Churches have all sorts of approaches to their online representation. I can feel as though I'm actually visiting the sanctuary of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Morris. This is something I could not accomplish in the past. So that's an interesting step forward.
How many churches with the "Lutheran" name exist in and around Morris? It seems too many. We have to wonder if consolidation lies ahead. There has already been some of that in the rural Upper Midwest, along with closures. I remember being at St. Theresia's Catholic Church in Donnelly for its service of closure. The bishop was here. I remember him talking about how maybe Donnelly could have a "titular" parish. The ceremony was grand and with lots of people - it belied the purpose which was shutdown.
Churches with the Lutheran name are far from being on the same page, heavens. Maybe parishioners will have to get over some of their differences. Some of them might lecture me in the same way, touche. St. Paul's is in the Wisconsin Synod - a fringe synod? - which believes the pope to be the antichrist. And you wonder why young people have been drifting away from traditional church?
A fracture occurred several years ago over gay rights/gay ordination. Seems passe to discuss that now. Society has moved on with general agreement over gay rights, the sanction on discrimination.
Our ELCA churches in Morris are the politically progressive ones. They have faced some headwinds because of this. A Sunday sermon at First or Faith will be as pure and uplifting as any Christian would want. Why have a bone to pick over something like gay rights, or perhaps the belief that a church ought to crusade against abortion? And you wonder why young people aren't eager to get on board?
It is fun to randomly check Lutheran church websites around the country. Some churches show real savvy in media outreach, others have a more token approach. Should such a presentation only be of service for the parishioners of the church, or should it try to attract the interest of others, maybe in a "recruiting" way? Some churches have a presentation that makes you want to come back in the future. Others clearly don't.
I suppose "media savvy" should not be an essential skill for people who run churches. It's not supposed to be entertainment. But it sure is communications. I try to write in a way that gets repeat readers.
Can the various Morris area churches known as "Lutheran" find a little more common ground? Enough so that there could be a "coming together?" An old high school classmate of mine in the Twin Cities says the trend there is for the smaller churches to fade away and for the "mega churches" to take over. I suppose a larger church can summon much better resources. Is bigger better? The question should be: Is the church performing its essential function?
One problem with the big churches I've noticed: they tend to cultivate pastors who start to feel like celebrities, and this can lead them down the trail of sin. We read of an occasional scandal. Jerry Falwell Jr. was supposed to be running a virtuous institution. He should have felt thankful to the Lord. He went astray. It's a slippery slope for celebrity preachers everywhere, it seems. Kenneth Copeland came on like a jerk, laughing uproariously and in a spirit of caricature at the simple election of Joe Biden. Yeah, like Biden represents the devil or something. And you wonder why young people are drifting away from church?
Young people are sympathetic to socialism because they experience such an uphill climb in life. Old people don't show enough understanding of the generational differences, to say the least. The oldsters hold down the fort with the old way and old set of values, rock-ribbed. They aren't just indifferent to the younger progressive crowd, they can be surprisingly mean-spirited. And so now they populate pews in a much more sparse setting, yes in pre-pandemic times. And now? The pandemic has cleaned out pews everywhere.
I suspect churches are becoming more financially strapped than they would acknowledge. They have kept the ship righted up until now. However, get up in the morning and you hear all sorts of panicky news about the pandemic. It hits older people especially hard. Yet this group of reverent souls appears to have gone out of its way to support Donald Trump.
The Federal government should have shown an assertive hand from the start, calling for drastic but relatively short-term sacrifice, yes last spring. We would be in so much better shape now. Can't you all wake up to the simple fact that Republicans don't want people to like government? I mean the kind of government that actually helps people, that shows a Christ-like caring for the disadvantaged and downtrodden?
What horrible choices so many of you have made. I mean, to get taken advantage of by this flim-flam artist, this grifter, this con man. Trump exudes this weird and scary power over so many people. Mostly the mainstream media has not come out and called a spade a spade. People in the media have their jobs to protect. And they are scared like everyone else.
Sometimes I grope in trying to understand the Trump phenomenon, but a parallel occurred to me the other day. Remember the people who rooted for O.J. Simpson? I'm talking about the general nature of this, not the racial. I see similarities between the fascination with O.J. and the fascination with Donald Trump. These people are/were celebrities who we had welcomed into our homes so often through TV. We ought to know that we do not really know these people, not at all. We delude ourselves into thinking we do.
Lawrence O'Donnell has talked about this disconnect on his MSNBC show. He looks into the camera and implores: "You probably think you know me but you don't." He was just addressing the reality of celebrity. Trump was a grade 'A' celebrity before going down the escalator. Some people, especially older white men, are just turned on my him, by the persona.
Barack Obama? Well he seems like "the other." But you don't really know him either. I'll bet that if you met both Obama and Trump, you'd find Obama to be much more sincere and trustworthy, tons more empathy. Well, Trump appears to have no empathy at all. He's concentrating too much on his next golf shot.
Trump has committed so many absurdities that are not called out adequately by the press. Where to start? Remember how he (belatedly) used the Defense Production Act, but for what purpose? To direct meat processing plants to remain running. Obviously that is not the purpose of the Defense Production act. Yet the media gets quotes from the White House in a way to spin the legitimacy of this. Yes, they'll get a program guest or two to rebut. But the effect of all this, like water spilling over rapids, is to suggest there's a foggy sort of justification for much of what Trump does.
 |
| Neil Cavuto |
Evangelicals only slightly withdrew some support for Trump in the election. And you wonder why young people are drifting away from religion?
My podcast for November 16
I talk about the nice weather on this Monday, but by the time this is posted, it has gotten cold and blustery! Darn. But we enjoyed sunshine this morning along Northridge Drive in Morris. I give a plug to the "Ralph Nader Radio Hour" today. This is available on YouTube. What isn't available on YouTube? I invite you to listen to my "Morris Mojo" podcast. Thanks.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment