For most of my life, I’ve not had all that high an opinion of organized religion. Part of it is that I’m forever questioning everything, religion included, and part of it is that I don’t always see those who are supposed to represent a particular religion behaving in any kind of proper or generous or even law-abiding way. Quite the opposite seems to be true, at least for those “preachers,” and I use the term loosely, and please notice that I didn’t call them “ministers” because they’re not, who are in the public eye.

Nobody is perfect, of course, but it does seem that certain segments of our society are, and rightly so, held to a higher standard. Maybe I’m just still that naive, but people who claim to follow the tenets of just about any religion, yet who lie and cheat and steal and covet and have unashamed monkey sex with their neighbor’s wife or husband or son or daughter or pet potbellied pig, are not exactly what most people would call any kind of mentor or even a person decent enough to tell anybody else what to do about, well, anything. Anything. Except maybe which parishioners will put out and where to buy some good grass.

Life is full of choices, and while “preachers” are certainly allowed to make mistakes, just like the rest of us, it seems to me that the kind of mistakes mentioned above go beyond the limits of the old “everyone is human” motto. “Preachers” do that stuff. “Ministers” are tempted but have what it takes to resist.

I can’t help but believe that those who carry the torch had better walk carefully. Otherwise, the people who are following the person who is carrying the torch are going to be disillusioned to the point that they will stop going to church and find humor each and every time some top-lofty “do as I say and not as I do” authority figure falls from grace.

Perfection is a done deal. Perfection is carved in stone, and none of us are carved in stone nor do the smart ones wish to be. None of us aspires to be perfect because we know it’s impossible. But knowing we are all imperfect does not give anyone any kind of leeway to willingly choose to be immoral. The way we all deal with the choices life gives us will affect not only ourselves but also those who look to us for comfort and advice.

I for one could not take seriously any kind of advice from a “preacher” who commits adultery, or who lays any kind of inappropriate hand on a person of any age. And any adult who molests a child is scum, and I really don’t care how many letters of the alphabet accompanied his/her name in the school records, or what kind of childhood the molester had. Choices, choices, choices.

People who claim to be religious, yet cloister themselves with ‘their own kind’ within the confines of the church, are also on my poop list. Don’t tell them; they’d be devastated, I’m sure.

However, I will have to say, that if “preachers” were also “ministers,” and if they were all like Pastor Jeff, even someone like me who believes in God but who has seen too much to believe in many people these days, particularly anyone who claims to be a servant of God, might change their mind. And if you had any idea what a hard sell I can be on this topic, you’d click on over to his website right now and see what he’s talking about that makes me talk about maybe. . . . believing some of those guys are actually all right.

Jeff helps me understand the difference between forgiving and condoning, and he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. That’s because a great part of his ministry is done by his own example, not necessarily his words. Although his words help, too.

Temptation is one thing; acting on it is quite another.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea. I just read Jeff’s post today and started thinking, and you know how that is: once you start to think, it’s hard to stop.

By that same token, of course, once you stop to think, don’t forget to start again.

Thank you, dear Jeffie. You have no idea what a breath of fresh air you are to someone who believes in God, but who doesn’t put much faith in His representatives.

(I still love to watch Godstuff, though. I wish I could believe they were all like Jeff, but I can’t. Not yet, anyway. Sowwy.)

(And I will always think that the Landover Baptist website is the greatest and most hilarious parody on the internet today.)

(Who can tell me where the title of this post came from? Bonus points, and my total admiration, if you know.)