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make war reference
my pastor said that people are being to cute with their sins. he said we need to make war with our sins and our problems. he told us the story of weeds growing outside the church on the patio that he hated seeing and he was being cute, squirting the weeds with round up. he then said he thought he got it but he came back and he didn't. so he bought massive bottles of round up and dumped it everywhere! he said there's no weeds in a 12 mile radius of the church. what is your take on making war reference? what do you think it means? give some examples if you can, thanks!
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Too many preachers are totally in love with militaristic imagery, which has kind of made religion an ideological extension of the military industrial complex. It also shares a mindset with Muslim thinking (jihad specifically), which I find ironic in today's environment.
Roundup, btw, is banned in Japan. Don't know the specifics, but that is what I have been told by my ex-girlfriend's family, who are farmers there. It seems like your pastor is making an argument for pollution of the environment, which is completely wacked.
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I think it means your pastor likes to exaggerate. (No weeds for 12 miles? Really?)
It’s important to take your faults and mistakes seriously, confront them head on and be serious about addressing them. We should be willing to fight against the parts of ourselves that are not the best of what we can be, and want to achieve.
Changing isn’t easy, so we can’t be ‘cute’ or ‘playful’ about it and expect to change ourselves. Self improvement is a serious thing, and you have to take it seriously or it doesn’t work.
The 'make war' reference and the - honestly a bit environmentally irresponsible behaviour of dumping a bunch of pesticide all over everything - is just story telling that is meant to inspire you to combat your sins seriously and with vigour. Just the way the story of a tortoise in the hare is obviously not literally true, but designed to inspire people to be dedicated and thorough, your pastor’s words weren’t literally true - he was calling you to combat your mistakes and failings with seriousness and vigour, not with half-hearted, fluffy attempts.
EDIT:
I’m not bashing your pastor! It was an effective thing for him to do. I don't mean 'exaggeration' or 'not literally true' as evil or wrong things. He told you a story, a story that was unlikely to be completely true, but had the desired effect of making your consider his meaning seriously. He did his job well. That’s a good thing - but it’s also important to me to point out when someone says things that aren’t meant to be literally true, but are metaphors, or exaggerations, or poetic examples, in order to prove their point.
Recongizing that your pastor was telling you a story, and didn't literally intend for you to draft a declaration of war agianst your sins, is a very important part of understanding his meaning.
Using exagerations and metaphors doesn’t make a story evil or wrong, it’s just an important part of understanding the meaning and purpose of the story. It’s the same sort of thing you should do when you see an advertisement, or read a newspaper. Ask yourself what kind of story they are telling you, why they are telling it to you the way they are, and whether or not it is likely to be objectively true. Put all that togeather, and you'll be able to decide what you should take away from that story.
There is nothing wrong with storytelling. But since you were interested in examining more deeply what was said to you, I felt it was very important to acknowledge when persuasive story telling is taking place, rather than a strict reporting of facts. It is only through recongizing the poetry and exagerations that your pastor was using in his storytelling, that you can find the real world applications of his 'war' reference.
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