The sermon on terror and children's war
I’m breaking away from my normal stance of no religion and/or politics and introducing a new segment I call: Know Religion and/or Politics.
I think it’s safe to say there’s no end to Children’s Sermons or the idiot’s War on Terror anytime soon, so let’s take a look at how both can be done with the utmost of efficiency and success in six simple steps.
#1 Know how to get in. Have an introduction that clearly states your purpose, objectives, and reasons for gathering the kids/troops.
#2 Have ample supplies. Perhaps you normally have 4 kids/troops gathered. Prepare for at least 8.
#3 Be Flexible. Without deviating from the end objective realize that it’s okay to take a different route or restate your said intentions. This rewording may be called flip-flopping, but everybody knows that flip-flopping is a made up word with no merit.
#4 Empower. You’re not really giving the message as much as you are facilitating the message. No one remembers the talking head nearly as much as they remember the response invoked. This response tells the message.
#5 Make it everlasting. Once the kids/troops/nationals get a sense of what the Gospel lesson/foreign policy is about help them bridge between the abstract and concrete so that they can see the everlasting in their day to day. Love your neighbor is a bit abstract. Helping someone get up when they fall off their bike is concrete. A war on terror is abstract. Bombing the shit out of Iraq is concrete.
#6 Know how to get out. Having based my outline on the linear unfolding of a sermon/war this step is #6, but when preparing your own children’s sermon/war on terror, make it #1. The first thing you must come up with is your closing. Be able to some it up succinctly so that everything you do leads to conveying God’s love/democracy. This is also nice for when all hell breaks loose and you need to get out fast.
For those on the front lines, I salute you. For those on the steps by the altar, I salute you. For those about to Rock, I salute you. God Bless You, and God Bless America.