Whew! I’m glad that part of history is over. Now we can all get on with things. Now that James Cameron (of Titanic fame) has discovered the remains of Jesus, I can quit this clergy thing and go out and live it up! Eat, drink and be merry!!
The foundations of our faith have crumbled! We are amongst men most to be pitied!!
Not!
There is a conspiracy in our culture, and I’m only half way kidding. I’m no big fan of ‘Christian kitsch,’ that is, junky little items like bubble gum with fish symbols on them. But besides this one plush church set (above) and Rev. Lovejoy from the Simpsons, there are virtually no church playsets for children. You can go to any toystore and buy toy police officers, teachers, doctors, nurses, business people, garbage workers, fast-food workers, neighborhood people, black families, Asian families, Hispanic families, disabled folks, etc. But there are no toy clergy or religious leaders to be found. Not even in ‘Chirstian’ retail stores. Online I found some blocks that can be fashioned into a Cathedral, but they have no crosses.
I guess we can pretend that no one goes to church and that there are so such thing as priests, pastors, monks and nuns. Maybe then we’ll be officially done with religion in the West. Or maybe I’m just a sensitive priest who also likes my kids to imagine that church actually matters and is real–even in their playtime (the most real time of all!).