothing we can do to stop it, the best we can hope for is to hang on by our fingernails until Jesus raptures us out of here. If in the process we can get a bunch of people born again, so much the better. At least they won't get left behind and have to go through the tribulation.

How unlike Jesus can we possibly be? Have we ignored or forgotten the question the Pharisees asked of the Disciples: "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" If the Son of God had come to this world and set up his own parallel universe with sanctified associations and collectives, Luke would never have had the opportunity to describe him as one who "went about doing good". Nor would scores of individuals have felt his healing touch, heard his life-giving words, or filled the ranks of the New Testament church.

Perhaps even more important, how disobedient to Jesus can we possibly be? Or is it that we have relegated his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount to some future thousand year period when he rules over the Jews in their homeland? Jesus' discourse was not spoken to the Jews, it was an opportunity he took to teach his disciples: "his disciples came to him [a]nd he taught them". One of the things he taught those who went about planting churches was that they were to be salt and light. Salt is useless until it comes into intimate contact with the thing it is intended to flavor. Light is useless when it is hid under the bushel of our parallel Christian universe.

How many millions of opportunities are squandered each day because Christians are content to hide away in their Christian comfort zone rather than be salt in light in a dark and tasteless world. Shame on us.