Barry’s comments about southern Baptist hypocrisy reminds me an interesting story about the Southern Cross University, a conservative Christian university in Delosa. While this story doesn’t concern Baptists, per se, but another denomination known for its conservative membership.

Delosa doesn’t have an unofficial official religion like Deseret does, but charismatic conservative denominations run rampant throughout the south and Delosa is no different. One of the peculiarities of southern-style religion is how often it can break down into one-upsman-ship to faith amplification.

“I love Jesus so much!”

“But I love Him more!”

“No way. I totally love Jesus more! I’ve been Saved like six times!”

Coming from a more liturgical background, I’m not as impressed by it all as they seem to be. But to each their own. It’s only when it becomes moral, rather than religious, posturing that I start getting annoyed. While I hate to sound like a relativist, morality can be a somewhat sketchy thing, everyone is a sinner in someone’s eyes, one of the points of the Bible is accepting this fact and moving on, and even those that do walk the straight and narrow are guilty of excessive pride when they can’t shut up about it, which is a sin all its own.

At lot of this attitude is exemplified by the SCU. My best friend went there for seven years or so. He went in a Jesus-loving Christian and came out an annoyed atheist. I visited him regularly up there and got a good feel for Cross and Gilead, the town that houses it.

-{Southern Crosshairs}-