Chateau Lloyd

Driving around today, I saw one of the multi-color display signs in front of a church display the following message:  "God loves you just as you are.  #goodenough"

I'm sure the people who came up with it thought it was reassuring, but to me it undermines the fundamental reason for going to church at all.

After all, if God loves me "just as I am," why do I need to change anything?  And what else can the hashtag of "good enough" mean other than that I need no further salvation?

In one sense, this is a larger-scale version of yard sign Calvinism, insofar as the church is saying they personally think you're okay.  The other mean churches may thing you need reform, but they don't.

If you attend that particular church, you'll feel welcome and no one will ask you to change.

Which is a pretty remarkable position for someone claiming to be Christian to take.

But in another sense, it attacks the very foundations of Christian belief.  If "God loves you just the way you are," where does original sin come in?  Why do we need a savior?

Why should I get up on Sunday?

The evidence of human depravity is all around us, and increasingly hard to ignore.  The prosperity of the Baby Boom era led many people think that a sense guilt and repentance were a losing proposition and that they needed to be downplayed if not dropped altogether.

The truth is that in my lifetime at least, they've never been more needed.