The introduction of the sisterhood to the reality tv landscape is a reflection of a greater secularism that has pervaded the contemporary church. This secularism is marked by a rough edged "keep it real" quality that is drenched in the bad behavior that has become zeitgeist of our era. This brand of Christianity is high on rhetoric and low on functional regeneration this is a secular Christianity. A Christianity that enthralls itself in appearance without substance. This Christianity is loves to be seen but hates to serve. This Christianity can raise an offering but cant raise a hand to help. This Christianity loves the authority of titles without the power of scholarship. This brand of Christianity is a peacock spreading its feathers , colorful as they might be , without a brain to back it up.
This brand of Christianity has "a form of godliness but denies the power". This is a "take me as i am " and leave me just that way Christianity. This Christianity is not the result of the transformative power of the grace and love of God , this is the result of narcissism on steroids. When the pervasiveness of such narcissism reaches to the upper echelon of the ordained priesthood and their families we have to ask what quality of ministry are we giving our people?
At question here is not whether the sisterhood disparages the image of the church, but rather does the church disparage its representation of Christ? this form of public spectacle only reinforces the idea that church is just a show. I am not an advocate for well behaved people for the sake of modernity, or for the adherence to traditional misogynistic contrived values. i do not believe that the Pastor's wife is some aberration of virtue that floats around the church affirming Emily Post's books on decorum. Im from Alabama and i like my people just like some like their whiskey straight up. Im not a fan of delusional nut balls passing themselves off as ministers of the gospel. I'm also not a fan of self aggrandizement and glorification , i am a fan of humility and grace. i am not asking for the sweet old lady approach to the gospel , i am however, asking that we take into account that the world is watching how we represent ourselves as Children of God.
it is my belief that Christians do need to be present and active participants in the creation and in all arenas. But if our presence in the world at large leads people away from God and not to him are we following Christ or creating a crisis? Maybe we have put so much makeup on our ontological reality that we lost sight of our hope in glory. One thing is clear last nights episode was a testament to the brokenness in our world more specifically to the brokenness in our houses of worship. This was a hyper representation of how deep the well really goes.
What did we really see? We saw a mother struggle to communicate with her teenage daughters and a father struggle to be relevant as well as prophetic. we saw the pressure that new parenthood can put on a marriage. We saw a woman's search for identity and voice as she bullies her way to network television relevance. We saw the apprehension that financial pressures create in a marriage. Yes we even saw some bad hair.... really bad hair. But most of all we saw agendas
What didn't we see? we didn't see much listening there was a lot of talking, too much talking , but not much listening. We didn't see much support , there was a lot of talking that looked like preaching but there was no affirmation. We saw parents try to be cool and missed their chance to be human. they missed their chance to talk frankly to their children about sex because they were to busy pandering to cameras. Oh we didn't see anybody eat that banana. We didn't see mercy. We didn't see God through these people we heard a lot of Jesus like language but we never had that moment where we believed that God truly resides in these people.
So as we push forward in this post modern experiment where preachers are rock stars and worship leaders are hype men. i hope we reclaim our souls . You remember your soul? its that thing below the custom suits and red bottom shoes. The soul the very make up of our being, that speck of the divine that dwells within us and seeks to reconnect the creation with the creator. Maybe if we reclaim our souls we could have a real brother or sisterhood.
But.... This might hurt a little....
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