Writing about religion is a more serious proposition than it might seem.
Of course newspaper writing in general is serious because it has to be well-founded and truthful, but there is an extra level when it comes to imparting what God says and what ministers say about it.
People may sometimes seem rather cavalier, but there is the Apostle John’s admonition in Revelation 22:18-19: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
And there are other warnings like Proverbs 30:5-6: “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”
Which is not to say I have to agree with everything ministers say.
We have freedom of religion and my obligation when writing these stories is to attribute accurately, not get into doctrinal differences among churches. That would start a squabble that we would never see the end of.
Abe Lincoln said the different churches were for different kinds of people and that together they did more good than they could separately.
In other words, people need varying means of expressing their religious feelings that the various churches afford. It’s what we might call religio-centrism.
Everybody thinks their church is the best. That’s why they go there and it’s often a matter of what they grew up with and what they’re accustomed to.
I heard a musician named C.J. Lewandowski at the Castor River Missouri Bluegrass Festival in Zalma a few years ago do a song called “You Go to Your Church and I’ll Go to Mine” about a couple who had everything in common but religion and went their separate ways on Sunday.
Which is not unusual. You’d expect that the late Southern Baptist Rev. Dr. Billy Graham had perfect unanimity in his family, but in fact his late widow Ruth was a Presbyterian.
You might wonder what my affiliation is. I grew up in the Amherst Church of Christ on the western South Plains and I have been a Church of Christ member since 1994.
