Mixed Messages

We live in a world filled with "mixed messages." I was driving from my house to the church and found myself behind a police car. The back of the car had several bumper stickers touting things like the D.A.R.E program and information about domestic violence. And then, there was a sticker that said, "Watch the Road." As I followed this message-laden police car, I couldn't help but chuckle at the mixed message it sent. On the one hand, there were the bumper stickers meant to capture our attention and make us think about drug prevention and domestic violence. On the other hand, there was this sticker that basically said I shouldn't be reading the bumper stickers and should be watching the road, instead.

Mixed messages are such a part of our culture that we don't even notice them, for the most part. For example, we are taught that greed is a bad thing, and yet we build our society upon an economic system that is totally dedicated to the acquisition of wealth. When was the last time you wondered about that? And don't even get me started on all the mixed messages that hit us through commercial advertisements.

Churches are not innocent when it comes to sending out mixed messages, either. On the one hand, words like "grace," "love," and "peace" are preached with fervor. On the other hand, many churches celebrate when our nation goes to war, cry out in hatred against others who are different, and generally act in the most ungracious of ways. Some churches go to great lengths to argue that God created this world, and at the same time they ridicule anyone who works to save the planet. And still others give lip service to helping the poor while at the same time demonizing activists and politicians working on behalf of those same people in poverty. It is mixed messages such as these (and many others that we are guilty of, ourselves) that confuse the world around us. Mixed messages make us susceptible to the charge of "hypocrisy" and "ignorance." Mixed messages make churches appear confused and irrelevant.

I want to be part of a church that takes seriously the core values that it professes to follow. I want to be part of a community of faith that makes love central, grace foundational, and the quest for peace programmatic in all that it does. I want to be part of a church that makes room for all who want to be accepted and included, regardless of race, sexual orientation, national origin, language, socio-economic status, education level, disability, age, or ideology. The only boundary that I want us to make for ourselves is one that says, "You can't be part of us if you can't accept others." We can make room for everyone except those who want it all to themselves. This is because we want our message to be clear. We cannot waste anymore time and energy on mixed messages.