Why Are Preachers Portrayed As Such...?

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

@#$%

@#$%

    I went to see Church Basement Ladies at the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Illinois on August 13.

    Great friends!

    Great meal!

    Great acting!

    I didn't pay!

    Great!

    Essentially, it's a musical comedy about, uh, church ladies - Isn't that special? - who do their opinionated best to serve their traditional understanding of church if not always Jesus by the book.

    Though it's set in a Lutheran ethos with some insider jokes that befuddle or turn off Catholics and Calvinists, there's a lot of transference and humor at the expense of, uh, church ladies who do their opinionated best to serve their traditional understanding of church if not always Jesus by the book.

    Of course, it feeds ethnic and ecclesiastical pride which - along with political, socioeconomic, ideological, gender, and other idolatrous human inventions - are totally antithetical to what Jesus has in mind as prayed in John 17; but, really, churches and Jesus haven't been on the same page since human arrogance began trumping apocalypse enfleshed in Jesus and explained in Holy Scripture.

    Really, it was a great show and I'm not going to ruin it or dissuade anyone from seeing it by reporting on it like Trump on media or media on Trump.

    Buuuuuuuut there was one thing about it that really bummed me out.

    Pastor Gunderson.

    It wasn't the actor.

    He played the role to pret' near perfection.

    It wasn't the name.

    My favorite faithful friend and chiropractor is a Gunderson.

    It's just that the playwright, director, choreographer, and, I guess, book authors who inspired the show portray the pastor as such a...

    Maybe I'm wrong; but except for that dopey, dark, and sick Preacher show on AMC, people who do what I do for a vocational living are portrayed as such...

    I know churches for better or worse or how you judge aren't as, uh, masculine as they used to be; but why are we of the male gender in vestments portrayed as such...?

    Except for that debauched Preacher, why are most preachers portrayed as such...in movies, musicals, media, and just about everywhere else?

    O.K., I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said he would have become a preacher if so many of them didn't look like undertakers; but, again, do most people think most preachers are, uh, not that, uh, masculine anymore?

    Don't get me wrong.

    I'm all for feminine women and masculine men and, uh, uh, uh,...whatever...if it's/they're true to God's design for 'em.

    I've got no axe to grind against less than feminine women or less than masculine men.

    Jesus loves all of 'em/us; and because I love Jesus, I do too.

    God loves the world and that includes everybody; which is why Brian and I have felt called to Reclaim the Bow and discover original mercy (please click on editions of The Mercy Papers in the right column).

    I'm just curious.

    Why are guys who do what I do for a vocational living portrayed as such...?

    Nothing eternal or even existential against 'em, but Sinead, Tiny Tim, Twiggy, MJ, or Marilyn Manson aren't my vocational role models.

    While Jesus is the perfectly divine pattern for Christians, my lesser human heroes include the desert fathers, Francis, Bonhoeffer, MLK, Jr., Mante, Mother Teresa, Nouwen, Billy and Franklin Graham, Peterson, Chan, and the like who've never been called...

    Again, I'm a reclaiming-the-rainbow-discovering-original-mercy 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 kinda, uh, undershepherding, uh, kinda, uh, guy.

    I'm just curious why, uh, guys like me are portrayed as such...

    Induction?

    Deduction?

    Although Dr. Macleod always said to end with a declarative rather than interrogative, maybe that's too...

    What do you think?

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

@#$%

Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

@#$%

@#$%