Maybe you’ve noticed.  Jesus has a bit of a major image problem.

Yep, if Jesus’ public relations committee were working for anyone else, they’d have been fired long ago.  Anyone else with such a bad rep would disappear.  The campaign would be over, the bus tour cancelled, the public appearances would stop…except for maybe Sarah Palin.

And we assume that it is this image problem that is leading to Christianity’s slide in influence.  If only we could get our act together and show the people the real Jesus, then people would come back to us.

But maybe Jesus’ PR problem isn’t as simple as we think.

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We live in a cynical age.

You’ve probably noticed it.  I don’t know how you could avoid it.  It’s everywhere.

It’s in every person who feels jaded by life, by the church or by their jobs.

It’s in every person who’s lost faith in people, in “the system” or in God.

It’s in every one of the myriad of spoof movies that are spewn upon audiences each year.

It’s in every hipster whose wardrobe is made up of the most outdated, mismatched items in the thrift store.

I’ve got plenty of cynicism in me.  But I’m working on it.  Because I think it might be killing my generation.

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It seems like everyone wants to put labels on everyone.  You know, put everyone in a box.

When I tell a new acquaintance that I’m a pastor, I instantly see a thousand calculations pass through their minds about the kind of person I must be, the things I must like to do, the politics I must have, the thoughts I must think.  Almost inevitably, the very first question out of their mouths is what kind of church do I pastor?  By that, they mean to ask if I’m Presbyterian or Baptist or something like that.  Another box with another label.  Even calling myself “non-denominational” puts me in a box, a box marked “miscellaneous.”

Maybe that’s a good label for me: miscellaneous.  Maybe I am just a miscellaneous person.

Let’s check all the other boxes and see if I fit in with them…

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Two-thousand years ago, Jesus praised poor people and condemned rich people.  He told parables of rich men who wound up in hell, and told a wealthy man to sell everything he had.

Today, unemployment is chronically high.  The stock market is unstable.  Thousands of homes are foreclosed, banks shut, and billions of dollars lost.  More people than ever now live in poverty.  Most of us became a little bit poorer because of the recession.  Some of us became much poorer.

But on the upside, can we look at Jesus’ words to the wealthy and poor, and think that maybe we’ve become a little bit holier because of our decreased wealth?  Now that we are a bit poorer, a tad more downtrodden, maybe we are more righteous in the eyes of God…

That would be great for me.  The poorer you’ve become, the better off you are with God.

Too bad it doesn’t work that way.  In fact, many of us today may be worse off with money, and with God.

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The oddest thing happened to me last Monday.

I don’t count myself among the “blame America” crowd.  You know, the people who think that America is evil, has no conscience or soul, and pretty much everything it does is wrong.  See also: “the Great Satan.”  This group is made up mostly of people who I like to haphazardly label “flaming liberals.”

I also don’t consider myself a supporter of Ron Paul, because I can’t decide if the Ralph Nadar of conservatism is crazy like a fox, or crazy like Dennis Kucinich.  Literally everything he does could go either way, right down to him wearing a blue plaid tie to last week’s Republican debate, a strictly red tie affair.  I like to carelessly paint all of Ron Paul’s supporters as “right wing sociopaths.”

But as I watched the debate last week, Ron Paul said one thing, just one thing that actually got him booed, and I haven’t been able to get out of my head since then, because it illustrates a growing compulsion in our culture.

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It’s that time of year again.  Football season is upon us.

Tens of thousands of fans attended season openers in stadiums and millions watched from home.

Pro football is practically the only sport I enjoy watching at all.  But it’s a love-hate relationship, with more hate and less love lately.  I’ve never attended a game in person.  I don’t play fantasy football.  And I don’t blog about football.  In fact, if you blog about football, I guarantee I will not read your blog.

Today’s post is about football.  But the less you like football, the more you’ll probably like what I have to say.

Because I’ve realized something this football pre-season more than ever.

Football hasn’t just passed up baseball as our national pasttime.  It’s become our national religion.

Don’t believe me?

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