What’s Going on at the Church
Important Message from the USRC Board of Directors:
Please read these guidelines about Squier Hall and the formation of the USRC Board of Directors, who will be overseeing the groups meeting in Squier.
As part of the guidelines, please use this form if you have any concerns so that they can be addressed.
Rahway’s Best Easter Egg Hunt a Huge Success! Thank you for holding it on our front lawn!
“Weighing Truth and Life”
We’ve probably noticed that someone, somewhere in the ether, notices what we’re interested in on the internet. All of a sudden, unsolicited posts show up that fit the general categories of the things we frequent on YouTube or Instagram. As a Christian, and part of the Church, I have been receiving unsolicited posts from some preachers and churches which have caused me concern. In some parts of the Church, there is a lot of hate speech and anger being preached from the pulpit. What’s even more concerning, is how that anger is being physically and vocally expressed, in God’s name, by members of those churches. Here are some ideas to consider for those of us who are questioning what might be a healthier alternative way to express anger.
“Have you ever met an angry person who didn’t believe they were right to be angry? Me either. Christians tend to justify themselves with the phrase righteous anger, which I’d just as soon jettison, because the truth is that whether you’re conservative or progressive, religious or not, everyone believes their anger is righteous, their cause is just, and their motives are pure.
But if there’s any kind of anger people of faith, morality, and conscience should aspire to it is redemptive anger, focusing on what results from our responses, the fruit of our efforts and activism: Do they bring justice, equity, wholeness? Are more people heard and seen and respected in their wake? Is diversity nurtured or assailed because of them?
I think an underappreciated part of Jesus that tends not to get featured in needlepoints and memes is his anger, his righteous and redemptive pissed-offness; his passionate objections to seeing the powerful preying on the vulnerable, watching the religious pollute the system, witnessing the well-fed living closefisted toward the hungry. One can’t have this passionate response to the world without anger as its initial propellant. It is the spiritually combustible ignition point of our activism.
Yes, it will be labelled angry and hateful by people who benefit from inequity and injustice, and religious people on the opposite side of our convictions will sometimes attempt to shame people into silence in the name of the Jesus they probably would have had a real problem with. The beautiful collective outrage of good people is actually the antidote to hateful religion.” John Pavlovitz
Peace, Pastor Ed
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