Since it is the beginning of the year and everybody seems to be doing a list, I thought I would jump in with one of my own. Please understand, I am writing this from my point of view as a follower of Jesus. If that is not the path you follow I pray after you have finished reading that some of the arrogant sting of the so-called Christian faith will have been removed. The Creator of this universe is far bigger then any self-described human-made faith or set of beliefs.
Now it has been said my writing style is not the warm comforting and cuddly stuff but rather more “in your face” and "take it or leave it style." This list will be no different.
For far too long the institutional church has taken the position it owns the faith and simply rent it to us. Those within the institutional church give us traditions, pronouncements, laws and creeds and if we do not live by them — since we are nothing more then renters — we get evicted, or as the Roman Catholic Church has done for centuries, ex-communicated.