angry young men

I was walking through the market place the other day with my son and a couple of other kids; we'd been swimming and now we were off to get milkshakes. It was brilliantly, meltingly hot, the air was thick with midday sun. There was a young man standing on an upturned crate, Bible in hand, shouting angrily at the passers-by about their sinfulness and their need for God. A little group of people had gathered round the preacher, and some were were shouting back at him. The more they argued back, the more extreme his comments became about their sinfulness. "Have you ever lied? EVER?" he demanded of a young woman. "Yes!" she said, defiantly. "You are a LIAR!" he shouted. And so it went on.

The kids asked me why he was shouting. "He's shouting about God," I said. Mystified pause. "He knows about God? Then why is he so angry?" said my son, "doesn't he know it's Saturday and the sun is shining? He should be relaxing."

Real Live Preacher is on good form today in The Christian Century. He puts his finger on how and why it is that people who seem to miss the point of Christianity sometimes take up the religion as a way of gaining power; they lead strange little groups, they shout from soapboxes, and not even a corner of their lives seems to have been touched by a God of Love. Often these are people who have spectactularly failed to do well elsewhere in their life, sometimes they are people who have had the bad luck to be kept powerless and poor through circumstances beyond their control. Some do it unwittingly, others cynically.  But either way the nature of Church means that we have few defences against such behaviour, and we are nonetheless required to find a response of love. Go read.

Comments

[John]

"Doesn't he know it's Saturday and the sun is shining?"

Now that is profound! Seriously.

pax et bonum

[Tony B]

Of course, he would say that you have missed the point of Christianity. For the average outsider, or outsider who would like to be in, this sort of thing causes no small amount of confusion. And delay.

[Tony B]

Incidentally, I'd agree with you, not him! :-)

[Abi Carlisle-Wilke]

Wow what a profound, and in touch with God young man he is. Good for him. Sad for the fellow and those who were trying to fight with him. How out of touch with God he is.

I once was an angry young woman, but God's grace begin to touch and heal me. I still have anger that comes out, along with God's grace more often than not.

[Puddleglum]

I visited a different church last Sunday while on vacation. In the middle of the sermon it dawned on me: I don't like it when people scream at me. I don't like it any better when they do it from a pulpit in church.

[Brian]

Yes, your son definitely gets the right end of the stick! What most annoys me most about about people like that angry man is that the phrase "Actually, I've got my own faith" means nothing to them.