Jesus tore down religious walls and upon his death, the Bible records that the vail was rent and over the last two thousnd years, religious leaders have been as busy as they can patching that vail and building stronger and more fortified walls to keep out the gentiles, the lost, unsaved, and evil elements of society. The effect has done nothing but enclose the religious prejudices in four walls that we"ve come to know as "Churches".
Within those various walls were the doctrinal certitudes, theological rigidities, and dogmatic delusions that somehow needed to be protected. And it wasn"t just from the heathens that the walls were built, but from the various other misguided cults. A cult is any one or institution that doesn"t agree with you.
>Seventh-Day adventists built walls to to keep out the Jehovah"s Witnesses.
>Baptists built walls to keep out Catholics
>Methodists built walls to keep out Presbyterians
>Christian Scientists built walls to keep out Mormons
>Ad nauseum!
I"m afraid we reason not!
And thus the statement that says Sunday at 11:00am is the most "segregated hour of the week" has more to do with our dogmatic divisions that it does with the color of the skin of the practicioners. Jesus died that we might be ONE and we live today that we might be MANY!
Religious egotism gone wild!
Literalists fight non-literalists, fundamentalists battle modernists, and legalists fight non-legalists. And meanwhile, the Social Gospel goes unheeded, and the Liberation Gospel remains silent and hardly heard. I still believe that one day, we will come to our senses and quit obsessing over what Jesus never even mentioned or referred to. And if in that one day we who call ourselves Christians can somehow become more tolerant and loving, then maybe there"s a chance that we can begin work dismantling the walls beween Christians and the hundreds of other religions around this globe.
You think maybe? :-)