Lazy, Boring, Bland, and Dull.

So I’m at the gym, riding the stationary bike cause my knees are completely shot and it’s the only way I’m gonna get some cardio exercise, and this televangelist/ healer/almost certainly gonna rot in hell, dude is on the TV asking for donations to support his scam/ministry. The offer is amazing, send money and you will receive by return mail some sort of holy fluid (I’m guessing tap water) in a…..wait for it……re-purposed ketchup packet like you find at the convenience store when you’re buying a hot dog on the run.

Now I tell you this not just because it’s wrong on so many levels. I tell you this because yesterday I came across an article by a Pastor Lillian Daniel in the Huffington Post, written a year and a half ago and recently expanded into a book, in which she labeled those who have fled the church and begun calling themselves Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR’s), lazy, boring, bland, and dull.

Apparently she’s had too much holy fluid.

The “Nones” are fleeing the church in record numbers, and while like some of those in the pews, there are probably a few boring, lazy folks in that bunch, what if a lot of them have seen the same religious scam artist I watched this morning? What if they or someone they know has been the victim of sex abuse by a pastor or priest? Or maybe they’re disgusted by the multi-million dollar palaces going up across the country cleverly disguised as sanctuaries while the communities they’re built in suffer from high unemployment and hunger?

If we can just label those fleeing the church as lazy neer-do-wells we never have to look in the mirror, never need to actually listen to the SBNR’s, or ask them why they are so disgusted with religious folks. More importantly, we can just go smugly along and never have to contemplate changing. Much like the cop at the crime scene we can just say “Move along folks, nothing to see here.”