PROCESSED FAITH

American cheese is very un-American. Yes you read that correctly, American cheese is about as un-American as you can get. America is the land of opportunity; it’s the land of self starters with original ideas. America has even been called the “great experiment.” What is the experiment? Can you put a whole bunch of people from different races, backgrounds, and beliefs together in one place and have them get along and actually be successful? Although we have had our share of bumps along the road, I think we would have to say that so far the experiment has been producing good results. One thing about America is that it has never been boring; it has never been a copy of something else. That is why American cheese is un-American. If you were to read up on your cheeses you would find that of all the major cheeses that we consume, American cheese is the only one that is processed, some would say it isn’t even a real cheese; it’s made in a factory. It is complete and utter garbage in my opinion. I love cheeseburgers but the cheese has to be something else than American cheese. I personally think the name should be changed because it is so bad it is an insult to our great country. It is unoriginal, boring and bad for your health. American cheese though is just a symptom of a larger problem, and that is processed foods.
When I refer to processed foods here I am talking about how industry takes natural good foods and puts in additives and preservatives to make the product look better and give it a longer shelf life. Processed foods do provide convenience and if you are in the middle of nowhere it does help the food last longer. The problem though is that is destroys the true taste of the food, and it puts chemicals in your body that medical research has shown to be harmful to you. Processed foods also contain a lot of salt and fats to make up for the loss of taste in the pure product, hence the obesity problem in America and the rise of diabetes. The biggest problem though in my opinion is not the health issue; everybody is going to die of something some day whether it is processed food or stepping in front of a bus. No the biggest problem with processed food is that it is boring and unoriginal, two cardinal sins in my book. This boring and unoriginal processed movement has taken over just about everything, from the supermarket to a lot of so called restaurants. Many restaurants today do not make their own food, they just mix together some ingredients they got out of cans at Costco and then heat them up and serve them to you as if they made it. All I can say is boring! My purpose here though is not to take on the processed food market but to talk about another thing that is sometimes processed, and that is our lives.
In particular I am addressing our spiritual lives. The basis of our spiritual lives as Christians is the Word of God and nothing else. The Bible is the Word of God in its pure form without any additives or preservatives or other stuff to make it taste or look better. From the Bible we get God’s grace and love and forgiveness and salvation through the Gospel. We also get all of our doctrine that teaches about who God is and what he has done for us and how he expects us to live in response to that. Doctrine is extremely important but it needs to be doctrine that is drawn from the pure Scriptures. Unfortunately people want to process the Word of God to make it look better to people, to keep people coming back to hear it and they want to add stuff to it thinking it will go down a little easier with people in our world. There is a huge demand for this so there are many out there willing to provide it. The original food, the Bible gets thrown to the side.
What do I mean by this? People have always wanted to modify what Scripture says because they are afraid that it might offend people, so they change the word to fit what sounds good to most people. They take out the things it says about sins that we like or lifestyles that are popular. People also like to add things to the word and make it address issues that it doesn’t like politics or bizarrely enough, what you should eat. The result is a processed faith that doesn’t resemble what the Bible teaches at all and gets in the way of providing the necessary spiritual nourishment that we need. One of the biggest culprits of this movement, although certainly not the only one, has been the modern Christian bookstore which at this time is by and large going out of business thankfully. It has provided books to Christians written by athletes and business people who teach their philosophy and lifestyle instead of what Scripture teaches. It has also provided the jewelry and t-shirts and other stuff that Christians are told that a good believer should wear. They have also been the leading promoters of pre-formatted one size fits all church programs. Just buy our DVD and you don’t have to read the Bible, we will tell you what to think.

The result has been disastrous. Cookie cutter Christians who dress alike, vote alike and quote their favorite authors and teachers more than they quote the Bible. It has also produced churches which have nothing original about them, they are just knocks offs of another popular church in another city. It is the spiritual version of obesity and diabetes. This processed Christianity is killing the church in America. So maybe it’s time to get rid of the all the additives and preservatives and go back to the original source. My family has slowly been making the transition from processed foods to fresh ingredients. As we have made that transition we have been pleasantly surprised to find that the food tastes better, we don’t eat as much and we feel better. Our taste buds have also been revived and we are experiencing new things in natural flavors. We rarely eat at fast food restaurants and have stopped eating at some other restaurants after we discovered that they were just heating things up. It’s time to do the same with our spiritual lives. It is time to go back to the Bible alone. When we do we will find that there is no Christian look, there are no Christian politics, and no Christian food among other things. It is time to stop consuming processed Christianity. It is time to stop doctoring the Bible to make it less offensive or more inviting and just let it speak for itself. When you do you will find that you will be closer to God and you will experience him in ways that you never imagined.