The Wonderful Church of Disney

On a recent trip to Orlando with 320 high school music students I spent three out of four days at Disney theme parks. On day 1 we were at Animal Kingdom from the moment it opened until 4:00 when we “park hopped” over to Epcot staying until it closed. The next day we spent 13 hours at the Magic Kingdom. Two days after that we spent the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, again from open until close. I spent much of that time with another chaperon who, like me, was content to see a few attractions but also spend significant amounts of time sitting on a bench watching people and thinking about what the world’s number-one-tourist-destination says about our culture and how similar it is to the Christian church in America.

My Soul Cries Out

 If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!  - Benedict XVI ‏@Pontifex

In his last days as Pope, Benedict XVI sent out this heartfelt message through his Twitter account. I have no doubt that it is a sincere sentiment, expressing the joy that he himself has experienced knowing God’s love. I am also aware that English is not his first language and that sometimes we misspeak when trying to express deeply held emotions. So I acknowledge that the message he intended to give may not have been what was ultimately sent out to the masses.

But this is what was sent out: A message that implies that God only loves Christians. Or, if one admits that God loves all of the creation, it is a message that implies that only Christians can truly experience that love.

Living With a Perfect God

There seem to be many competing images of God in the world today; a loving father, a benevolent master, a strict tyrant, a demanding ideologue, holy perfection and many, many more. Ultimately, our image of God is reflected in our own life. We see it in our expectations, in the way we treat others and in the way we think about ourselves. Changing the way we understand God can change almost everything about life.