Goldfish and the object lesson
Ok, so I need to blog about this, because it weighs on me and I found it disturbing, and I think, maybe it's just me, maybe it isn't. Do I need confirmation for feeling a certain way? Not really, but I wonder if this seems as wierd to anyone else.
I went to church today, we haven't really been going regularly anyway, but it is the church my kids go to for youth group. Seems to me the last time I went I had to blog about it also. Hmmmm.
The sermon was delivered by the youth pastor, and it went something like this....he walks to the podium, and starts to take a drink of water from a cup, stops and says there is something in the water. He pours the water out of the cup intoa pitcher on the table, holding his hand across the top to strain what is inside. He then pours what is in the cup onto the table top, and it is live goldfish. There they are flopping around on the table and onto the floor. He walks away and leaves them there, goes to the podium and begins his talk.
Everyone is pretty much sitting there gaping, no one really knows what to do, this goes on for a while and eventually a couple of the teen age girls goes up and scoop them back into the water pitcher.
At the end of the sermon he says the thing is, when the fish were in the cup, he knew what the problem was, but we didn't, when he dumped them out we all knew what the problem was, and what needed to be done. We simply had to put them back in the water. When we see people who are floundering, we know what they need, we need to overcome our own discomfort and act, tell them about God, do the thing you know needs to be done.
While I certainly understand the object lesson, I am horrified that this guy would be willing to dump a hundred or so goldfish out to prove a point. I also think that in the middle of a church service, it is unfair to pull this stunt, and then point out how long it takes for people to respond, when no one really knew what his plan was. You're sitting there and you're thinking, surely he won't just leave them there, this is a church, why would someone do something so horrible in a church? It feels like a kind of violence, an assault on one, emotionally, to witness. I think it is manipulative to try to make people feel bad about not running up there,w hen we don't know what his plan was, he dumped them out, on purpose, it is part of the lesson, what are we supposed to do? I don't think God tries to make us feel bad in order to make us behave a certain way, nor does he hurt other things to make us behave a certain way. I found this disturbing and upsetting. I wonder, is this the place for me and my kids?
I went to church today, we haven't really been going regularly anyway, but it is the church my kids go to for youth group. Seems to me the last time I went I had to blog about it also. Hmmmm.
The sermon was delivered by the youth pastor, and it went something like this....he walks to the podium, and starts to take a drink of water from a cup, stops and says there is something in the water. He pours the water out of the cup intoa pitcher on the table, holding his hand across the top to strain what is inside. He then pours what is in the cup onto the table top, and it is live goldfish. There they are flopping around on the table and onto the floor. He walks away and leaves them there, goes to the podium and begins his talk.
Everyone is pretty much sitting there gaping, no one really knows what to do, this goes on for a while and eventually a couple of the teen age girls goes up and scoop them back into the water pitcher.
At the end of the sermon he says the thing is, when the fish were in the cup, he knew what the problem was, but we didn't, when he dumped them out we all knew what the problem was, and what needed to be done. We simply had to put them back in the water. When we see people who are floundering, we know what they need, we need to overcome our own discomfort and act, tell them about God, do the thing you know needs to be done.
While I certainly understand the object lesson, I am horrified that this guy would be willing to dump a hundred or so goldfish out to prove a point. I also think that in the middle of a church service, it is unfair to pull this stunt, and then point out how long it takes for people to respond, when no one really knew what his plan was. You're sitting there and you're thinking, surely he won't just leave them there, this is a church, why would someone do something so horrible in a church? It feels like a kind of violence, an assault on one, emotionally, to witness. I think it is manipulative to try to make people feel bad about not running up there,w hen we don't know what his plan was, he dumped them out, on purpose, it is part of the lesson, what are we supposed to do? I don't think God tries to make us feel bad in order to make us behave a certain way, nor does he hurt other things to make us behave a certain way. I found this disturbing and upsetting. I wonder, is this the place for me and my kids?
posted by madmom at 9:19 PM
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