Saturday 28 February 2009

Muddy Waters

What the hell happened to Friday? Meh, it came, it was cold but sunny, I had lunch with my friend, then it went.

On this, the last day of February, as I get ready to preach in church about Saint David tomorrow, matters ecclesiastical are pre-occupying my thoughts.

This week, I realised something, How far the so-called Creationism has muddied the waters of Christian thought.

There is a bizarre sect of Christians who believe that everything came into being six or ten thousand years ago, and that evolution is just an illusion.

This is quite different from what many Christians believe, ie that God created the world. Or you could call that moment of creation, the Big Bang, or whatever the current theory is. No difference really. And then evolution follows.

But it seems that many people think that believing that God is the creator means we don't believe in evolution. It seems odd to me that some group of nutters are thought to represent what all Christians, who have largely been responsible for scientific advances, believe.

Another muddy area, which I believe I mentioned before, is that of Godparent. Perhaps I didn't. On a recent episode of 'Being Erica', the eponymous, Jewish hero, thought she was being asked to be Godmother to a friend's child. I wondered how a Jewish woman could promise to bring up the child in the Church. I asked friends from church if this could be, 'no,' they said.
Yet others maintained that anyone, even an atheist could be a Godparent.

Today, as it happened, I came upon my certificate and list of duties as a Godparent to Ellie.
Having renounced Satan, I have also promised to,
Pray regularly for her,
Set her an example of Christian living,
Help her to grow in the Faith of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in which she was baptised,
Give every encouragement to her to follow Christ and to fight against evil,
Help her to look forward to her confirmation.

See, I'm thinking that atheists would have a problem with most of that.

Muddy waters indeed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your religion may well be different from Erica's pregnant friend's. In fact she may have a secular interpretation of the term godparent.

Schneewittchen said...

A 'secular interpretation of the term 'Godparent'' is very amusing. Like a secular interpretation of the terms 'God' and 'Jesus Christ'.

Anonymous said...

I believe, and from my past experience (sigh) that most evangelical Christians (Pentecostal, Baptist, Alliance, Vineyard, etc.) do not believe in evolution and believe in the literal 6 days. There is a theme park somewhere in the U.S. called something like "Jesusland" that shows dinosaurs and people frollicking together. Some evangelicals also don't believe in global warming.
- Karen

Schneewittchen said...

Eek, thank you Karen, that is truly, truly scary.