innocent until proven guilty

When I was a teenager there was a poster in the room at church where we met on a Sunday monring. The poster depicted some hapless soul (you and me) in front of a stern looking judge (God?). The caption read something like ‘if you were arrested for being a christian, how much evidence would there be to convict you?’.

I struggle with this on so many levels when I think about it now but at the time it just made me feel guilty that I wasn’t being christian enough. In fact it has probably affected a number of decisions and choices I have made over the years for that reason. The problem was (and is) what constitutes ‘evidence’. For years I had no idea what it meant but thought it was somehow tied up with church and what went on there.

I don’t think that now and I refuse to buy into the guilt that, to me, surrounds so much of my experience of ‘traditional’ christian thinking.

I think I would probably enter a plea of insanity or something, anything with diminished responsibilities.