“Tough Sermon”
Illustration by Stefan Gasic
My wife’s family’s religious background is something called the Apostolic Christian Church. Almost 100 years ago, there was a schism in the church over whether mustaches were allowed. No, I’m not joking. Here’s what wikipedia says:
In the early 1900s a disagreement arose over the practice of some European customs (namely, the wearing of a mustache) and the church split into two bodies (from 1901 to 1911)
Pretty wild? Not if you look at the recent history of protestantism. There are several varieties of protestant christianity in America alone (some estimate as “few” as 200 and others as many as thousands).
My wife and I attended an evangelical christian church for many years. We saw people leaving over the most ridiculous things. (I see this happening in Catholicism too, by the way, but it’s far less drastic.) “The pastor is pushing too hard on this message,” or “The pastor isn’t pushing hard enough.” “He’s too political,” or “He’s not political enough.” “I don’t like women pastors,” or “I think we need a woman pastor.”
The people with differing opinions leave their church to either find a new one or—and here’s what blows my mind—start a new one. This is wild to me! Especially when it’s over things that have almost nothing to do with Jesus (e.g. whether mustaches are allowed).
The comic above isn’t so much a commentary on religious beliefs and behaviors. It’s really addressing the fact that we are don’t like moral discomfort. We’d rather escape when confronted between what’s right and what feels good.
FYI, this comic is one of several from my book Mental Prisons.
