Christians and Hypocrites: Memory of my late father

A pastor friend just posted this on his wall: Christians and Hypocrites. A big chunk of those words could have come from my Christian friends too. I had heard them complain enough on this matter. But this morning my thoughts flitted to my late father. I think it had to do with the way the writer put his points across.

My father quit church because he was too poor. When he arrived from China, a friend invited him to attend a Teochew Church: Newton Life Church. He enjoyed it and looked forward to going except that there was one problem. He had no money to put into the offering bag and was too embarrass to appear again in church.

Inadvertently many churches have become clubs for the rich. Perhaps CHC took it to excess, but the image that Christianity is the religion of the wealthy is not too far off.

I once thought and quickly dismissed the idea that if the Christians here were very generous with helping the underclass, we will not have a wealth gap to talk about. We can achieve this because unlike most places, Singapore is just incredibly rich. The idea was rapidly expunge as completely unrealistic. I grew up in Church, I know the psychology well and it was easy for me to anticipate the reaction of the CHC when some of their pastors were charged in court.

The human brain is an associative machine. Unconsciously what we have read, heard and learned, associations are made. This blog post is simply the result of that. It proves that I have been thinking about these matters a lot in the last few days.

Now if the map of associative links tells a God based story, good for you. If it doesn't that's hardly unusual. Welcome to the majority. No, I am not going to share what such God based stories may be. I gotta run. I  have other things to attend to and the story cannot be told quickly without missing comprehension. Who could understand when Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again"

After all, I am blogging for myself. This time I am not even writing this for the family. No doubt my kids will ask me to explain and here is where I might begin without quoting this old memory verse.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1,2