Last night a Christian visited our north Austin faith community. This is a weekly gathering of mostly non-believers to share a meal, read from the gospel of Mark, and interactively discuss the life of Jesus.

Out of the two comments the Christian made during our discussion on a story from Jesus' life he managed to bash Jews and criticize Roman Catholics. The discussion leader asked everyone: "If you were to follow Jesus, how would this passage effect what you do this week?" Instead of sharing how this passage effected him, the Christian managed to talk about how screwed up the Jews were, "They just totally missed it." 

"And sometimes I miss it too," I replied. I know it was a subtle rebuke to his jacked up pride, but I had to say it. I asked him, "Tim, how does this passage impact you personally?"

A eternity of silence followed and he finally said matter-of-factly, "I don't know." Oh the irony of a community where non-Christians willingly share how Jesus' life is convicting their thoughts while a Christian looks at the same passage yet only finds opportunities to talk down other religious groups.

Later that night I was in a conversation with "Dan," a non-Christian, about baptism, when "Tim" the Christian walked up and said, "After I got baptized every time someone said a cuss word, my whole body flinched like someone poked me with an electric cow prod." I wondered how that made the non-Christian feel...maybe something close to a first-century leper? Would Tim flinch every time he made an arrogant statement, cut somebody off, or indulged in gluttony? Maybe some people would start cussing all the more around Tim, just to watch him flinch. Get him dancing...