Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

For those who are new to my site, let me tell you what it is all about. My story with my struggle with legalism is here. I am grateful for God’s grace more and more each day.

But there is more to my story than this. I was very fortunate to be brought up in a Godly home. My father worked with a para church ministry (Youth for Christ/Campus Life) and my mom was a stay at home mom. I received lots of love and spiritual guidance.

When we moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama when I was in elementary school, we joined a local Southern Baptist church. The first church we joined had a split because the Senior Pastor had an affair with a woman in the church. We then joined a very conservative SBC church theologically, but one that was more progressive in it’s methodology. I started growing in my faith but also was exposed to spiritual elitism. My church was full of all of the major para-church ministry directors such as Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade, The Navigators and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There was a sense that our church was better than other churches because we had so many spiritual giants. Many of the University of Alabama football players were members of our church and personal friends of my family.

I was one of the few people in my high school who was living for Jesus. I don’t say that arrogantly-it was the truth. But because of this, I became a spiritual snob. I began looking down on others because of their “sins” while ignoring my arrogance and pride!

One example was when the daughter of our former pastor who had an affair moved back to Tuscaloosa. Her father had just died and I made a comment that he died because of his sin! That ugly response got back to his daughter who was totally innocent of her dad’s sin. I was a complete idiot! I regret making that misguided comment to this day.

Then the way my best friend was treated after he got his girlfriend pregnant began a long journey to overcome the plank in my eye.

I attended a Southern Baptist University, Samford in the 1980’s. I saw so much hypocrisy at Samford, it was disillusioning. I was made to fear the professors because my home church scared me about liberalism. Sure there were some off based professors but there were some good ones too.

I was discipled by Campus Outreach which is a ministry of Briarwood Presbyterian (PCA). How ironic! I attended Shades Mountain Baptist and then moved to Dawson Memorial (my future wife had something to do with that) Campus Outreach would go to to Gatlinburg every Winter and so did YFC. While in Gatlinburg I started hearing about another ministry that went there just to witness to the YFC kids! It really bugged me because they didn’t approve of YFC’s methods. But that is what I grew up in. I wondered why would Christians compete with other Christians.

Maybe that is why I’m so open to other believers. I don’t understand why followers of Jesus would be in competition with each other. I don’t see other followers of Jesus as competition. I see them as co-laborers! It bugs me because I can’t believe how legalistic I used to be. I often point out hypocrisy in my own life, society and in the church. I’m like a recovering smoker or alcoholic…I can’t stand to be around what I was before–actually I still am!

Most of the time the posts are humorous and/or sarcastic. I have a warped sense of humor! This site is not a political site. It is ramblings and confessions of my struggles. It is never intended to be an attack on a person. If I do, then tell me that I’ve fallen off the wagon! I truly want to be uplifting. However, sometimes hypocrisy isn’t funny and it has to be exposed for what it is.

I get e-mails from people every week from all over the world telling me they are also struggling along with me. I am truly humbled that anyone would think I have something of substance to say. That is why I am in the process of writing a book about my struggles.

I hope this gives you an idea of what I intend this site to be. I ask that we we respect other people and when we debate, we do it in a loving, Christlike manner. Thanks for being a part of my life!

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