Retired pastor Kirk Minor remembers a time when working with his church was centered around people, and not rhetoric – and he’s wondering where those days went.
“We’re finding more and more that there are a lot of people out there doing a lot of talking and protesting and bellyaching, but fewer people actually walking the walk,” said Minor, author of Journey Across The Tiber: My Many Rooms. “We have extremists protesting funerals of gay soldiers, pundits decrying the use of abbreviations for the word Christmas and activists campaigning for prayer in public schools. These are all very divisive issues, and have little to do with the good works the Bible wants the faithful to perform.”
Minor bemoans that the Bible has become a book with which to bludgeon people.
“Too many people are using religion as a sword to fight those with whom they disagree, instead of as a plowshare to help their fellow neighbors tend the land and form a community,” said Minor, who retired as a United Methodist Church pastor after 23 years.
The key to reversing the trend, according to Minor, is to use actions more than words, and for people of faith to quietly go about the good works and charity that is at the essence of the Bible’s teachings.
“Shouting louder than the other guys only results in more shouting, which never gets anything done,” he said. “The key is to go about your life, as one of the faithful, and to make sure you actually do at least one thing each day that reflects the faith in which you believe.”
