I'm not on the bus either

Some time ago I watched on TV about Christians in the States building a museum for creation (!) to prove that God has created the world. (as if it can ever be proven!) I like that program, coz the host is a devout Jew, he believes in God, but whenever he disagrees with the view of those "fundamentalist" Christians, he got scolded as if he's Satan...

Today I read this post over at Internet Monk, I'm afraid this is not just something happening in the States, it's also getting more and more prevalent in Hong Kong. And I am weary of this like him...

The excitement is building around here. A good number of adults have been to the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky and they are singing its praises.

...I’m easily distracted from the Gospel, and I don’t want to be. I want to be single-minded about the gospel. Evangelicals these days WANT to be distracted. They are on buses of every kind, and I don’t want to be on any of them.

They are on the culture war bus. I have no hope that Christians can save the culture through politics. All that money could feed the poor, start churches, fund missionaries and mercy ministries. Giving it to ads on TV and Radio in hopes of making America a “Christian” nation is a waste of time.

...I’m not on that bus. Justification is by Jesus, through grace and faith. No one is justified by cultural wars or family values.

I’m not on the creationism bus either. The Bible is the story of redemption, and the point of its account of creation is to tell us who God is and who we are. I’ll give creationists the benefit of the doubt and I’ll agree that secular scientists have a far weaker case than they assume, but I don’t believe we save anyone by creation science. I don’t believe the age of the earth is the test of Biblical orthodoxy. I don’t believe creationists do very good science. I don’t think intelligent design is a trick of the devil.

All these creationism buses seem to have the not-so-subtle subtle message, “Get on or we’re going to run over you.”

I want to be all about the Gospel. It’s my one interest in this business. I truly fear the totalizing tendencies of so many evangelicals who believe anything they do, think, write or sell is a moral obligation for real Christianity. I fear the people who are so easily manipulated by what they hear, read and see that they will mount a mini-crusade against those who differ with them. I fear the increasing assumption that in evangelicalism, there is a group-think bus for every topic from Harry Potter to feeding schedules for your infant.

Suddenly, the Bible isn’t the story of redemption. It’s the instruction manual and complete encyclopedia for every sphere of life and every human activity. Not in telling us to do all we do in the name of Jesus, but in telling us the age of the earth, the dos and don’t of birth control and how to vote in a political environment the Biblical writers never dreamed of.

Mostly, I am weary of Christians- so many of them my brothers and sisters- who can’t give breathing room to a Democrat, theistic evolutionist or advocate of public schooling. These buses are for pilgrimage, and the seats are only for particular kinds of pilgrims. Christ doesn’t require us all to be alike in all these ways. We’ve built this evangelical subculture and made it an ultimatum. Very bad idea, that one.

For me, I just don't think we should force others (who aren't even Christians) to agree with us, in the process making them our enemies even before they ever got to know Jesus.

Sometimes I doubt if those really matter to God, like the world has been created for 5000 year+, all those fossils are not THAT old... The one God I know and believe in is probably weary of all these stupid arguments...