Is the church boring?

Had a very interesting conversation last night around this topic. The basic idea was that the church has "its butt cheeks too tightly clenched." In other words, the impulse toward piety has absorbed all of our attention and made us people who take ourselves far too seriously. I read an interesting measure of this from Dave Tomlinson - he suggests that evidence of this is how Christians are unable to laugh about sex. He talks about how C.S. Lewis saw the ability to laugh about sex as a wonderful example of humanity because what is MORE human than sex and what is less like the airbrushed images we all pretend are real than sex! I think i agree. What a wonderfully human thing.

There is a lack of freedom that pervades Christians because we are still so worried that our behavior will inhibit our acceptability - so we tow the line i.e., we live under the burden of the "have to." Yet when we really take grace seriously we realize that our acceptance is radically accomplished and freedom alone remains! This will always lead to a veering into imbalance for a season but then, if dealt with maturely, ages into a wonderful attitude known as "response." With this the freedom remains but a choice is made out of a positive place rather than a defensive place. I call it the "get to." This changes everything. That defensive, worried, unsure posture with which we appraoched the world is gone and we are now known, accepted and unburdened by the stifling "have to's." This is where we alone, in the pantheon of world religion, have the ability to experience what it means to be WINSOME. What a tragedy that we give that away by being just another bunch of religious people.