Religious Reindeer Games

Rudolph was excluded from the reindeer games, so the story goes. He was strange ... different ... not like the other reindeer. A red, shiny nose just wasn't normal. It made the others uncomfortable.

Seems as though reindeer are a lot like us humans, at least in this children's story.

The human ego is amazingly adept at playing games, especially games based on comparisons. Often these games are dressed in religious garb. One such reindeer game is one I call the chicken pox game.

Chicken pox, as you know, is a highly contagious virus that causes an itchy rash, fluid filled blisters that crust over with time, fever, and an achy body. Before the development of a chicken pox vaccine, most people contracted chicken pox during childhood. I remember having chicken pox as a child and being confined to a separate bedroom, isolated from my siblings.

The religious game of chicken pox is a game of comparing the severity of people's cases. (Most of our religious games involve comparisons. The ego enjoys the sense of being "better than" someone else.) Cases of chicken pox are ranked by severity. Those cases involving the most and largest blisters are considered worse than the milder cases. Those people with the most severe cases are looked down on and excluded by those with milder cases.

This game, common among church people, is based on an overlooked (or ignored) reality. Any case of chicken pox - whether severe or mild - is caused by the same virus. Those with a mild case have the same virus as those with a severe case. The rash and blisters are symptoms of the virus in the system.

Stating the obvious: I am using chicken pox as a metaphor for sins. Those behaviors we refer to as "sins" are a violation of some standard of moral behavior. We fail to measure up.

Religious people have historically ranked sins, judging some as worse than others. (Consider our phrase "a little white lie", i.e., one that is not quite as bad as a blatant lie.) The worse sins receive the greatest judgment, meted out in condemnation, guilt, shame, and rejection. Sexually related sins are generally ranked among the greatest sins. Before divorce became so common place, it was treated as a kind of unforgivable sin in church circles. Even today, divorce is viewed in some churches as a disqualification for leadership. Alcoholism and other addictions commonly receive condemnation along with any kind of imprisonment for violating the law. Then there are those behaviors identified in the Ten Commandments: killing, stealing, adultery, false witness (not speaking the truth), coveting.

The problem with this ranking system is that it ignores a theological reality. All of these behaviors are symptoms (sins) of a deeper problem or virus (Sin). And we all have the virus! We all live out of our default, what's-in-it-for-me, self-serving nature that looks out for 'ole #1. We fail to live God's ways of self-giving love for which we were created.

Jesus refused to play the religious game of ranking sins. He regularly ate with and spent time with those who were viewed as "sinners" by religious people. He repeatedly challenged the judgmental spirit of the religious people (see Luke 5:29-32; 6:6-11; 7:36-49; 15:1-3; 19:1-10). He taught his followers to avoid the ego-feeding game of chicken pox when he exhorted them to not judge. Jesus called for self-awareness that recognizes the beam in one's own eye (Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37, 41-42). (A judgmental spirit is always tied to a lack of self-awareness and self-honesty.) Jesus understood the difference between Sin and sins, disease or virus and symptoms. He taught his disciples that every expression of moral failure arose out of what was in the heart (Mark 7:21-23).

Refusing to play the game of chicken pox, Jesus lived out of grace. He forgave freely and accepted unconditionally. He treated each person with dignity and worth as a beloved child of God. It seems to me that the experience of such grace and forgiveness is what moves us beyond this silly religious reindeer game. After all, recognizing the beam in one's own eye does not leave much room for the ego.

Today, the practice of homosexuality has risen to the top of many people's/churches' list of sins. It lies at the heart of the controversy in The UMC today. It seems to me to be the latest, but certainly not the last, version of the game of chicken pox.

Do you think we will ever get tired of playing this religious reindeer game?