I HAD MY DREAM

                   I HAD MY DREAM

    My message is a play on words used by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his moving
speech, "I Have A Dream", delivered Aug. 28, 1963. It was the highlight of the American
civil rights movement. In a nation where people are continually arguing about personal
freedoms, it is fitting the most well known speeches are King's "Dream" and President
Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address". It has been 50 years since King proclaimed
his dream, and it has taken me that long to understand his feelings about freedom and
my feelings about the Christian church. King cared for his people, and I care for the
Christian church. Kings people were American citizens, but second class citizens at
best. American Christians are also American citizens, but many are making a mockery
of Christian principles and the church. While more people are now believers, many are
choosing to be spiritual members rather than denominational members. My numbers
are referenced from Time's Almanac and my personal experience.

    Years ago, I had my dream. I didn't realize I would face many of the same problems
King faced, although I soon discovered the church and society leadership are very much
alike. King didn't have the opportunity to see how his dream would play out, and I believe
we both would be disappointed unless the rapture becomes reality. I'm not going to quote
the usual amount of scripture in this message, but I will begin by going to the little-read
Book of Hosea, which has only 14 chapters. Some readers refer to it as the book where
God's prophet is commanded to marry a whore and take her back after she continues
to be unfaithful.  The book deals with people who stray from God's ways and His warnings
to repent, but that is the secondary reason. See if you can determine the primary reason
using unfulfilled dreams as a clue. I will explain in the latter part of the message.

    After many years as a preacher/minister, my outlook is unhappily negative. Before
I answered the call to serve, I had my first eye-opening experience in a denominational
church university. In our first test of a bible course, the instructor left the room. I was
shocked and horrified when the students began exchanging answers. Cheating in a
bible test in a religious school? Yep. I didn't cheat, scored in the 90s, but wound up
in the bottom half of the marking curve. Welcome to a church based university. At the
end of the year I transferred out of there.

     I lived in a rural community, and most of the people were very conservative. When
they learned I was studying to become a minister, they always asked what college I would
be attending. Most accepted that as okay, although some weren't certain it was conservative
enough. The next real shocker, however, came at the hands of other ministers. I expected
to join a group of dedicated, spiritual church leaders with the same goal I had--to win souls
for Christ. Wrong again. As a secular man told me, "There's never enough." The other
ministers had the same attitude. It was competition to secure more and bigger congregations
and to increase the offerings and pledges.

    The first senior pastor I worked with was a pretty persuasive man. He talked the
congregation into deeding the church building to him. It was to be his retirement nest
egg. He also had a problem finding any of the offering for me. His treatment of scripture
left much to be desired. Certain parts of various bible books were not preached because
he didn't understand them and wanted no part of trying to understand them.

    My goal, similar to King's, was to improve the physical and spiritual lives of people through
preaching, teaching, helping the poor, widows and children, as well as promoting the
brotherhood of men. Next I found that many pastors simply gave congregations what they
wanted, both in religion and society. They mostly quietly promoted ultra conservative politics.
Some even ran for public office. When elected, however, they did little to stem the growing
discrimination against Christianity.

    As a newly ordained minister, I had often wondered why so many people I discussed
religion with disdained attending church. Most had gone to church earlier in their lives,
but now wanted no part of it. I found the organized church was mostly a mess that had
strayed far from Christ's principles. Bigger was better, and television enabled preachers
to establish church empires, complete with their own colleges. Apostasy began to take
over, and people did not bother to check references or quotes from these leaders. Some
churches found that a variety of social or fun activities brought people in. No matter
that teaching the Word was not much a part of things. People needed to have a good
time and feel good about themselves.

    Today, Christians and Muslims are worshiping together even though Muslims do not
recognize Christ as Savior. A branch of the Lutherans has rewritten the bible. Never mind
that Rev. 22:18, 19 warns us not to change anything in scripture. There are new cults
springing up everywhere, mostly making women second class citizens. It seems every
journeyman reader of the bible fancies himself a Christian leader and pastor of his "new"
church. Other pastors pointed to many of the large megaministries, especially on
television, and talked about growing these types of followings. One big name minister
who has made a mint of money through sales of his book, now has a huge ministry
and supports the meld of Islam with Christianity. I talked with ministers of the "name
and claim" Pentecostal ministries, and went to scripture to see how that worked.

    In researching the lives of the Apostles, the early church builders, the missionaries,
and countless others, including the pre-Christ prophets, I found most suffered miserable
lives and claimed no rewards on earth. In fact, if you study scripture in the New Testament,
you are told clearly your heavenly rewards come not on earth, but in heaven. When I
discussed my findings with these "successful" pastors, they brushed this information
aside. The adage "you get more flies with honey than vinegar" was applied. People will
not want to commit to Christ or come to your church or ministry if there is the probability
they may have to undergo unpleasant things, I was warned. Who wants to invite bad
experiences?

    When I showed politicians and church leaders that the Parable of Talents (Matt. 25:
14-30) taught us the rich man had gotten his money by cheating (verses 24 and 26),
and this by the rich man's own confession, they chose to ignore me. Their explanation
was verse 29 that says to those who have, more will be given. I got the brushoff when
I discussed the explanation of Luke 19:11-27, the Parable of the Minas. They said it
was a repeat of Matt. 25. It was not, because money here was given to buy loyalty
of followers who were rewarded not with actual cash, but the control of municipalities
which, of course, represented money and influence. Here again, in verse 22, the
nobleman admitted he cheated to gain money and power.

    I know that many readers of this message will look up these references in scripture,
hoping I am wrong.  These passages throw cold water on the flames of making money,
which, after all, is the building block of the carnal world. So much of what I experienced
was Scripturally wrong, but trying to correct it was like rowing upstream. It was not what
the pastors or people wanted.

    Meanwhile, the power and influence of money and lack of human decency began to
grow in the mid 1850s, and the result is tearing America apart today. For plantation and
businessmen in the South to feed their greed, it was necessary to have slavery. Although
conservatives proudly talk about freedom, they did not free their slaves with adoption of
the Constitution. Slaves weren't freed until 1863, 74 years after adoption of the U.S.
Constitution. At the time of the Civil War, politics in the South was dominated by the
Southern Democrats. In the 1950s, the States' Rights" issue again arose, and many
of the Democrats in the South became "Blue Dogs", or converted to Republicans. Quite
simply, States' Rights was the issue of slavery. Our founding fathers did not object to
slavery, and family fortunes were built on the backs of slaves.

    This is politics, you scream, and you are correct. Politics and religion go hand in
hand, as you saw in the recent re-election of a black man to the presidency. We need
to go back to the 1850s now to see how much of our church world began to lose its
way. Lincoln was a Whig and joined the Republican party soon after it was formed.
He was considered a Liberal by church denomination, and he was not liked by the
Republican party. By skillful campaign planning he won the party nomination and
election. He wanted to free the slaves, and when he ran for re-election, he was
actually considered a Unionist, although records usually show him a Republican.

    The Christian Southerners who controlled those states right from the founding of
our nation, were supporters of slave ownership, and passed it off as states' sovereignty.
Their Christian walk was not according to Christ's teaching. I lived and worked in the
deep south in the 1950s, so I know exactly how our "free" society worked. Blacks were
second class citizens and looked down upon. I was relatively young then and not at all
involved in the civil rights movement. In fact, I was annoyed at the occasional
inconvenience of protests. However, I did not share the separation practiced by the
southern whites.

    Lincoln and the slave issue in the mid 1800s caused the Republican party to split
into a conservative and splinter group known as the "Radicals". Today they are known
as the Ultra Conservatives or Right Wing Radicals. This has grown to compose a
group of people who are obsessed with wanting certain outcomes of situations with
absolutely no compromise or change. We recently had a perfect example of this type
of "reasoning" by a complaint against the rendition of our national anthem prior to
the Super Bowl. A critic complained that the anthem belongs to America and it should
be sung in the traditional arrangement. That means it should be sung as the critic
wants it sung. The rendition was overwhelmingly approved by listeners, who comprise
the majority. This is constitutional. It also shows that the Radicals are indeed Radicals.

    It wouldn't be so bad if the Radicals used research and reasoning before obstructing
the workings of a republic or democracy. They do neither, and many are part of church
congregations. Unfortunately many pastors are part of this group. Many of the group
appear to be hated filled. One pastor screamed to his congregation that parents should
whack the limp wrists of a son so he wouldn't become a homosexual. Another shouted
we should pen gay people in an electric fence. Another said that eventually gays would
burn Christians at the stake. Mummified fetuses would be stored in the bodies of women
who took birth control pills. The pastor of the Westboro Baptist church and some of his
congregation demonstrate at the funerals of our soldiers. This is to protest America's
gay sin. That the soldiers were "straight" doesn't matter.

    We have gone from obstinate disagreement on the part of these Radicals to the
actual promotion of hatred. King saw this happening over 50 years ago, and had the
guts to stand up for and die for the cause. Here is what King had to say about love
and hatred. "Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love
harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it." I see bare hatred in many of the
policies supported by the Christian churches, and the pastors go right along with it.
Thinking and reasoning people don't, whether they are Christians, or of any other
faith or no faith. At times I am ashamed and embarrassed to be called a Christian,
and especially a preacher.

    The Radicals' attack on women ranks right up there with the Arab and other third
world practices. Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, and
incidents in domestic violence has fallen by over 50% since then. The term of the
Act has run out, and the Republicans in the House of Representatives, are refusing
to reinstate it. This is not under the leadership of the House Majority leader, a
Republican, but a Tea Party committee chairman. During the recent Republican
pre-convention presidential debate, most candidates showed an almost complete
lack of understanding or knowledge of biblical scripture. They quoted the bible and
talked about their faith and connection with God, Himself. Their goal, of course,
was to get the votes of churched people. Thanks to the lack of challenges by church
pastors and leaders, these snake oil wannabes did get a lot of votes from church
members who never questioned some of the most bazaar statements I ever heard.

    Candidates said if they had to choose between their wife and mother of their
children living or a fetus being aborted to protect the health and life of the mother,
there would be no abortion. They said they wanted women who claimed a miscarriage
to be required to undergo a physical examination to be certain it wasn't an abortion.
Those claiming to be supporters of the Constitution apparently never bothered to
read the Declaration of Independence which states "that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Apparently the slave owners
and Radicals couldn't understand the word "Creator" means God. Of course, then,
how could they possibly understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The symbol for
Christians is the cross, not the dollar sign.

     After the recent presidential election, nearly every church person and pastor I
met lamented the nation was going down because Obama was elected. I asked
them if they thought God lost control. Isn't this His universe? Doesn't scripture
tell us God appoints all world and national leaders, whether good or bad? That's
the exact message in all my bibles--I have many translations in more than one
language. Is God's master plan for the universe--as given to us in the bible--now
not going to be fulfilled? Should we forget the prophets, the Apostles and Christ's
teaching? Have the majority of voters not cast their ballots as God directed, whether
they are Christians or of any other faith or no faith at all? Should our church people
and pastors take over running the universe? Don't the Liberals and Socialists have
any faith in Christianity or the organized church, or--could it be--they believe God
controls the universe? The election has been over for three months, and I still see
very nasty name calling on the internet, radio, tv and publications berating those
who didn't vote for Romney. And church people are among the perpetrators.

    Why don't more church people and pastors know and understand the teaching of
Christ? He did not teach about capitalism and financial profit making. His message
was social justice, exactly as quoted in our Declaration of Independence. He taught
goodness, the social net, health, healing, food, care, giving, respect, honor, humility,
loyalty, justice and truth. If you read the four Gospels, you can't possibly be a Christain
and not follow His teaching. 

    Now, I pray you understand King's deep feeling that motivated him to do something
for his people. That was the feeling I promised to explain to you when I began this
message. Hosea was directed by God to take a wife and take her back each time
she proved unfaithful. Hosea had to feel as God did when the Jews continued to
fall away time after time. He showed mercy and sent warning after warning trying
to wake them up. The Jews were His people. It hurts terribly when your own family
chooses to stray and you know judgment must come.

    Now you also should know that is the way I feel about Christianity when I see the
pastors and church leaders continue to disregard Christ's teaching and place the
emphasis on other things. These other things are all man's goals and ideas, and
all too frequently are in direct opposition to scripture. As an ordained Christian
minister, I am ashamed of the conduct by people and pastors who claim to be
Christians. They are widening the gap between committed followers of Jesus
Christ and those I can only label as pretenders. The example we give will not
build our faith, and has already brought shame upon those of us who continue
to believe and try to carry out the great commission He gave us in Mark 16:15-16.
I found it to be prophetic when I served in the military, because my unit patch
was a silver sword with the words, "Follow Me" (John 21:19b). I pray these
"religious" people return to the Word of God.

Rev. Walbear

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